Retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Felix Ogbaudu has called for a review of the school curriculum at all levels of education to include security education.
Ogbaudu in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday said the review had become imperative in view of the level of insecurity in Nigeria.
He said with the new dimension to insecurity in Nigeria in recent times, security matters could no longer be left solely in the hands of security agencies.
He said that the insurgent tactics being deployed by the enemies of the state were a wake-up call to sensitise the public on how to identify sinister moves in their communities.
According to Ogbaudu, another benefit of making security education part of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions’ curricula is learning skills on how to report criminal activities to security agencies among others.
“I am suggesting that we include security education in school curriculum from primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
“ This is to teach our children their dos and don’ts in terms of security because it is important for them to know what to do and what not to do at a given time.
“They should also be taught to see something and say something and I want to add if you hear something say something but what you hear you must verify,” he said.
On illegal firearm possession, he said drastic action must be taken to mop up such arms because of the danger they pose to society.
“I am appealing to the government to sensitise members of the public using all avenues including print and electronic media, mosques, churches, town criers in the local communities and all of that.
“The message should be that anyone in possession of an illegal firearm should surrender it to an unidentified location.
“Once the instruction is given, a timeframe of six months should be given and there should be a warning that at the expiration of six months anybody arrested with a firearm that is illegal will face the death penalty.
“That means possession of an illegal firearm will be a capital offence,” he said.
He said once the window for mop-up is over, the National Assembly should enact a law making possession of illegal firearms a capital offence with strict liability offence.
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According to him, once the law is enacted and comes into effect, people should be sensitised to be careful in assisting people with luggage to avoid being implicated.
Ogbaudu called for an amendment to the section of the Constitution that provides for a presumption of innocence.
He said the amendment should be “except caught in the act”.
“Being caught in the act is enough evidence to prosecute an offender.
“For instance, someone caught shooting at another person should not be presumed innocent because such a person was caught in the act.
“Unfortunately lawyers are not helping matters.
“Prof. Itse Sagay said a long time ago that lawyers are not helping matters because they always fail to tell clients the truth.
“If your case is bad, tell your clients what the provisions of the law say about their case even when it will not be favourable to them not because they are going to be paid millions.
“That is why you see that some matters that start in Magistrate Court, go to Court of Appeal, down to Supreme Court and in some cases linger beyond 20 years,” he said.
On the present rise in the cost of food prices, Ogbaudu said Nigeria had “no business battling such development given the numerous potential we have, ranging from human capital to natural resources”.
He said, “Nigeria is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world and we have four refineries.
“We export our crude oil and import finished products yet we have four refineries that are moribund and unfortunately we keep spending money on turnaround maintenance.”
He expressed optimism that things would get better once the right policies were put in place.
