A former intelligence analyst for the Department of State Service (DSS) and America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Osemeka S. Ikemefuna, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently select individuals with proven capacity in the security sector to help the country overcome its security challenges.

Ikemefuna offered the advice after he was conferred with the award of a Distinguished Fellow and Honorary Doctorate in Leadership and Public Administration by the International Leadership Manpower and Management Development of the United Kingdom in Abuja.

According to the security expert, the insecurity bedevilling the nation can be handled with strategic leadership and proactive measures, warning that the citizens must not be driven to a point where they take to criminality to survive.

The former staff of the DSS said: “The President and his cabinet must look at how to select people not from their political party but people who are making contributions at the state level, national level and at the international level to drive the nation in the proper way in their renewed Hope agenda.

“What government needs to do is to be proactive with the situation; you don’t wait for people to be very hungry and they form criminal gangs and go into kidnapping.

“Take care of the hunger in the society, take care of the ignorance among the people, give people knowledge in the churches, in the mosques and family. We should teach our young people values through proper education. We should teach them values to see that life is not about having so much money but is about making an impact.

“You need people who have experience, not just people who have political affiliation”, he added.

The expert noted that the honour was bestowed on him because of his passion to serve humanity and make life better for people. He stressed that the significance of the award was in the need to balance nationality with internationality, adding that “it is an international award with national dimension.”

“That is why this award was bestowed on me because through these efforts lives have been saved, institutions have been built, companies have been built and of course the nation has benefitted,” he stated.

Ikemefuna is reputed for his contributions in saving kidnap victims from the den of terrorists through actionable intelligence, especially the celebrated case of the rescue of an American citizen that was kidnapped in Niger Republic and brought to Sokoto State in North-West Nigeria.