By Afolabi Brown
Nigerians have been urged to see security and intelligence agencies as friends rather than fiends .
The Director General of State Service (DSS) Mr Oluwatosin Ajayi made the call while delivering the 2025 distinguished personality lecture titled, The Roles of the DSS in Security, Peacekeeping and National Integration” at the Centre For Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, in Kwara state.
Represented by the DSS Deputy Director, Mr. Patrick Ikenweiwe, the DSS DG said that such development affects quality and quantity of intelligence produced and by extension impact peace building and national integration.
The DSS DG, called for strengthening of institutions like intelligence agencies, reorientation on roles and a rethink on recruitment and staffing.
According to him despite the constraints mentioned, the secret agency continued to leverage on collaboration with sister agencies and engage with stakeholders to navigate identified challenges.
Mr. Ajayi advocated for the enrollment of the best of academic and best graduates in the country into the DSS and help the nation in tackling security challenges.
In his address, the director, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies University of Ilorin, Professor Abdulganiyu Jawondo, said that the centre was established in the year 2008 with the core mandate of producing manpower to tackle the various crises and conflicts of resource management confronting Nigerian communities and the globe at large.
He noted that the Centre also offers short-time capacity-building training in those areas for quite a number of officers from the Nigeria Armed Forces and other security agencies.
