By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa
According to Isiah Davies Ijele, rights activist and convener of the Police Integrity Movement, Nigerian government’s indifference to the nation’s security architecture remains the primary reason for wanton killings across the country.
Ijele made the assertion while featuring on TVC News’ Politics Tonight programme, hosted by Olajumoke Olatunji, who opened the discussion by questioning why bandits continue to operate with impunity despite repeated government warnings—specifically referencing the recent attacks and killings in Plateau State.
The anchor asked the rights activist for his observations on why security operatives have continued to struggle to rescue kidnapped victims or decisively tackle the worsening insecurity situation.
Responding, Ijele said, “The government has shown no interest in the implementation of community policing,” he said, describing this failure as the core obstacle to resolving the nation’s security challenges.
He noted that most attacks occur in remote, hard-to-reach areas of the country, locations he strongly believes conventional security forces cannot access urgently enough to prevent loss of life or effect timely rescues.
Ijele was of the view that community leaders be tasked with identifying capable youths who can be trained to handle ammunition and defend their localities against bandits.
When Olatunji asked whether such an approach would not lead to extrajudicial killings, the convener dismissed the concern, arguing that proper training and close collaboration with government security operatives would prevent abuses.
“We cannot solve this problem unless the government arms the citizens—I mean the community youths,” Ijele declared.
He suggested empowering community vigilantes with sophisticated weaponry to combat insurgent forces—a proposal that goes beyond the current structure of unarmed neighbourhood watch groups.
Responding to the recent “shoot-on-sight” order issued by General Christopher Musa, the Minister of Defence, Ijele who dismissed the directive as meaningless, cited the security apparatus’ fundamental inability to identify the terrorists in question.
He argued that the only people capable of identifying the bandits are the youths living in those villages.
“They know better,” he asserted, “hence they should be equipped to combat them.”
“Until we go back to the fundamentals, and the fundamentals are with the community—the fundamentals are with the people that know their community,” Ijele emphasised.
To buttress his points, the convener drew an analogy from the height of the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, where the military devised the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) strategy—a move he said led to tremendous victories against the terrorist group.
He also referenced a statement made by the current Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Tosin, who reportedly acknowledged that during his tenure in a particular northern region, insecurity was effectively curbed through community policing initiatives that empowered local youths to combat terrorists.
On the subject of state policing—a policy option that has gained increasing traction in national discourse—Ijele drew a sharp distinction.
He argued that state policing fundamentally serves governors and their political interests, whereas community policing belongs to the masses and grassroots populations.
“As far as I am concerned, state policing is an apparatus in the hands of the governors, but community securities are for their people,” he said.
Nevertheless, responding to the Inspector General of Police (IGP)’s recent statement that 60 per cent of police personnel would be deployed to states, the convener acknowledged the potential value of state policing while warning that safeguards must be established to curb the excesses of governors and senior police officers, particularly during election seasons.
He noted from experience that governors have historically used police and other security operatives to oppress opposition figures—a pattern he fears could worsen without proper oversight mechanisms.
On the performance of the current Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), Ijele he is “doing well with his delivery so far.”
However, he insisted that Musa must do significantly more to meet the expectations of ordinary Nigerians.
The convener concluded with a direct call to President Bola Tinubu, urging the nation’s leader to summon his security chiefs and issue a clear directive, saying “They must go and work closely with community youths by empowering them with sophisticated weaponry, adding “We cannot solve this problem unless the government arms the citizens,” Ijele reiterated.
As banditry, kidnapping, and communal violence continue to claim lives across the country—with Plateau State being the most recent flashpoint—the debate over community arming versus traditional security measures appears far from settled. But for Ijele and the Police Integrity Movement, the path forward is, return security to those who know the terrain best, and give them the tools to fight back.
