By the DefenceTimesNG Editorial Board • 9 March 2026
ABUJA — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to withdraw police officers from VIP protection duties is one of the most consequential security policy decisions in recent Nigerian history. By redeploying these officers to frontline community policing and routing VIP protection requests through the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the President has confronted a structural drain that has long left ordinary Nigerians under-protected. The decision, taken at a high-level security meeting on 23 November 2025 with the Army, Air Force, Police, and DSS chiefs, is bolstered by the recruitment of 30,000 additional police officers and a federal-state programme to upgrade training facilities nationwide.
What elevates this directive from policy to action is the Defence Intelligence Agency’s response. On 6 March 2026, the Defence Intelligence College graduated twenty-seven pioneer participants of the VIP Protection Course 01/26, a rigorous inter-agency programme drawing personnel from the Armed Forces, DIA, Nigerian Correctional Service, NAPTIP, DSS and NSCDC. The curriculum spanning risk assessment, intelligence gathering advance movement planning, protective formations and emergency extraction reflects a deliberate professionalisation of VIP protection that replaces ad hoc police deployments with trained, doctrine-driven specialists.
“The security landscape is becoming more complex and unpredictable — embrace innovation and adaptability.” — Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Undiandeye, Chief of Defence Intelligence
Chief of Defence Intelligence Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Akomaye Parker Undiandeye’s charge to graduates to embrace innovation and adaptability rightly frames protection as a living discipline. Commandant Commodore Usman Bugaje’s emphasis on integrity and professionalism is equally critical, an unethical protection officer is not merely ineffective but a liability.
DefenceTimesNG commends the DIA, the Defence Intelligence College, the pioneer VIP Protection Course graduates and President Tinubu for a directive that prioritises the many over the privileged few. Nigeria’s communities deserve police on their streets not in private compounds. This policy moves the nation meaningfully closer to that standard.
