President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday declared a nationwide security emergency, announcing the most sweeping security measures of his administration and ordering massive recruitment across the Armed Forces, Police, and the Department of State Services (DSS) to confront the country’s escalating insecurity.
In a State House broadcast, Tinubu authorised the police to recruit an additional 20,000 officers, bringing total police recruitment this year to 50,000. He also directed the Nigerian Army to expand its personnel strength immediately. To fast-track the process, the President approved the use of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camps as temporary police training depots in addition to the ongoing upgrade of police training facilities nationwide.
He further ordered that officers withdrawn from VIP protection duties be given crash retraining and redeployed to frontline areas where security challenges are most severe.
The President also empowered the DSS to deploy all trained forest guards to clear out terrorists and bandits operating from forest hideouts. The agency was similarly authorised to recruit additional operatives specifically for forest security operations. Tinubu vowed that there would be “no more hiding places for agents of evil.”
Tinubu praised recent security operations that secured the release of 24 schoolgirls in Kebbi State and 38 abducted worshippers in Kwara State, assuring that the government would continue efforts to rescue remaining captives, including students of the Catholic School in Niger State.
He called on the National Assembly to begin reviewing legal frameworks to allow states wishing to establish state police to do so. The President also promised federal backing for state-controlled security outfits and urged subnational governments to strengthen protection around boarding schools, churches, and mosques, especially in vulnerable communities.
Addressing the persistent farmer-herder clashes, Tinubu appealed to herder associations to embrace the newly created Ministry of Livestock Development, discontinue open grazing, and surrender illegal weapons, insisting that ranching was now the sustainable path forward.
He sympathised with families affected by recent attacks in Kebbi, Borno, Zamfara, Niger, Yobe, and Kwara states and paid tribute to Nigeria’s fallen soldiers, including Brigadier-General Musa Uba, who died in the line of duty. Tinubu warned criminal groups not to misinterpret the government’s restraint as weakness, stressing that his administration possessed the resolve to restore peace nationwide.
The President urged Nigerians to remain calm, vigilant, and cooperative with security agencies, declaring that the nation must stand united to defeat those threatening its peace.
