NSCDC

By Uzair Adam 

Three teenage girls tragically drowned in a pond in the Buji Local Government Area of Jigawa State on Saturday. 

The Spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state, ASC Badaruddeen Tijjani, confirmed the incident in a statement released in Dutse on Sunday.

The girls, identified as Fatima Sule (12), Nasiya Sale (12), and Huwaila Sa’adu (13), all from Tulla village, were reportedly cutting grass to feed their livestock near the pond when the accident occurred around 11 a.m.

According to the NSCDC, they received a distress call from the Tulla community shortly after 11 a.m. They quickly responded by sending officers, including divisional disaster management officers, to the scene for a rescue mission. 

Community members and NSCDC personnel worked together and were able to recover the bodies after approximately 30 minutes of searching.

The girls were taken to the nearest health centre, where they were pronounced dead. 

The investigation indicated that the spot where they were gathering grass was the same place where they drowned.

The NSCDC Commandant in the state, Mr. Muhammad Danjuma, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and urged parents to monitor their children closely, especially during times when ponds and rivers are swollen, to prevent such tragedies.

By Muhammed Baba Isah

The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) have for long been duped with serious — dereliction in time of accessing outstanding salary structure to some extent, this can be assessed — mostly among the youngest rank personnel. However, this paramilitary institution is much younger than that of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Armed Forces. Hence, there is still a need to revamp this sector due to a higher cost of living and other things similar that bedeviled Nigerians expecially household.

Likewise, even in this poor salary structure, this cannot even be, for once, enhanced for the mismanaging of their duty by collecting of fifty naira by the roadside from driver and also harassing them if cannot pay. This intimidation of less-privilege are not part of their work.

On that account, It’s not against the increments of recent police amount (or anything similar), but rather this will go a long way in reducing the rate of taking brown-envelope and mismanaging of government access by the corps. And, of course, this can increase the level of manpower capacity in engaging the bad elements that priotise the vandalism of government items to be drastically low.

Being a prime target of the enemies, also like any other human being — security personnel owned the privilege to shows their disinterest on anything obstacle that could result in deterioration — on the discharging their duty. Because they are mostly die in war front, hence, they are still worst paid unlike any other agencies.

And therefore, under the eye of this present Commandant-General (CG), Ahmed Abubakar Audi, Ph.D, mni, OFR. Much better achievement have been put in place already — Apart from the field of providing much security items by the corps to augment tackling insecurities across the all angles of six geopolitical zones — and indeed there are also — a bunch of putting effort in laying the foundation of many training schools aside from that (of Katsina, Bauchi, Enugu and Cross River State), this will help the young generations to be seriously manage this work accordingly.

On the other side, crime is one of the major issues bedeviling contemporary Nigerian society. The menace of crime is affecting not only economic development of Nigeria but also to tarnish the image of the country in the eye of international community.

Thus, it rising serious concern about law and order in the society. And, it’s a known fact that the security and welfare of the people is primary responsibility of government — in other to address this challenges confronting Nigerians. The corps through his watch (Commandant-General), has ensure protection of lives and properties and protect the public items against vandalism as well as assist other agencies in crime prevention and control.

The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps has also succeeded in playing so many other roles — ranging from arresting so many criminals and controlling many variety of criminal activities. It empowered to maintain 24-hours surveillance over infrastructure, sites and project for the federal, state and local government.

Muhammed Baba Isah is an NSCDC personnel at Nasarawa State Command Headquarter. Writes from Jos, Plateau State. He can be contacted via muhammedisah080645@gmail.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

Fire destroyed six shops in Jigawa State’s Hadejia Local Government Area.

In a statement, Adamu Shehu, the state spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, confirmed the incident.

“On Friday, December 2, 2022, at about 01:15hrs, the NSCDC Divisional Office received an emergency call on a fire outbreak at Gadar Kogi in Hadejia,” he said.

According to him, emergency response personnel were immediately dispatched to the location to put out the fire and save any unburned property.

He added that when the team arrived, the fire had destroyed around six shops owned by Usman Mai Shago and five other people, although there were no human casualties.

The Daily Reality understands that electricity sparks from one of the shop’s wires were the cause of the fire.

Ishaka Mohamed

According to a New York Times bestselling author, Joyce Meyer, patience is not simply the ability to wait — it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

Many Nigerian youths have been eager for the outcome of their applications for the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP). Well, the waiting period is almost over because forty days from now, successful Fellows will have been deployed to their host organisations. This is according to the mail sent to many applicants, a version of which has also been posted on Facebook by the official page of the scheme: Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme.

That said, I write this purposely to advise all the applicants. I have categorised them into three.

