…Lawmaker, who lost brother, cousin, nephew to terrorist attack, raise concerns on infiltration
With resurgence of kidnappings and killings by terrorists in recent times, many concerned Nigerians have applauded President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a nationwide security emergency and the approval for additional recruitment into the Armed Forces and Police.
The move, according to many, is a welcome development considering that the Nigerian Military, which is one of the largest uniformed combat services in Africa, has suffered many casualties in the fight against insecurity, amid decline in its more than 230,000 active personnel, hence overwhelmed.
Moreover, a report published by the European Union Agency for Asylum in November 2025 pointed to the gap impacting efficient security in the country, saying that the Nigerian Police Force has an estimated strength of 371,800 officers serving a population of about 236.7 million people, which is grossly inadequate to police a country of such size.
Read also: Boko Haram, criminals found in army, police recruitment list – Lawmaker
The above and more are the basis for the president’s declaration of a nationwide security emergency and approval for additional recruitment into the Armed Forces and Police.
But some security experts and concerned citizens are worried, despite that the directive has been applauded by many.
Their fear is rooted in the fact that criminal elements are likely going to take advantage of the recruitment to get too close for comfort, and probably infiltrating the security architecture, causing more harm, and defeating the purpose of the recruitment exercise.
Bem Hembafan, a retired senior security officer, decried that responsible youth do not want to join the forces again because of the casualty rate of young recruits and the quest for quick money. The sad development, he regrated, will make the bad elements available and the forces have no option than to recruit those who present themselves, not minding if they have good or bad intentions.
“In the late 70s and 80s, parents do everything to get one of their children into any of the forces. Mine was a big celebration at the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna, which the youth then preferred to any university in and outside the country. But the reverse is the case today,” Hembafan decried.
“Most of my younger relations and even children are after what they call ‘soft life’, some who read law or engineering are doing social media and IT. One told me that he is a content creator and showed me how much he makes in foreign currency from his work. So, getting the youth into the forces will not be easy because there are interest and mind shifts, as well as risk now than before”.
The security expert, who runs a private security outfit for exclusive estates in Abuja and Nasarawa State, warned that the seeming mass recruitment into the forces may not give the country the dedicated personnel it is looking for because the forces are now under pressure to prove their strength, redeem investment in security fight and also impress the president.
“The depth and thoroughness of the process are my concern because it is more of a crash recruitment programme,” he said.
On his part, Lekan Jackson Ojo, a certified security expert, also do not consider the mass recruitment as the major solution to the insecurity fight.
He noted that though the recruitment across all the forces is long overdue, his worry is over the implementation, which he fears might be politicised by those responsible for it.
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To ensure the anticipated result, Ojo warned that the usual tendency to influence appointments within security agencies must be closely monitored. The above, according to him, will ensure that only qualified, capable, and patriotic citizens are engaged.
“Thorough implementation of the initiative is what should concern us now. President Tinubu should look into the implementation and have eavesdroppers to feed him back,” the security expert said.
Also trading the lane of caution, Idris Wase, former deputy speaker, House of Representatives, disclosed recently that suspected Boko Haram members and other criminal elements were once discovered on the recruitment lists of the Nigerian Army and police.
Reacting to the planned mass recruitment into the forces, Wase, an All Progressives Congress lawmaker representing Wase Federal Constituency in Plateau State, warned that criminal elements may take advantage of the exercise to infiltrate Nigerian security institutions, and also posing a major threat to national security.
Speaking from a victim’s perspective, Wase, who lost a brother, cousin and nephew to terrorist attacks in the North Central zone, which bears about 52 percent of the country’s overall insecurity burden, insisted that only credible and trustworthy persons should be recruited into the forces to ensure anticipated results.
Speaking during a special plenary session on the state of security in the country, Wase said, “There were recruitment exercises where names of known Boko Haram members appeared on the shortlist. Armed robbers and other criminals were also found among those cleared for the Army and police.”
The lawmaker went further to say that his claimed can be verified by Muktar Betara, chairman, House Committee on the Federal Capital Territory and former chairman, House Committee on Defence.
Wase’s verifiable claims, according to Hembafan, are top among the reasons to apply caution and thoroughness in the planned mass recruitment exercise.
“I know that the country is bleeding and there is need to shore up the numbers and strength of all our security agencies, but that should be done with open eyes and not politicised to avoid defeating the core purpose, which is to flush out terrorists, protect lives and property and better safeguard the country.
“These are perilous times and not time to sacrifice thoroughness and national security on the altar on politics and ethnicity,” he warned.
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Away from the recruitment, Solomon Bob, a serving senator (PDP, Rivers), warned that the government should not placate terrorists or negotiate with killers, instead, it should enforce the law, as it increases the number of personnel across the forces.
But Bolaji Ayorinde, an Abuja-based security expert, warned recruiters of bad elements in the forces that their family members, friends or associates would be victims someday, hence the need to give priority to national security in the planned recruitment than allowing religion, ethnic and personal interests hold swell.
“Considering the level of insecurity in the country today, those in charge of recruitments into all the forces and Police should be thorough and give priority their own safety because Brigadier-General Musa Uba was killed recently by the bad elements. It will be your turn tomorrow if you recruit bad elements or unqualified people into our forces to guide us. We are all in it together, whether military or civilian,” he said.
