*Highlights intellectualism as key to ending ideological insurgency
The federal government has said that it will set up a special research team, known as the Paramilitary Brain Trust, to study peculiar security situations, cascading their findings to the agencies for training of personnel.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this known at the public presentation and launch of twelve books authored and co-authored by the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Dr. Ahmed Audi, yesterday in Abuja.
He said, “All over the world, security has gone beyond the era of the state running after the bad guys. If you are running as a state after the bad guys, you have not succeeded. It should be the bad guys that should be running to catch up with the pace of the state and we can only achieve this in the area of intellectualism.
“Because of this, we will officially be starting something we’ve never done before, the PBT (Paramilitary Brain Trust). We will set up our team, comprising not just public officers but also professionals to provide technical advisory services.”
He points out that “the PBT will encourage research among experts in the security sector on peculiar security situations or challenges of the moment.
The PBT research findings are expected to be downscaled to paramilitary personnel to educate them on challenging issues related to the research over a specific period.
“We must invest massively in their education anywhere in the world, because knowledge is directly proportional to performance; you cannot give what you do not have.
“I don’t want to be a minister in charge of a ministry that will be focused only on how many weapons you carry because the battle ahead of us is more ideological than physical.
“You can defeat an idealogy with a superior ideology, and what makes your ideology superior is knowledge, and knowledge comes from the place of learning,” he stated.
He adds that “the era of promotion just by writing exams, I believe, might soon be over.”
“I am really impressed and I have been impressed by the CG since I became the minister of Interior because I am a man that is intellectually driven and the only way to my heart is via performance based in empirical facts.
“Audi, you’ve opened a new visa of opportunity for the paramilitary. I care about capacity, we must choose capacity because the ability to turn threats to opportunity is what distinguishes successful people from others and you have done that.
According to the minister, “the role of research in the enhancement of internal security can never be overemphasized, you cannot guard against what you don’t know.
Security is like science, I am an engineer by training and when we are trained to work only with empirical facts and that is why we talk about trends and occurrences and the ability to forecast. This will determine the level of your security..
In his presentation, Dr. Audi explained that current security and crisis situations in Nigeria must be well managed as they have the potential to metamorphose into other forms of conflicts that can be so devastating causing debilitating effects on the lives of citizens.
He adds that terrorism, kidnapping and banditry, among others, are examples of the changing nature of such conflicts.
“The issue of armed robbery is now a crime that is not seen as lucrative because kidnapping or hostage taking and this are the issues I looked into in some of these books.
“The books also examine and looked at many recommendations given by intellectuals on the ways and methods of solving these conflicts”.
