APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL ADVISER ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE FUSS ABOUT BTO’s PERFORMANCE
By Richard Olatunde
It will be foolhardy for anyone to downplay the issue of security in Nigeria, just like in every other nation of the world. Security is a big deal. It touches the core of development indices, from investment to infrastructure, education, and farming. Chief among them is the protection of lives and property. So, believe me when I say the issue of security and the approach deployed by government are dynamic.
Since the President appointed a Special Adviser on Homeland Security, tongues have been wagging. Those who have an axe to grind with the Minister of Interior, Hon. Bunmi Tunji Ojo, are ascribing the appointment of the Homeland Security Adviser to a supposed vote of no confidence by Mr. President in the Minister. Of course, those with this view are the Minister’s political enemies.
Politics can be infectious at times, especially when bitter politics is allowed to fester for too long. It becomes cancerous. The same politics has suddenly made some people victims of self inflicted cataract. No matter how big your cow is, it will look like a rat to your political opponents. There is a level of hatred in politics that can make even a learned person descend into gutter talk and beer parlour gossip.
While the appointment of the Special Adviser on Homeland Security is applaudable, I believe it is explicitly framed as an enhancement for better coordination, intelligence driven operations, and inter agency collaboration on domestic threats. The new Special Adviser complements the broader role of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. This is simply a U.S. style division of focus without replacing or undermining the statutory mandates of the Ministry of Interior, DSS, Police, or other relevant agencies.
The constitutional establishment under Section 214, combined with the public safety and public order powers in Section 215, as well as the operational duties in the Police Act, gives the Nigeria Police Force the lead role as Nigeria’s principal agency for internal security. The Nigeria Police Force remains the primary law enforcement agency for crime prevention, public order, investigation, and the maintenance of peace.
The role of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps is complementary. It protects critical infrastructure and assets, handles disaster response, and provides civil protection. The Nigeria Immigration Service deals with border control, immigration enforcement, passport issuance, and visa management, while the Nigeria Correctional Service oversees prison management, inmate rehabilitation, and decongestion.
These agencies operate under a multi layered architecture coordinated by the National Security Adviser and the Ministry of Interior. They collaborate through intelligence sharing, joint operations, inter agency committees, fusion centres, and capacity building programmes.
Drawing from the above, those who claim that the appointment of the Special Adviser on Homeland Security is a signal of Mr. President’s vote of no confidence in Hon. Bunmi Tunji Ojo are either ignorant or politically daft. After all, the Minister’s growing popularity and influence in Ondo State have become a nightmare for his self appointed enemies in the state government.
BTO’s performance is incredible. Mr. President himself has not hidden his admiration for the Interior Minister. I have heard Mr. President speak glowingly about the Minister’s impressive achievements.
Check these out;
Under his leadership as Minister of Interior, he cleared a massive backlog of over 250,000 passport applications within three weeks. This was unprecedented. He reduced passport processing time from several months to two weeks or less. There are reports of approvals within 48 hours and the production of between 4,000 and 5,000 passports within five hours at centralised facilities.
Not only that, he engineered the centralisation of passport personalisation from 96 decentralised centres into one secure hub.
This man from Oke Agbe in Ondo State, under the tutelage of President Bola Tinubu, introduced contactless biometric passports, home and office delivery, personal photo uploads, e-gates at major airports, the Advanced Passenger Information System, and digital contactless renewal services for Nigerians in Europe and Canada.
As if that was not enough, he built a state of the art Tier Four Data Centre and Command and Control Centre named the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Innovation Complex, with significant data capacity.
BTO also automated and digitised processes across the ministry and cleared over ₦10 billion in debts owed to technical partners. That is aside from the implementation of the Migration Information and Data Analysis System and the e-Visa platform.
Under this Interior Minister, over 64,000 personnel have been promoted across agencies. In NSCDC over 21,385 personnel were promoted , while 4,498 officers were promoted in the Correctional Service alone.
He approved allowances, salary increments, peculiar allowances, and established the Paramilitary Pensions Board. He also introduced transparent recruitment with 35 percent female inclusion and new academies. These reforms have boosted morale and addressed career stagnation.
As regards improvements in the Correctional Service, BTO, with the support and leadership of Mr. President, raised over ₦600 million from the private sector to pay fines for more than 4,000 inmates. This has helped to decongest correctional centres and has also saved the government over ₦1 billion annually in feeding costs.
Aside from that, he renovated over 10 facilities, including Kuje Correctional Centre, increased feeding allocation by 100 percent, recruited 100 nurses and 50 doctors, developed a biometric inmate database, and collaborated with relevant stakeholders for faster trials.
In his effort to enhance border security, he deployed over 30 patrol vehicles, introduced smart border initiatives, launched the e-border surveillance, established command centres, and also introduced initiatives such as Safe Haven, Safe Schools, Agro Rangers, and Disaster Response. These efforts have strengthened inter agency collaboration and improved the use of technology for real time data management.
These reforms have also improved border control and migration management, reduced prison overcrowding and recidivism risks, and boosted paramilitary effectiveness. The centralised data systems, automation, and command centres have reduced human error and corruption, improved intelligence sharing, strengthened identity management, and enhanced rapid response mechanisms.
No wonder, in a recent assessment conducted by Channels TV’s Kayode Òkìkí, the Minister of Interior was voted the most performing minister in Mr. President’s cabinet.
This is the same man whose political enemies are trying to create a narrative of a vote of no confidence by the President.
Politics can make some people run mad.
Dear BTO, take the forest. Your own don pass floweradde
