“MONITOR THE STRANGERS IN YOUR COMUNITIES, Security Expert Urges Nigerians
Pastor Makanjuola Bode Peter is a member of International Institute of Professional Security and the Kwara state coordinator of the institute. He is also the Kwara state Director of Community Security Surveillance Services, CSSS. In this encounter with SECURITY MONITOR’s SHOLA AKINYELE in Abuja, Makanjuola call hinges the increased security threat bedeviling the nation on loss of moral and cultural value.
NIGERIA IS WITNESSING AN INCREASING SECURITY THREAT; FROM BOKOHARAM, KIDNAPING AND FULANI’S HEARDSMAN TO RITUALISM. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS MISSING IN THE COUNTRY?
If we look at it very well; we will see that something is missing truly. Our cultural value, social value and the value to life has been lost completely and until we go back to our culture, by giving respect to elders, fearing of God and so on. In those days our cleric; Pastors, Imam with the traditional rulers are preaching the fear of God. Then, it adds value to our life, but these days they are the one requesting for the human parts for ritualism. Therefore there must be an increase rate of kidnapping, robbery, militancy in the society. My virtue of my understanding, people are not ready to work and those that are ready to work have no job opportunity. So, the short way of getting rich by indulging in crimes now become order of the day. Unlike before if someone want to get marry the family of a girl will not allowed you to marry their daughter if you are a lazy person, but this days people are looking for fast and cool money. So they believed that by kidnapping somebody and demand for ransom or engage themselves in internet fraud, they will be getting up to two hundred million at a time. My advice is that we should go back to our culture, respect the elders and be patient. If all these can be put in place there will be solution to the insecurity problem facing the country.
AS AN ADVOCATE OF COMMUNITY SECURITY,TELL US HOW THE COMMUNITY CAN PARTICIPATE IN SECURITY OF THEIR AREA?
In the past our local people have been participating in the security system, even when the security agents are not many in this country, they have their own vigilante group which the king will mobilize to police their environment. So if we are talking about the community policing we should go back to that system. The community leaders provide security for their people and also know people that come in and out in their community. It is a known fact that the government security agencies cannot combat the increasing rate of criminal elements, except the community are involve. Let pastors, imams, kings, village leaders and head of families come up and fish out the bad eggs in their environment. They should stop aborning the criminals, they must exposed them to the law enforcement agency, I think by doing this we are policing our community together. Moreover this is one of the vision, mission and the agenda of the CSSS
IF YOU CARRY OUT A SURVEY AND YOU PASS SUCH INFORMATION TO THE POLICE, IS THERE ANY FEAR THAT IT WILL BOUNCE BACK ON THE PERSON THAT CARRIED OUT THAT SURVAILLANCE?
Well that is where you must use your brain and discretion, moreover we thank God for the type of police we are having now. They are doing a great job with the support of an experience, intelligent Inspector General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase. He has lectured us on how police and community leaders can partner to guarantee security. He told us that any time we have information we should not passed it to junior officers, such information supposed to be passed to superior officers, those who have something at stake. This is the same thing with community security surveillance services, I will like to encourage and advised my colleagues, states directors that any information given to them must be treated with confidentiality and protect the provider of the information so that it will not back fired. Although, it has been happening before, even among the police officers, but now such act have become a thing of the past.
WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO THE COMMUNITY LEADERS?
Whenever they discovered any strange things in their community they should report to the police immediately and also report to community security surveillance services, CSSS which will defiantly passed the information to police, failure to do so is dangerous for you and I. Anybody stranger noticed in your community should be well monitored.
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