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DSS’ Ajayi: Quiet Impact, Stealth Mode
Louis Achi
According to UK’s iconic, dashing spy movie top operative Roger Moore (James Bond), “You can’t be a real spy and have everybody in the world know who you are and what your drink is.” A secret service operative is supposed to keep his identity secret from everyone including family/friends, for the mission to succeed. He or she cannot let anyone know that he/she is a spy or is undercover.
Significant gaps in operational alignment with this critical dimension by Nigeria’s intelligence community has cost many lives, limbs and needlessly undermined many intel-led operations. Even the military has been not been spared from this quirky blight. But Mr. President would have none of that any longer.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must be credited with accurately reading the handwriting on the wall in the unsettling security situation in the country. Unquestionably deriving from the intensity, sweep and scope of security crises festering in the country, he ordered a security architecture tweak of the intelligence community on August 26, 2024.
This significant, audacious shakeup witnessed the appointments of Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi and Mohammed Mohammed as the Directors-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and National Intelligence Agency (NIA), respectively. The new DGs replaced the duo of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2018 appointees – Yusuf Bichi (DSS) and Ahmed Rufai Abubakar (DIA).
Perhaps, not surprisingly, on assuming office as DGSS on August 28, 2024, Ajayi delivered a subtle, cadenced message to the agency he has impactfully served for over 30 years. He pledged to “refocus the service towards covertness and likelihood of studied silence over certain matters.”
The DSS is Nigeria’s primary domestic intelligence agency, which plays a critical role in national security and intelligence gathering. Its main responsibilities are within Nigeria and include counter-intelligence, medical intelligence, economic intelligence, internal security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance as well as investigating some other types of serious crimes against the state.
It is also charged with the protection of senior government officials, particularly the president, vice president, state governors and visiting heads of state and governments with their respective families.
Cut to the bone, the unassuming Ajayi had simply told his workers that he is returning the agency to the stealth mode of operations, the fundamental bedrock of secret policing. In effect, Ajayi is expected to introduce fresh perspectives and strategies, particularly in enhancing internal security and addressing both current and emerging threats.
Wait for it: he has hit the ground sprinting, bringing his over three decades of experience in intelligence gathering and security management to his new role.
The emerging consensus is that the appointment of Ajayi as the DG DSS has marked a quiet but significant turning point in the ongoing fight against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and secessionist agitations across the country.
Some sources disclosed that, from his assumption of office to date, Ajayi has quietly implemented a robust strategy that combines intelligence-led operations, community engagement, and enhanced synergy with sister agencies. This has led to the arrest of about 76 key commanders of banditry/kidnapping and gunrunning syndicates, as well as recovery of arms and ammunition, and neutralization of some of these terrorist elements.
It was gleaned that in the North West zone, Ajayi initiated a psychological-led operations against bandits and kidnappers which resulted in the neutralization of some notorious banditry kingpins, including Kachalla Lawali Dodo, Kachalla All Dan Oga, Kachalla Black and Kachalla Sani Kwalba.
Another reliable source revealed that, in one of the recent series of coordinated operations by the secret Police in Kaduna State, a notorious arms supplier to bandits and terrorists known as Mallam Rabo Abdulkadir was arrested with 3 AK-47 rifles, 1 AR Galil rifle, 1,621 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm, 222 round of 5.56 x 45mm, 138 rounds of 7.62 x 51mm, 6 AK-47 rifle magazines and 1 AR rifle magazine, among others.
In the North Central Zone, particularly in Kogi State where Ajayi last served before his appointment as DGSS, the camps of some major terrorists’ kingpins, including Kachalla Bala and Kachalla Shuaibu, terrorizing Kogi, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara and Nasarawa States, as well as the FCT, were raided and dismantled, a source further disclosed.
The source added that, during the raid three foot-soldiers of Kachalla Bala were neutralized, while 11 others were captured, alongside the group’s major logistics supplier/informant identified as Baba Gurgu.
It was further gathered that, some kidnap kingpins and gunrunners were also arrested in the FCT, as well as Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau States. They include, Isah Adavuruku, Malik Otaru, Mohammed Usman, Usman Iliya, Lawal Shaibu, Umar Musa Keana, Dauda Gongola Keana and Anas BELLO, who masterminded the recent ambush of soldiers and vigilantes in Kabba/Bunu LGA of Kogi State.