The first group are those who have been pushed by impatience into using rude comments on posts by two Facebook pages: UNDP in Nigeria and Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme. I presume they’re really fresh graduates who, probably, haven’t been following recruitment processes in Nigeria. I’ll outline only three out of the countless cases of delay in the country for them. 

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) started a recruitment process in 2019 but failed to complete it until 2022.

N-Power Batch C application started in June 2020, but the deployment of beneficiaries never happened until after 15 months. 

The Kaduna State Teachers’ Service Board (KSTSB) started a recruitment exercise in 2018 but managed to employ 7,000 secondary school teachers in July 2022. In fact, as of the time of writing this article, that’s nine months after their employment, none of these teachers has been posted to a school, let alone being paid a salary.

Therefore, there isn’t any need to feel too disappointed over something that is highly expected. It’s worth stressing, however, that it’s OK to clamour for a positive change in whatever concerns us, but decorum is highly recommended, at least for a young graduate and job seeker. So, rude comments should be done away with.

The second group are the over 340,000 applicants who won’t be selected. Yes, a total of 365,679 people applied for the scheme that needs only 20,000 Fellows per annum.

With or without cogent evidence, there’ll be lamentations from almost every angle when successful applicants are eventually picked. Many will blame favouritism and the like. A good number might lose interest in applying for other jobs, claiming that it’s by whom one knows. I urge all unsuccessful applicants (yet to know, though) to avoid losing momentum because of this; it’s simply part of life.

Now, to the third group, the privileged few, I advise that you think twice before leaving your ‘small’ job for the programme. Although it’s said that Fellows will be fully paid as graduates, being deployed doesn’t guarantee prompt payments. You must be realistic to yourself by keeping an alternative means of livelihood.

Of all of the schemes I’ve observed in Nigeria, only NYSC is somehow consistent in the payment of allowances. I’ll mention three others that have significantly failed in this regard.

One, as of January 2022, many of the past N-Power volunteers were still owed stipends. That was after 18 months of exiting the programme. And even while in the scheme, a significant number of these youth often received overdue allowances.

Two, the Special Public Works Programme for 774,000 unskilled labourers ended in March 2021, but a good number of the beneficiaries weren’t paid their N60,000 stipends until after nine months (end of December 2021).

Three, some Nigerian youth were placed on a three-month paid internship called the Work Experience Programme (WEP) from August to October 2021.

The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development promised each intern a monthly allowance of N30,000 within the period of their engagement.

But such never happened, as the payment commenced in November 2021 and continued, inconsistently, through February 2022.

Some may think that NJFP will be different; I pray so, too. However, the scheme has already shared a pattern with its predecessors. In August 2021, it was promised that the first batch would be inducted in about two months’ time (October), only for the statement to be changed after seven months.

Based on the above instances, I reiterate that you keep an alternative source of livelihood before engaging in the programme. This is especially important for those who’d be posted to states other than their current settlements.

On a final note, if you’re privileged to be deployed to a private organisation, make sure to sell yourself. Much as many organisations usually aim to rightsize their employee base, none will be willing to lose a diligent young graduate if you really present yourself well.

Ishaka Mohammed writes from Kaduna. He can be reached via ishakamohammed39@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sabiu

A bill in the House of Representatives has been raised to abolish the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

Shina Peller (APC, Oyo) sponsored the measure, which was read for the first time on Tuesday. It proposes repealing the NSCDC Act of 2007 and transferring the agency’s staff and assets to the Nigeria Police Force.

Mr Peller proposes, according to the bill’s description, to establish a transition management committee to oversee the NSCDC, write regulations, and implement processes for the transfer of the Corps’ assets and employees to the Nigeria Police Force.

Mr Peller claims that the NSCDC’s expanded functions are a duplication of police mandates, noting that “Fragmentation of security resources across multiple competing agencies is counterproductive.

“The mandate of the NSCDC has expanded that it has now become a duplication of the Nigeria Police Force. This has led to avoidable conflicts.

“Every single function of the NSCDC can be done or is being done by the Nigeria Police Force”. He added that” it is a “waste of scarce resources which has an annual budget of almost 100 billion.”

Mr Peller noted that “the assets and personnel of the NSCDC will be absorbed by the Nigeria Police, hence, no loss of job.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

Bandits raided a military base in the Shinfida community, Jibia Local Government Area, Katsina State, killing one soldier and an official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

By 10 p.m. Tuesday, the bandits were said to have stormed the base, shooting indiscriminately.

During the attack, they set fire to two patrol vehicles and utilized another patrol vehicle to transport food from nearby villages.

DSC Muhammad Abdara, a spokeswoman for the NSCDC in the state, verified the attack and the number of people killed.

