Nigeria’s proposed five-year security strategy could help the country move away from reactive military deployments towards a coordinated system driven by intelligence, threat assessment, and measurable performance, former State Security Service (SSS) director Dennis Amachree has said.
Amachree, now a security expert, made the assessment on a Television Continental programme on Wednesday night while examining the proposed framework and what it could mean for Nigeria’s response to terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping.
He said the plan could provide a more structured approach to national security by allowing government agencies to work from a common intelligence picture rather than operating in isolation.
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Ex-SSS chief seeks intelligence fusion
Amachree identified closer collaboration among the Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and the military as a central requirement for the strategy.
He proposed a functional intelligence-sharing mechanism, including a fusion centre where information gathered by different agencies could be pooled, examined, and converted into actionable intelligence.
“The agencies need a functional intelligence-sharing mechanism or fusion centre where information can be shared and analysed to facilitate coordinated responses to emerging threats,” he said.
Such an arrangement, he explained, could reduce the gaps created when agencies possess pieces of information but fail to connect them quickly enough.
He also recommended joint training and a common operational doctrine. Bringing the security institutions closer could improve coordination while reducing duplication of efforts.
Threats should determine equipment
The former intelligence chief also called attention to how security equipment is acquired.
He suggested a threat-informed procurement system in which government purchases weapons, surveillance technology, communications equipment, and logistics based on identified security challenges rather than the preferences of individual institutions.
“Such an approach would help the government determine the appropriate technology, equipment and logistics required to respond to specific threats and identify areas where they are most needed,” Amachree said.
The proposal is significant because Nigeria’s security challenges vary sharply from one region to another. The requirements for tackling banditry in remote forests may differ from those needed to counter terrorism, protect major cities, or secure long border corridors.
Niger attacks expose changing threats
Amachree pointed to recurring attacks and mass abductions in parts of Niger State as evidence of the changing nature of the threats confronting the country.
He specifically mentioned incidents around Papiri, Borgu, Agwara and the Kainji Forest corridor.
To him, the fluid character of terrorism, kidnapping, and banditry makes a fixed security blueprint inadequate. Threat assessments must be conducted regularly so that tactics can change when criminal groups alter their methods.
The five-year framework, he noted, is expected to operate on a rolling basis. Periodic assessments would allow authorities to revise priorities as new threats emerge.
Performance must be measurable
Another feature Amachree highlighted is the need for measurable benchmarks.
Rather than judging security institutions solely by the number of operations conducted or personnel deployed, the strategy could establish indicators for assessing whether interventions are actually improving public safety.
Periodic reviews would then allow government to determine what is working, identify weaknesses, and redirect resources where necessary.
The former SSS director, however, cautioned that a well-written strategy would have little value without the resources and discipline required to execute it.
“The success of the initiative would ultimately depend on adequate funding, timely procurement and effective implementation,” he said.
He also warned that corruption and delays in procurement could weaken the framework, regardless of how sound its design might be.
Central to Amachree’s assessment is a shift from responding to attacks after they occur to anticipating threats before they escalate. Intelligence sharing, appropriate technology, joint operations, and regular assessment would form the backbone of that approach.
For a country facing several security challenges at once, the proposed framework therefore presents an opportunity to replace fragmented responses with a system in which intelligence gathered by one agency can quickly inform the decisions of others.
However, its real test will not be the document itself. It will be whether agencies share information promptly, whether equipment reaches the personnel who need it, whether procurement is protected from abuse, and whether periodic assessments lead to actual changes on the ground.
