Sokoto Govt Warns State Security Forces Of Threats To National Security
The Security Adviser to the Governor of Sokoto State, Col. Ahmed Usman (rtd), has warned that the increasing creation of special forces units across various security agencies in Nigeria could weaken rather than strengthen national security.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Col. Usman expressed concern that the proliferation of elite teams within the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, State Security Service, Department of State Services, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps risks diluting their effectiveness.
He said that the establishment of multiple special units without a central command structure fosters duplication of roles, unhealthy rivalry, and wastage of limited resources.
“The Army has, for a long time, maintained a special unit specifically developed to handle unconventional threats, and rightly so. This should not be unnecessarily replicated by other agencies, as doing so may only create confusion, redundancy and rivalry.”
While commending the contributions of other security agencies to national stability, he stressed that they should not compete in establishing parallel special forces. Instead, he advised the creation of a centralised national special operations force to address Nigeria’s worsening security challenges.
“In most developed countries like the United States and the UK, special forces are not fragmented across agencies. They are unified, highly disciplined, and trained for unconventional warfare and critical missions under a central command,” he noted.
According to him, Nigeria should adopt a similar model by setting up an independent national special operations unit composed of elite personnel drawn from different services, trained under a unified doctrine, and answerable to a single command structure.
He said that the trend of fragmentation can lead to confusion, lack of accountability, and even conflict among operatives from different units. It stretches resources thin and undermines our collective security response.”
Col. Usman further called on the Federal Government to urgently restructure the nation’s security architecture to enhance intelligence-sharing, operational cohesion, and strategic response to insurgency, terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and organised crime.
“We need to return to the drawing board and restructure our security system. The enemy is united and strategic, so our response must also be coordinated and focused.”
Sokoto Govt Warns State Security Forces Of Threats To National Security is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
