By Lawrence Agbo

A retired Air Commodore, Abayomi Balogun, has called for a shift to a bottom-up security strategy to tackle insecurity in Nigeria effectively.

Balogun said the current top-down approach adopted by the Nigerian Armed Forces to tackle insecurity is limiting operational effectiveness, describing the institution as “handicapped” despite its capacity to overcome security challenges.

“Despite being handicapped, we can still overcome if we choose to do the right thing at the right time. We need to stop being reactive and become proactive,” Balogun said.

“There is open source intelligence, but if we change the strategic approach, because right now we are doing tob to bottom, we should start bottom up approach where the people and the community become your first layer of defence without guns, but you must empower them to be able to see something and say something,” he added.

He urged security agencies to abandon reactive methods and adopt a proactive system driven by technology and intelligence, particularly from grassroots communities.

“Despite being handicapped, we can still overcome if we choose to do the right thing at the right time. We need to stop being reactive and become proactive.”

According to him, citizens should serve as the first layer of defence, but must be properly empowered and provided with clear channels to report suspicious activities.

“We should leverage technology and then heavily on intelligence. We get this intelligence from the grassroots.”

Balogun also criticised the existing “see something, say something” campaign, noting that it lacks the necessary structure to make it effective.

He maintained that building a well-coordinated, community-based intelligence network would significantly strengthen national security and improve response to threats.

“Today we have that slogan we say, ‘if you see something, say something, ‘ but the structure is not there, so when they see something, who do they say that something too? You must be deliberate and create that structure and say when you see something, say it to this person,” he concluded.

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