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Growing the dusty streets of Sabon-Gari in Kano saw me take a sympathy for different newspaper editorialists. One of these editorialists is Sonola Olumhese. Perhaps, due to his ability to deliver his message in a simple but Fiorito language he does not worry about who is known, his propensity to deepen the current issues or his sense of humor, I have always found his delightful, educational and insightful columns. Therefore, I have been understandably troubled, if not discouraged by reading his piece of April 6, 2025, entitled “We must close the department of state services”. “I kept asking me if it was the same Olumhese sonola who wrote this piece. Or an exhilarating parody?
The sonola uncle, as I like to call him, started telling how, in August 2024, Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi became the new general manager of the state service department (DSS).
“Six months after his arrival, Ajayi is proposing a new thought on Nigeria who suggests the collapse of the traditional government security architecture and his responsibility to resolve his growing insecurity,” he observed.
He continued, “According to the DSS, the communities – not the country’s security agencies – should now become the first line of defense of the nation in facing current issues.
“You don’t expect that the Nigerian army, the police and the SSS protect every Nigerian. It will not work,” he mentioned – and rightly – said the boss DSS.
Apparently, the position of the boss DSS did not sit well with the respected editorialist. And he did not hide his feelings.
It was groping: “We expect that the security agencies do their job. This is what the Constitution foresees, stating that” the safety and well -being of the people will be the main purpose of the government “. Not a secondary purpose, but the” primary “.
Not done, the editorialist continued: “This means that this is the first order of activity of the government of the Federation, which is the level of governance that has – and controls security agencies”.
Apparently, it was annoyed that Mr. Ajayi, probably one of the best secret service officers in the history of Nigeria, “mentioned examples of community in Nigeria who are recorded to fight and defeat the attacks, trying to frame them as a model for Nigeria if he has to defeat insecurity”.
He clouded: “It is a bad argument. The Nigerian communities have always defended themselves and still do it, despite the imbalance in the modern fire power in which they find they keep sticks and cholelli against guns and assault rifles regularly lined up against them as kidnappers, terrorists or even safety agents.”
Mr. Olumhese, in his piece, observed that “it is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens”, observing, “is a debt that the government supports when it is oath”.
He observed that “the problem is that in Nigeria, after the government has been sworn, the love for luxury and the sense of power starts in addition to a sense of obligation”.
Over the years, I have even given several times given the editorialists to fall into the trap that social scientists call the value judgment. For those who may not be familiar with the term, the value judgment is a declaration that expresses an opinion on the value, goodness or importance of something, based on values or personal beliefs rather than objective facts.
To tell the truth, the protection of life and property is the fundamental responsibility of governments all over the world. What remains a global challenge is how to face this difficult task, if not impossible.
Like what economists call the “scarcity problem” where
We have an unlimited number of desires in the face of limited resources, the challenge becomes how to allocate these limited resources.
In 2024, the world population was estimated at 8.2 billion people. Mr. Olumhese would agree that it is not possible to assemble 8.2 billion of policemen for the sole purpose of monitoring 8.2 billion of people. The attempt to do so would mean that we would not have teachers, pilots, firefighters and editorialists!
It was against the wheat of this reality that the United Nations recommended the minimum ratio of a policeman to protect 450 citizens. Nigeria has a police and citizen ratio of 1 to 600.
It is interesting to note that even in the United Kingdom, which has a relatively high police and citizen ratio of 1: 179, there were over 570 victims of murders recorded in 2024. In other words, in 2024, the government of the United Kingdom was unable to prevent the murder of 570 citizens. Imagine if these unfortunate victims had the opportunity to defend themselves. Maybe they would be alive today!
It is against the awareness that it is practically impossible to protect the life of every citizen at any moment that led to the universal concept of self -defense that the DSS DG has tried to highlight as a possible solution to our security challenges.
The universality of the self -defense refers to the intrinsic and widely recognized law of individuals and states of using strength in order to defend themselves against an imminent or effective threat, a concept that is found through cultures, religions and philosophies and sanctions from Sancio in international law.
In fact, the principle of self -defense has made its way into the United Nations Charter.
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter States, “Nothing in the current paper must compromise the intrinsic right of individual or collective self -defense if an armed attack on a member of the United Nations occurs …”
In other words, according to the United Nations, self -defense is an inalienable right of an individual. He has nothing to do with the government.
Also to this, the most powerful country in the world today in terms of military power and security are the United States. In 2023, the country spent a huge $ 820 billion safely. However, it is still the country with the largest number of pistols in the private hands of the world. With 340 million people in 2024, there were 393 million private firearms in the United States. This translates into 120.5 firearms for 100 people. Nobody has accused the United States government who, despite his safety budget of 820 billion dollars, Americans are still responsible for protection. Nobody asked for the demolition of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who, by the way, provided for a budget of $ 11.3 billion for 2025. Nobody said, well, since almost all Americans bring weapons, over 2.63 million soldiers in six branches of the American army.
Self -defense is a standard practice all over the world, so the DSS DG has not said or proposed anything new. Also in Switzerland, considered one of the safest countries in the world, the private property of weapons is common.
Citizens, including those who have completed military service, can have firearms, but with regulations and permits required for the acquisition and transport in public. The same type of egulation supported the boss DSS.
At home in Africa, several countries encourage their citizens to bring weapons for self -defense. There was this recent case of a Namibian man arrested by Nigerian security agents at Murtala Muhammed international airport, Lagos. He had a gun. When the Nigerian authorities contacted the high Namibian commission, after managing some checks, they confirmed that the arrest was duly authorized by their domestic government to transport the weapon. Nigerian security agents had no choice but to free him. From Ghana to South Africa, from Egypt to Angola, citizens are authorized to bring weapons for self -defense.
Centuries before the countries united to form the United Nations, our ancestors included the principle of self -defense. This is captured in this very common African proverb:
“It’s just a tree that he will hear that he will be demolished and remain impassive.”
In a final note, it is important to note that the DSS DG, Mr. Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi is not the first head of high -profile security to ask for self -defense as a solution to our insecurity. In October 2022, the retired army general, Theophilus Y. Danjuma advised the Nigerians to take the weapons and defend themselves from the attacks of the terrorists. Danjuma, would have been remembered, was head of the army staff and, subsequently, defense minister. He made the call a long time after leaving the assignment.
In my opinion, to have the unusual courage to be the first head of security to the service to openly ask for the design of a system that would allow the Nigerians to bring the weapons to defend themselves, Mr. Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi, who I understand sausaged the national honor of Mon for his security companies in the early 2000s, deserves another superior national honor! We should learn to reward excellence!
Abdul wrote from Kano
