Withdrawal of Police from VIPs drama not strategy – ADC

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has dismissed the directive by President Bola Tinubu for the withdrawal of police officers attached to Very Important Personalities (VIPs) as political grandstanding.

The ADC, in a statement by its interim National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, yesterday, said the directive will not yield any meaningful results in tackling the security challenges in the country.

The opposition party, while calling for a holistic national security strategy to  counter insurgency, said the resort  to same old move is an indication that the government does not appreciate the complexity of the security crisis in the country and how to respond to it.

It noted that if the President Tinubu-led Federal Government is truly serious about securing the country,   it must move “beyond pronouncements and press briefings, and begin the holistic overhaul of Nigeria’s national security architecture.”

The ADC said “While the directive makes for good headlines, it is not new and demonstrates the government’s lack of understanding of the true nature and complexity of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis. A country battling terrorism, banditry, mass abductions, and violent crime cannot afford to confuse public relations for policy.

“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 government claims that this announcement would add 100,000 men to the police. While this may fill some gaps in numerical strength, the real problem is not the number. It is the fact that even our military are finding it difficult to cope with the sophistication and adaptability of the insurgents, not to talk of police men who are ill equipped, ill trained and ill motivated for the complex task of counter-insurgency.

“We find 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.

“Nigeria’s security challenges must be addressed comprehensively, not cosmetically. 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.

“For the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to do this work, they must be restructured, re-equipped, and retrained to confront today’s threats with suitable tools. This work is urgent, and half measures will 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.”