President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sounded the battle cry: Nigeria is now on a war footing against terrorism, banditry and kidnapping. In a nationwide security emergency was declared Wednesday night, triggering the most aggressive security recruitment and deployment drive the country has ever seen.
The President personally ordered the Nigeria Police Force to recruit an additional 20,000 officers on top of the 30,000 already budgeted for, pushing the single-year intake to an unprecedented 50,000 personnel. To remove every bottleneck, all National Youth Service Corps orientation camps in the 36 states and the FCT will immediately be converted into police training depots.
Corps members will share space with new recruits as the nation races to put boots on the ground.In the same breath, hundreds of police officers currently guarding VIPs, politicians and private citizens are being recalled for crash re-training and immediate redeployment to the hottest zones in the North-West, North-Central and North-East. “Protecting the people comes first,” the President declared.
The Department of State Services (DSS) received a direct order to activate every single trained forest guard with immediate effect and open fresh recruitment to create specialized units that will live and operate inside Nigeria’s forests until every criminal hideout is dismantled.For years, governors have begged for state police.
President Tinubu has now thrown his full weight behind the idea, directing the National Assembly to pass the State Police bill without further delay while promising that the Federal Government will fund and equip any state that sets up its own security outfit right away.
The emergency declaration follows a string of mass abductions that have shaken the nation, but also comes on the heels of rare victories: security forces recently rescued 24 schoolgirls in Kebbi and 38 worshippers in Kwara.
Tinubu vowed that the remaining abducted children, especially those taken from a Catholic school in Niger State, will be brought home alive, no matter the cost.Mosques, churches and schools in vulnerable areas have been told to install visible security or risk closure.
Parents running boarding schools in remote locations are being urged to bring their children closer to urban centres until the storm passes.
This is not another committee or another promise. Recruitment portals are already live, NYSC camps are being cleared, forest guard deployment orders have been signed, and the VIP protection withdrawal list is being compiled as you read this.
For the first time in decades, Nigeria’s security forces are being expanded and redeployed at wartime speed. The message from the President is clear: the era of terrorists and bandits operating with impunity is over. The fight-back starts now.