Another source revealed that, in the North East zone, 5 members of a daredevil kidnap syndicate, including Salisu Nasiru, Lamiya Bisala and Manuga Sunday were arrested on 30th August, 2024 in Donga LGA of Taraba State, with 3 AK-47 rifles, 61 rounds of 7.62x39mm (special) ammunition, 2 fabricated AK-47 rifles, 2 single barrel guns and 5 AK-47 magazines, among others.
Likewise, one of the arms dealers supplying weapons to militia in Plateau State known simply as Friday Gomna Isaac was arrested in Borno State, while conveying weapons to Jos, Plateau State.
In the South East Zone, a source disclosed that, a notorious Commander of the outlawed IPOB, Mathias Onyebuchi, who masterminded the attack on a Police checkpoint on the outskirts of Enugu, that claimed the lives of two policemen, while 3 AK-47 rifles were carted away was arrested.
The South-South and South West zones are not left out in these coordinated operations, as two members of a militant and sea piracy syndicate terrorizing Akwa Ibom and its neighbouring states, Daniel Etim David and Uwem Asuquo Edet were arrested. This is in addition to other arrests in Rivers, Lagos and Oyo States, another source disclosed.
The successful arrest and disruption of some of these criminal networks have led to a noticeable decline in banditry and kidnapping incidents in the affected areas. These feats are indications that, the days of other banditry kingpins and terrorist elements such as Muhammadu Bello TURJI, Sani Mainasara (a.k.a Sani Black), Gurgu Dankarami (a.k.a Gwaska), Ado Aleiro, Sani Muhdinge and Yusuf Medele (a.k.a Yusuf Yellow), as well as notorious IPOB commander, Chukwunonso Okafor (a.k.a Temple) are numbered.
It is therefore heartening to note that Mr. President’s strategic reforms within the intelligence community, coupled with the proactive stance taken by the administration in addressing insecurity deserves recognition.
Ajayi rose through the ranks, having joined the DSS in 1990 as a cadet officer, due to his dedication and sharp insight in handling national security matters. The grounds he has covered in his short period as DGSS speaks to considerable preparation and a philosophy synced with his profession.
It’s worth noting that before his appointment, Ajayi held several key positions within the DSS, including the Director of Operations. His leadership has been marked by strategic reforms and efforts to enhance the agency’s effectiveness in addressing contemporary security challenges. He has since climbed the ranks, serving as a state director in Enugu, Rivers, Bauchi, Kogi, and Bayelsa states.
Described by DSS former spokesman as diligent, resilient, sophisticated, proactive, and analytic, Ajayi’s extensive foreign training exposure also remarkably served to hone the innate skills of Ajayi.
He has been instrumental in fostering better cooperation between the DSS and other security agencies, as proven by his stint in other states he has served. He believes inter-agency collaboration is crucial for addressing Nigeria’s complex security landscape.
Ajayi has been committed to strengthening the DSS’s capacity to preempt and counter threats and has been saddled with visionary tasks, including embracing technology – and intelligence-driven strategies to ensure national security and stability. These have reflected in his immediate impact following his appointment by Mr. President.
Interestingly, Ajayi may not be a James Bond, but he certainly cut his professional milk teeth in that nifty cloak-and-dagger career – and meritoriously earned his deliberately understated epaulets.
Today, he has eased DSS into the stealth or covert operations mode and the bad guys are on the backfoot!
Why Nigerian Society is in a Sorry State
Dr Emeka Ejikonye
The deplorable state of Nigeria is precisely because all our political leaders, since colonial independence in 1960, have adhered to a paradigm that prescribes the use of budgeting as a tool for managing purely financial to the neglect of institutional resources of governance. But we know that our problem is not so much how to raise and spend money but primarily how to efficiently and effectively deploy human-capacity towards the optimal performance of government in public service delivery.
Any keen observer will notice that, just as with its predecessors, since the Tinubu Presidency was inaugurated on May 29, 2023, all its reform efforts have been focused on the management of financial resources. Indeed, the latest in this line of monetary reforms is the tax bill Mr President just submitted to the National Assembly. For the past 64 years, no government has made any serious effort to restructure the procedure for deploying the institutional resources of governance. This would inject institutional-coordination into the public service delivery process for continuous and holistic monitoring and evaluation of the activities of bureaucrats by elected officials. Indeed, there is no other way to guarantee that the money so raised will be spent for the purpose of improving the quality of livelihood of the citizenry.
