The former House Leader and Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa has called on the federal government to address the personal and professional concerns of security agents in the fight against security challenges in order to boost their morale and reduce insecurity to the barest minimum.
He made the call when members of special security volunteers, Vigilante, and Police Constabulary Corps paid him a courtesy call at his residence in Kano on Monday.
Doguwa while addressing the visitors said that, the people in the Nigerian armed forces, security agencies as well as volunteers who put their lives on the line to ensure the survival of Nigeria and its people deserve a better deal for their welfare and that of their families to take care of eventualities related to their jobs.
He described their visit as a push to him and promised to take their message to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu so that, their welfare and wellbeing should be looked into.
Hon. Doguwa said, ” And I am saying this with all sense of morality and all sense of commitment and dedication, that yes, government has to do something about our security agents, their institutions and their own personality.
“It is just about boosting the morale of workers, it is about commitment and dedication of those who agreed to put their lives on the line especially people in uniform, formal uniform that is constitutionally constituted and to serve as either a Soldier, a Police Officer, intelligence officer, DSS officer and including those of you who are apparently what we call volunteers who volunteered to serve this nation in this capacity in terms of security of lives and properties.
“I want to believe that man has put his life on the line. And I do not want to deceive anyone or myself that anyone offering his life in the defence of the integrity of his own country and in the defence of the lives and properties of his people. I think that man can be paid whatever to protect him and protect his family. There is no amount of resources that can be too much to sustain our security architecture, to sustain our security apparatus.
“So, what I am saying in essence is that, the government should try as much as possible. When I say government , we are running a constitutional democracy, we are running an institutional democracy whereby you have different arms of government. I may be seen on one hand as a component of the government because I belong to the legislature. But the fact is that, we have different components of what constitutes Nigerian government today”.
The lawmaker emphasised that, if the security agents are well accommodated, their welfare being addressed, their morale will be boosted and they will work more to ensure the security of lives and properties of Nigerians.
He further noted that, better welfare will also give Nigerian security agents a psychological conviction about their concerns that, if they pay the Supreme price, their families will not be abandoned.
He added, “Every security agent that you speak to, that is the reality, would want to know, oh, after my own life in service to humanity, after my own life in the service to the nation, after my own life in the service of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, after my life, should for instance, God forbid, after I pay the Supreme price, what is going to happen to my kids and my heirs or my wards after I might have paid the Supreme price.
“This has been a very big question in the mind of every security agent in Nigeria. So, I think the government should review the salary package of our security agents”.
He therefore advised the federal government to also look inwards and recruit more security agents; the Police, the Nigerian Army, security and intelligent agencies like the DSS and others, improve their budgets, their weaponry and trainings which he said will help reduce the country’s security challenges to the barest minimum.
The lawmaker further added, “So, what I am saying in essence is that, if the government can look inwards in the management, sustenance and the welfare and wellbeing of our security agencies, I want to believe our problems of insecurity today will definitely be mitigated to the barest minimum. So, in essence, what I am saying is that, we should use the available resources to do that”.
