Guild Of Editors’ meet: questions DG, DSS missed, by Steve Osuji

A SMALL MATTER OF ATTITUDE: It’s something to do with attitude. Indeed, their attitude is very poor. They are still consumed by a sense of overawing military mentality: we the super-humans and they, the bloody civilians.

In 2023, at the Guild of Editors gathering in Owerri, Imo State, the special guest was Mr Nuhu Ribadu, the sitting National Security Adviser (NSA).

Violent insecurity roiled Nigeria then just as today. Ribadu’s address to the cream of the crop of Nigeria’s journalists fell far short of expectations.

Nigeria was a spectre of bloodshed and senseless deaths as bandits threatened to over-run some states. But the NSA was cool about it all. He made us believe that he was in control and that the security estab was doing far more than we knew and far more than could be revealed … of course, for security reasons.

I remember my good friend, Dr Sule Yau Sule, journalist and Mass Communication scholar at BUK, was almost yelling in exasperation that the bad guys were having a field day all around and even they, who were ‘bloody civilians’ could see and track them.

But Sule was politely and calmly shut down by Ribadu. Do you suggest we don’t know all these things you know and even much more?! We are on top of it!
That was the ultimate putdown for all the agitated editors seated and brimming with a barrage of questions for the NSA. What can you tell a guy who knows everything?

Nigh the same scenario repeated itself in Enugu, last weekend. It was the turn of the Director-General of the DSS, Mr. Adesola Oluwatosin Ajayi. He was the keynote speaker as the Guild gathered for their biennial convention.

From 2023 when Ribadu assured us and today, 2025, insecurity has remained Nigeria’s biggest issue. And the Guild can’t help but continue to interrogate this evil phenom that won’t yield to reason.

Insecurity in the land continues to get worse just like the attitude of the people charged to manage it.

This time, Mr Ajayi, acted more dramatic and supercilious on the back of recent serial bloodletting and massacres especially in Benue.

First he cleared the hall of all cameras and reporters and all security ‘threats’: No cameras, no photos, no videos no recordings, it was decreed and executed promptly by operatives who had garrisoned the hall immediately the SUPER GUEST came into the hall!

Why did the DG of DSS think he had the right to muzzle a public function organised by editors?
His photographs are all over the place and his address could easily be recorded by anyone seated there.

You would think the DG was going to drop a security bombshell. But we got a shuddering anticlimax. He said nothing new or of any significance whatsoever. Indeed he said nothing by the reckoning of this column.

He even got more haughty during the question and answer time. After answering the first set of questions, many more editors were poised to pose another batch of questions only for the DG to close the session and step down from the podium as to say: I am done with you guys! Many of us were put off the more.

Mr Ajayi therefore may have wasted his time and the time of the editors as hardly anything was gained both by him and us.

He even told us about a DSS logo change (see photo)! Who logo epp in a time of mass slaughteration? Let him show the logo to Benue people!

Well, if he has access to this column, here are some of the questions he missed. This column hereby advises the DG DSS, to climb down from his horse. He may want to answer these questions as honestly as he can muster – to himself.

He’s bound to gain ample insights by doing so. They might just present the joker he needs for his job and for confronting the intractable insecurity that has plagued Nigeria for over a decade and half.

QUESTIONS FOR DG, DSS: First, in your meetings at the highest security gathering (NSC?), is there any contemplation of closure for this protracted terror and criminality raging in Nigeria for so long?

Do you people discuss timelines for closure and strategies for ending the malady?

Abi na like this Nigeria go dey till Christ comes?!

This is one of the questions on the lips of Nigerians. It’s one of the questions we would have asked if you had allowed yourself to be moderated.

QUESTION TWO: What really is the duty of the secret police that you head?
Why has intelligence failed Nigeria in the battle against terror and insecurity?

DSS operatives are supposedly present in every LGA and even wards. Yet bandits and terrorists operate with so much impunity and bravura, sometimes giving advance notice as reported in the YELEMATA killings in Benue?

Many LGAs are till this moment, under the control of bandits who collect levies and taxes from farmers and locals.

Again, what really does the DSS do?

Why are bandits and terror gangs out-thinking Nigeria’s MSI (military-security-intel) establishments by miles?

Earlier this year, a military command was sacked in Borno. Why can’t we seem to preempt and decimate this untutored gang with superior intel?! Is it that the scissor is blunt or the barber is dumb, as we say in Igboland?

DG Ajayi showed the editors a video clip of how his men trailed one of us all over Abuja. I guess that was supposed to impress us. We are not impressed in the least sir!

A certain Bello Turji, (my auto-correct keeps insisting on Tunji Bello!) a known terror kingpin, has been roaming the land and inflicting pain and sorrow. How come the DSS can’t track him? Some of us thought we were going to see a clip of how high profile bandits are trailed and neutered.

But our able DG showed us how he trails us. That’s a low!

THIRD QUESTION: How come bandits and terrorists have become headquartered and domiciled in Nigeria? All through the west coast of Africa – from Mauritania through Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and even Togo and Benin, not one of these countries is being terrorised like Nigeria. Why is Nigeria’s case different?
Able DG, Nigerians have concluded that corruption is fueling Nigeria’s terror.

Nigerians think devilish corruption by the top brass of the MSI, is responsible for the endless insecurity in Nigeria.
We would have loved to hear your thoughts on all this.

FINAL WORD: This column thinks you need to moderate your public appearance. We understand the need to make light of even a morbid situation, but your making jokes at every turn is in bad taste for us. There’s no joy in Nigeria currently.

Insecurity. Hunger. All round poor leadership make Nigerians very sad today. That’s the mood of the nation. Standing before us and trying to make some dry jokes rubs off badly.

The other day you asked communities to defend themselves. Haba Oga DG, how?
You have the massive intelligence infrastructure, you have thousands of operatives, you have hundreds of billions of naira budget, yet you ask us to defend ourselves.

If we shall have to do the work ourselves then we shall have to disband the DSS first. That stands to reason!

Again and again, What’s the strategy for closure of this insecurity and terror madness? That’s what Nigerians want to hear from you guys in the NSC. Nothing short!

Osuji was formerly editor at The Guardian, Thisday and NewAge.
He can be reached via [email protected]