Every sovereign country has constitutional provisions that guide smooth governance and this covers the internal and external security of the country.
The country’s constitution is very paramount since that is the fundamental platform on which the progress of the country is accessed politically and economically. Therefore, when the security agencies like the military and the police are weakened, cracks can be noticed in policies and every daily activity in the country.
Usually, when the political leadership of a country is weak and directionless, the security agencies become more empowered to provide the missing link between the people and the government. Such government uses the instrumentality of the security to fortify its loose end. Same goes with a weak security agency, as this can open the door for insecurity and criminals of every cadre to unleash mayhem on the populace thereby creating societal confusion.
The worst thing that can happen to a country is to be encumbered with a weak leader or with a weak security. There are many factors that contribute to such situation. A weak security easily attracts invasion just as exposed honey attracts ants. A weak security helps in weakening the political fabric of the society. Furthermore, a weak security easily emboldens criminals to perpetrate their criminality. In Rotherham words, “a weak security is one that has lost all the ingredient of a reliable security institution”.
Many years back , the security institution in the old Bendel State ( known today as Edo and Delta states ) was in comatose as armed gang under a notorious robber known as Lawrence Anini seized the opportunity of a very weak security institution to install insecurity and held sway in the region. The notorious gang was eventually routed out with federal might. Many of such instances abound in the country and it is even worsening today with noticeable pockets of insecurity emerging in every part of the country despite reassurances from the Federal government. This is failure of internal security apparatus. Must the wait for when the entire country is over- run by armed bandits before drastic measures are taken?. The question therefore is, what are the factors that weaken the internal security of a country. Before the internal security could be weaned, it means that the security institution is either having administrative cracks or that the leadership in place is not efficient. An inefficient security leader could roundly create a problematic situation for both the country and the security institution. One of the major noticeable factor that affects internal security of a country, is when there is no coordination among all the security agencies in the country. When each of them is aloof of the others. This breeds internal rivalry especially among the leaders and this transcend to the operatives or personnel. No wonder recent happening that exposes the wrangling among security personnel speaks volume before members of the society. Apart from grossly affecting the operational moves, it impedes exchange of information and this affects the overall result of these security agencies. l remember in 1984, when the then State Security Service (SSS) now Directorate of State Security ( DSS) moved to arrest me as the state editor of the defunct National Concord newspaper in Enugu, instead of the DSS to openly effect my arrest, it communicated its intension to the police to pick me and l was later handed over after preliminary investigation by the officer in charge of Criminal lntelligence Department ( CID) Mr. Bawa Lawal who was under the State Police Commissioner Mr. Johnson Odu ( now late). After the police interrogation over
the story l published which was said to be dangerous to state security, l was then handed over to the SSS where l was detained and charged with the obnoxious decree four during the Buhari/ ldiagbon dictatorial regime. The security romance between the SSS and the police was very commendable and unique . When such cordial relationship exist among security agencies, it promotes the desired efficiency among the agencies. Unlike today that these organizations see themselves as cat and rat. Such strain affect smooth exchange of security information and could lead to doctoring of intelligence security reports to the detriment of the country. Studies have shown that criminals always have an inkling when there are noticeable wrangling among security agencies. It becomes a regrettable situation when security agencies are supposed to share sensitive information , instead each wants to take the glory to the detriment of the overall security of the society. Another factor militating against our security is inadequate training of the personnel. It has been observed that the police over the years have wrongly been using serving personnel as teachers in their training institutions instead of engaging either retired personnel with experience or professional trainers. What usually happens is that the lGP post officers who are in his bad books as punishment to these colleges. The truth is that posting a disgruntled officer to teach tantamount to inculcating a half baked information to the students. More so, the money officially earmarked for the training are never released since the serving police officers posted are never paid as trainers but still earn their salaries as serving police officers. This is fraudulent. Also the non-challant attitude of the Federal government over empowering security agencies further worsen their capability. It has been observed that whenever a military leader transformed into a democratic president, the police is usually deprived of necessary empowerment. What happens is that the police goes cap in hand begging state government for assistance. This trend alone further strengthens the notion for State Police. Added to non empowerment is the financial starvation of these security agencies. Funding security the world over is not a mince meat. It is rather unfortunate that the police has been poorly funded and this has made it very difficult to maintain police patrol vehicles. The situation is more worrisome as police men engaging in illegal acts like bribery, illegal road blocks etc to either fuel these patrol vehicles or fix them whenever they break down