Former deputy director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has called on President Bola Tinubu to pause political campaigns and shift full attention to tackling Nigeria’s worsening security challenges.
Amachree made the appeal during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stressing that reforms in the country’s security structure must begin from the office of the Commander-in-Chief, who ultimately bears responsibility for national security.
While acknowledging the political pressures facing the President, he argued that security concerns should outweigh electoral ambitions at this time.
The ex-DSS director said, “Sometimes I feel sorry for the President because he is dealing with many variables. As he takes one step, he is also careful about his political party and supporters, and trying not to step on certain toes. But if he wants to return as President, just as Jonathan did, he should stop the political campaigns and face the security problem frontally. Solve it first. If we need help from outside, get it. Then we can return to campaigning. If we are campaigning while people are being attacked, I don’t think citizens will even come out to vote.”
“”We can begin [with] the Commander-in-Chief [Bola Tinubu]. He is the one handling the problem and will be supported by the legislature with the necessary laws to do what needs to be done. If they see that he is serious, I believe the National Assembly will support him wholeheartedly. The buck stops on his table, and that is where we should start,” he said.
He also criticised what he described as the slow pace of security-related reforms in the country, noting that critical legislation often takes too long to be passed despite the National Assembly’s ability to act swiftly when necessary.
“To boost our security architecture, it is taking forever. I have seen in Nigeria where, within a week, bills are passed, and there is something that would have been passed a long time ago; it was just a few days ago they just passed it for the state police to be established, and remember, it is going to go to all the states to get their own consensus.
“Now, why were we wasting all that time till now? Because of this problem, we have i think there should be more attention given to it. We are not the worst country when it comes to kidnapping; other countries have been very much into it,” he said.
His comments come amid rising concerns over insecurity nationwide, including recent kidnappings of schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State, which sparked protests and an indefinite strike by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in affected schools.
Also speaking on the programme, security expert and lawyer Bulama Bukarti described the death of retired Major General Rabe Abubakar in bandits’ captivity as a worrying sign of the country’s deepening security crisis.
“The death of General Rabe in captivity was a big shocker. If a retired military general and former spokesperson of the Nigerian Army could be abducted, held for about two weeks and eventually killed, it tells us that no Nigerian is safe. Rank and institutional history count for nothing in the insecurity situation we have found ourselves in,” he said.
Bukarti added that the incident highlights the increasing boldness of criminal groups, noting that the retired officer was abducted on a public highway rather than in a remote area.
“They publicly paraded him on television and social media and openly negotiated with the government, demanding the release of their members in exchange for him. That tells you how audacious they have become,” he said.
He further warned that the spread of insecurity across different regions shows that Nigeria’s security crisis is no longer regional but national in scope.
Retired Major General Rabe Abubakar, a former military officer and ex-spokesperson of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, died while in captivity in Katsina State, according to confirmation by the state government.