A former Commissioner of Police in Lagos and Benue Stated, CP Fatai Owoseni, has stated that Nigeria’s worsening state of insecurity cannot be solved by adopting foreign templates, saying that the country must look inward and strengthen both its intelligence architecture and community-based security approach.
Owoseni, who currently serves as the Special Adviser on Security to the governor of Oyo State, maintained that Nigeria already possesses the capacity to address its security challenges if existing structures are effectively optimized.
“The insecurity problem in Nigeria, if we want to solve it, is not about importing solutions. The solution is within us, and we must find a way of tapping on that solution and optimizing our own capacity, which I believe that we have not optimized,” he quipped.
Owoseni, who made the remarks in an interview with journalists during a recent interview with journalists in Ibadan, stressed that the missing link in Nigeria’s security strategy is effective intelligence gathering backed by public trust.
The former police chief also called for greater accountability and initiative from subnational leaders, arguing that security responsibility should not be centralized.
“Yes, the president doesn’t even have to invite the governor. I believe that every governor has a solution within his domain. It is not the president and the people of the different states who voted to be their leader in that state.
“Whoever is a governor in a state is the president in that state. Whoever is a chairman of the local government is a president in his local government, a Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. So, people must live up to their responsibility.”
He criticized the overdependence on federal intervention, particularly the tendency of state and local leaders to defer security responsibilities to the Federal Government.
“Everybody is running to Abuja but it is not the president that will design the security architecture in their states for them. The local government chairmen, you will find out in most places in the country, are absentees in their councils. They don’t stay within the community. It is only when they want people’s votes that you see them. Most of them live in the state capital, that is if they do stay at all.”
Owoseni further expressed concern over the lack of proactive engagement by some governors, urging them to conduct detailed threat assessments within their jurisdictions.
“Some of our governors also, sadly, how many days or weeks do they even spend in their states? They must sit down before the president calls any governor to say he wants to help them to address their security problem.
“The governor must be able to sit down, do a threat analysis with the security apparatus he has in his domain. So, when he’s going to meet the president, he should be telling the president that, yes, I have noticed that this is a gap in my state and this is the area you can help me.
“I believe that all the governors have what it takes to solve the problem within their domain. They should not wait for the president. They should not wait for the Chief of Army Staff or the Chief of Air Staff or the institutional Police. They should optimize what they have on the ground. The traditional institutions are key partners.”
He added that despite increased investments in technology and deployment of security forces, a critical gap still exists in the nation’s security architecture.
He explained that while modern tools such as drones and surveillance technology are important, they cannot replace human-driven intelligence and on-ground presence.
“Something must be missing in all whatever we are doing with regards to securing our people..and one of the areas that I will look at, which is critical, is the issue of intelligence.
“We have been talking of technology, drones, and whatever, but technology without highly resourced boots on the ground is nothing. I mean, without the people that will do the actual work, technology alone cannot do it, and that is why we should be looking at how we will improve and get the trust of the people.
“This is because if we have the trust of the people, if they have confidence in our security system, they will also play a major role, and what is that major role?
“What we call human intelligence, because how do we explain that something happened last month, and everybody, including the people that I really know, will talk and say, oh, yes, we sympathize. We are moving all the security heads to the place. And just as you are saying that, another incident is happening in the same place.
“So, we must get the trust of the people. We must be able to let the people have confidence so that they can share real-time intelligence with us.”
Speaking further, Owoseni noted that criminal elements do not operate in isolation but are embedded within communities, making local intelligence indispensable.
According to him, those perpetrating and carrying out the terrorist activities are not spirits but human beings. They live within the community.
“Before they strike at all, they must have been hibernating within the community. After the strike, there are paths and routes through which they leave where the incident happened.
“So, where are the people that will say, we have found out that this is the route, this is the path that they used in entering our community, and when they are discussing, this is the way they go. So, it is a serious gap. Technology alone cannot do it. Our terrain is different.”
He concluded by saying that a Whole-Society approach to tackling insecurity would help Nigeria, warning against over-reliance on a single solution such as state policing.
“We have been emphasizing non-state actors. I particularly have been emphasizing it, too. Every governor feels the solution to insecurity is the state police. No, it is not. It is one of the solutions. A whole society approach to securing our people is key.
“ And, you know, getting the confidence of the people, getting the trust of the people, the governors should be on the ground. That is my own perspective.”
