BY: MUSA BABAJI.
PART ONE
It is darker before dawn but this dawn is taking longer than necessary to surface. It is the desires of a leader and his followers in an entity, organisation or state to live in peaceful and harmoneous co-existance to achieved effective service delivery.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) was first introduced in May 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War within the then Federal Capital Territory of Lagos for the purpose of sensitization and protection of the civil populace. It was then known as Lagos Civil Defence Committee.
It later metamorphosized into the present day what we learned historically. NSCDC was intruduce in 1970. On inception, the Corps had the objective of carrying out some educational and enlightenment campaigns in and around the Federal Capital of Lagos to sensitize members of the civil populace on enemy attacks and how to save themselves from danger as most Nigerians living in and around Lagos territory then had little or no knowledge about war and its implications.
Members of the Committee deemed it important to educate through electronic and print media on how to guide themselves during air raids, bomb attacks, identify bombs and how to dive into trenches during bomb blast.
In 1984, the Corps was transformed into a National security outfit and in 1988, there was a major re-structuring of the Corps that led to the establishment of Commands throughout the Federation, including Abuja.
On 28 June 2003, an act to give statutory backing to the NSCDC passed by the National Assembly was signed into law by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The act was amended in 2007 to enhance the statutory duties of the corp.
Since its inception, the NSCDC leadership from 2004 to 2020 it operated under smooth tempo and excellent administrative atmosphere until 2021, that was when the entity face its dark phase of life, and have live into so many hineous engagements, ranging from mal-administration, abuse of power, sectarian divide, operating beyond constitutional boundaries, and involving his spouses in hiring and firing top management officials, extortion and corruption among others.
READ ALSO: CHSCON Calls for Immediate Sack of NSCDC Boss over Allegations of Fraud, Corruption, Nepotism
There are several contestations, allegations and petitions submitted against the current commander general of the NSCDC, also on 25th June 2023 a Civil Society Organization has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack and investigate the activities of Mr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, the current Commandant General of the NSCDC over allegations of corruption, nepotism and other vices.
Audi was accused to cyphone alot of official vehicles and allocated to friends and family, and he was also accused of employing non qualified personnel, that cannot even write there names correctly and drafted into the agency with forged Certificates.
It has been the traditional of the federal government to cater for security’s election duty allowance during elections, Audi was alleged to received over 9 billion naira to share and prepare the personnel of the NSCDC for the national elections, but investigation reveals that the said amount shared to the officers was not up 1 billion, because there are some senior officers that received N6,000 only as their election coverage allowance.
Moreover, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has empowered only Nigerian President to appoint the Commander General of the Corps, its also alleged that Audi has involved his four spouses in decisions making of the Corps, appointing as well as firing of top management officers such as commandants, exploiting them, collecting money in return as gratification or you can call it bribe.
In another development, a coaliation of Trucks Drivers that has been sized by the NSCDC also wrote a petition and even protested against the leadership of CG A. A. Audi over seizure and burning of their trucks by the Commandant General.
In the both Petitions and Protest, demand for his immediate sacking, hence prosecution by the Federal Government.
They emphasized that Mr. President’s intervention in the situation became absolutely necessary before things get out of hand.
In the cause of investigations findings revealed that the CG is alleged to cyphone Speed Boat Engines bought by the former administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and burned down the empty bodies.
We can obviously said that some officers of the corps lost their lives as results of the secluded order of the CG especially the teams that are operating on coast shore sent out without the consent of the co-security agencies which later lead to their death.
This peace focuses on alerting Mr. President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to study the findings, investigate the matter thoroughly and bring the CG to Justice if found guilty, for the betterment of the nation security outfits.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not in any way reflect the views of GLOBAL TRACKER.