According to reports, the officers who were shot died instantaneously, while those who sustained gunshot wounds were being treated at an unidentified hospital.

“The terrorists attacked the military base located within Government Day Secondary School Shinfida last Tuesday. They killed one soldier and one NSCDC officer on the spot and left many others injured.

“They attacked the military base on their motorcycles. Despite the efforts of the military personnel, the terrorists killed the two victims and set ablaze two patrol vehicles and drove away one with food items stolen from neighbouring villages,” the source was quoted as saying.

By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi

Subject to its wider ramifications, the burden of maintaining security is too cumbersome to be single-handedly by a solitary institution in a heterogeneous country like Nigeria.

Thus, the multi-stakeholders’ approach is often more necessary where there is a rise in security challenges. Therefore, security should be a collective effort of the government plus other state and non-state actors, including the private sectors.

The word ‘security’ simply implies the protection of the lives and properties of people from various forms of threat. It occupies the highest level of priority in the hierarchy of responsibility by the government as one of the core values that the state cherishes as non-negotiable and that does not admit compromise.

The contribution of private sectors in ensuring security can be rendered through various channels, including the construction of security facilities, donations of logistics to security services and providing equipment at their disposal during emergency response situations such as fire outbreaks, accidents, building collapse and natural disasters such as flooding, earthquake, etc.

Other alternatives include community participation in securing their locality in collaboration with police, i.e. the neighbourhood watch or vigilante group, involvement of religious and traditional leaders in disputes resolution among their followers and services provided by the business enterprises to their host communities through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

To that effect, the role being played by the famous Civilian Joint Task Forces (Civilian JTF), through collaboration with the security agencies in countering the violent extremism of Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East (Borno), is very commendable. Such volunteer groups provided invaluable intelligence that led to the uncovering of many deadly terrorist cells and their subsequent elimination.

Now that the terrorists are surrendering, community leaders, civil society groups and NGOs have a greater job to embark on sensitizing the mindsets of the public in de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration of the repentant terrorists into society. This will go a long way in maintaining the security of lives and properties of people.

It is noteworthy that the CSR initiatives of the Aliko Dangote Foundation donated 150 operational vehicles to the Nigeria Police Force in 2018, which was described as the single most significant gift ever by a private sector operator to the police.

In the Niger Delta region, where the problem of insecurity is mainly attributed to the feeling of anger and frustration by host communities due to negligence of CSR initiatives, the oil companies have turned a good leaf by changing the narratives.

Multinational corporations are now actively involved in providing infrastructural facilities such as schools, hospitals, roads, and water supply to their host communities. In the long run, they also designed a special scholarship scheme for the indigenes. They are provided with tuition fees and reading and learning materials to further enhance their educational careers. This initiative has undoubtedly contributed immensely to reducing the militants’ activities and other security tensions in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.

Moreover, several societal figures and organizations were known for their efforts in constructing and rehabilitating security outfits across the country. Recall that, immediately after the #EndSARS protests in which several lives of both civilians and security personnel were lost, many properties were destroyed, police stations looted, their firearms carted away and subsequently destroyed.

The giant private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) procured new equipment for police officers and pledged to rebuild the burnt police stations destroyed during the civil unrest to restore security to the affected locations across the country.

Even the traditional institutions were not left out as Oba (Alhaji) Dauda Ajolola Adebimpe Akinfolabi of Ayedade Local Government Area of Osun State built a divisional police headquarters and the office for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) office. The monarch noted that the gesture was necessary to protect his people and ensure safety in his community, considering the rising insecurity in the country.

In addition, private security companies are also part and parcel of the security architecture of every country. The responsibility of a private security guard is ‘securing the lives and properties of the client’. The client may be an individual, organization, private institution, government, etc. However, experience has shown that guards can perform additional functions other than just protecting the lives and properties of the client.

Their large number and widespread presence make them a critical part of the security system of the nation. The NSCDC is the ultimate regulator of all private guard companies in Nigeria and has so far licensed over 1000 companies. Almost all residences, offices, schools, shopping malls, parks etc., especially in the city, are staffed by private guards securing their location. To that effect, their number has even exceeded that of the entire Police Force in the country.

Therefore, the government and the security agencies can take advantage of this opportunity to collaborate with private guard companies, especially in areas of intelligence gathering and sharing, training and joint task operations towards securing the country from the activities of criminal forces.

Sequel to that, Nigeria’s Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism, produced by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), retired Major General Babagana Monguno have succinctly acknowledged the role of the prominent private sector in national security.

As they say, Emergency Management is everyone’s business.

Mukhtar sent this piece from Kano. He can be contacted via ymukhtar944@gmail.com.