By Favour Nnabugwu

Minister of State for Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has called on security agencies in Nigeria to engage educational institutions in their quest to upgrade the knowledge base of officers and operational personnel for the purpose of effective security that will enhance national development.

The Minister who spoke while presenting a paper titled, Education as a tool for effective national development and security at the Executive Intelligence Management Course, EIMC, 6 of the Institute for Security Studies recently, noted that for any training programme of the security agencies to be productive, they must embark on series of needs assessment to ascertain critical areas of need to be addressed by such programmes.

He said; “The security industry must engage educational institutions on the skills officers need to have before service. An example will be using technology to access needed and relevant information, civic responsibility and patriotism, government, constitutional and human rights and above all, integrity.

“An effective performance evaluation protocol must be used to determine areas of deficiency prior to retraining. This is the only way officers can return to the field better than they were. If we continuously retrain all officers without first finding out where they exhibit weaknesses, then money invested in such exercise is wasted.”

The Minister stated that education should be deployed to change the attitude of Nigerians and tailor their mindset towards the development of the nation and the maintenance of a safe environment that allows for national development.

He said; “All economic and social development rest squarely on safety and security, as progress cannot happen in crisis. Therefore, safety and security are pivotal to national development and security officers and personnel are at the centre. Effective security comes from the availability of relevant information gathering and the training of officers.”

In a remark, the director of the Institute of Security Studies, Mr Lekan Odugbemi stated that the reforms taking place in the education sector is as a result of the President appointing the right people.

Also speaking, a directing staff of the Institute, Mr Andrew Iorkyaa described the lecture as apt as it clearly suggested ways of improving the security situation of the nation for national development.