The lack of institutional-coordination in budgeting wreaks havoc on governance. First, it discourages monitoring and evaluation needed for the aggregation and feedback of administrative-performance-information between elected officials and bureaucrats. Second, it breeds huge discretionary-authority such that both elected officials and bureaucrats possess vast decision-making powers that often conflicts with the self-interests. This is why governance in Nigeria lacks proper foundation and the governments characteristically resort to:
• vague, speculative and provisional fiscal forecasting;
• spontaneous and sporadic administrative-decision-making; and
• inability to track public spending and assess policy impacts in the light of their set objectives.
It is this scenario that breeds incentives for emergence of the unethical tendencies that impede the optimal performance of the governments in public service delivery, namely, corruption, impunity, ineptitude, fiscal-indiscipline, lack of statistical-data, and under-utilization and wrong-deployment of specialist-workforce. In turn, these unethical tendencies condemn mass of the citizenry to perpetual search for the basic needs of livelihood, namely, food, water, shelter, healthcare, etc. Thus, Nigerians languish in mass abject penury in the midst of plenty. This is precisely why Nigerian society is in a sorry state.
The only way to salvage this pitiful state of Nigeria is through budgetary reform. Government must transform budgeting from its existing obsolete restricted use as fiscal policymaking fixated merely on financial-management to its contemporary broad usage as strategic planning focused on institutional-resource-management. Under the new posture, the primary concern is with efficient and effective deployment of human-capacity towards the optimal performance of government in public service delivery. This will establish a new institutional-structure that originates from the legislature through the executive and spreads out to integrate all the fields of bureaucratic activity down the agency hierarchy to the field-level of interaction with the citizenry. It is a single but far-flung administrative procedure for the development and execution of all government policy programs. Thus, budgeting will become the instrument for not only laying the foundation of good governance but also nurturing the public service delivery effort to sustain the advancement of our society.
Instructively, the budgetary reform would expose our elected officials to the essential elements of good governance, thus:
• governance unfolds through bureaucracy that is not part of government but professional-support-group that is functionally located in-between government and the citizenry;
• bureaucracy is structured into different fields of activity that are managed by human beings who pursue the task from their narrow points of view and interest; and
• need for government to coordinate bureaucracy through constant and consistent monitoring and evaluation of the public service delivery process for the aggregation and feedback of administrative-performance-information.
From these essential elements derive the rule of good governance as, “constant and consistent monitoring and evaluation of administrative-performance for guiding continuous and holistic decision-making interaction between elected officials and bureaucrats regarding problems and successes encountered in the public service delivery process”.
The product is a new structure of public service administration that thrives on:
• deliberately-designed and properly-applied administrative-performance-auditing device; and
• effectively-controlled and fully-deployed bureaucracy.
This way, the budgetary reform will serve to eliminate all the unethical tendencies that obstruct the optimal performance of our governments (federal, state, and local) in public service delivery. Particularly, it will eliminate corruption, impunity and ineptitude through a proactive ‘recognition’, ‘definition’ and ‘prevention’ approach when compared to the prevailing reactive ‘solution’ approach of the EFCC and ICPC. In specific terms, the budgetary reform will:
• strengthen the power of the President to checkmate the pursuit of unethical tendencies by Ministers through the centralization of executive budgetary-decision-making-authority in the Office of the President;
• strengthen the power of each Minister to checkmate the pursuit of unethical tendencies by bureaucrats through the centralization of bureaucratic budgetary-decision-making-authority in the office of the Minister; and
• strengthen the power of the National Assembly over government spending through the independent capability of the legislators to do their own budgeting.
From these functional innovations will emerge institutional-resource-management as the means of delivering services for improving the quality of livelihood of our citizenry. This will properly position and equip our elected officials with the right tool for doing a first-class job of public service administration. Ultimately, the public cynicism and perception of governance in Nigeria as chaotic and uncontrollable, corruptive and unresponsive will begin to fade away and gradually disappear. Verily, until our elected officials at the three tiers of governance apply this budgetary reform, the search for good governance in Nigeria to eradicate the mass poverty that is ravaging our citizenry will remain mere wishful-thinking. For more insight into this body of knowledge, please read the book, “public budgeting as key for public accountability and good governance: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-0364-0569-4.
•Dr Emeka Ejikonye is a Specialist in Public Budgeting