The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has stated that the order by President Bola Tinubu to withdraw police officers from Very Important Persons (VIPs) would not yield any meaningful results in combating insecurity in the country.
Describing the move as political grandstanding, the party called for a holistic national security strategy that integrates all security agencies as a holistic counter-insurgency force.
ADC, in a statement on Monday by its spokesperson, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said while the directive made good headlines, it only demonstrated the government’s lack of understanding of the true nature and complexity of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis.
“To start with, this is not the first time we are hearing this from the APC government. In 2025 alone, such an order has been given twice by the IGP, whom we believe was acting on the directive of the President. But nothing happened.
“Nevertheless, even if the President succeeds in relieving the police of VIP duties, we must face the bigger concern that by their training, mentality and orientation, these policemen are ill-suited and ill-equipped for the desperate emergency that we face.
“Therefore, the dramatic gesture of withdrawing police protection from VIPs may pander to populist sentiment, but it does not address the problem,” the party said in the statement.
It said it found it even more intriguing that while withdrawing policemen from the VIPs, the government is replacing them with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSDC) whose mandate include Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, community protection and educating the people on safety measures.
ADC maintained that Nigeria’s security challenges must be addressed comprehensively, not cosmetically. Adding that what the country needs is not the reshuffling of personnel for headlines, but a coherent national security strategy anchored in modernisation, intelligence, and institutional integration.
He said for the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to do the work, they must be restructured, reequipped, and retrained to confront today’s threats with suitable tools. Noting that the work is urgent, and half measures would not suffice.
“Moreover, this government must tell Nigerians the truth. Where is the data supporting the claim that 100,000 officers have been withdrawn from VIP duties?
“Where is the operational plan? Where are the tools, logistics, and systems to ensure that these officers, who are used to being escorts to VIPs, can be effective in the field? Merely redeploying policemen without clarity about the role they are expected to play within a larger framework and strategy specifically designed to deal with insurgency and terrorism is meaningless.
‘The ADC therefore believes that if the Tinubu government is truly serious about securing the nation, it must move beyond pronouncements and press briefings, and begin the holistic overhaul of Nigeria’s national security architecture,” the statement concluded.
