Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said promotion in the paramilitary service under the ministry would henceforth require academic qualifications, other than just passing promotional examinations.
Tunji-Ojo made the statement while speaking at the book presentation of ten books authored by the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr Ahmed Audi co-authored with Prof Tyoor Terhemba in Abuja on Friday.
The minister called on officers to brace up and get academic qualifications for career progression.
He commended the academic prowess of the NSCDC Commandant-General, and declared that personnel must upgrade their knowledge to qualify for promotions henceforth.
On the need to invest in the education of personnel, the minister said: “The best of people you find in the FBI, the best of the people you find in the MI6, all over the world in CIA, they are alumni of some of the best Institutions in the world.
“Knowledge is directly proportional to performance. You can not give what you don’t have. The battle ahead of us is more ideological than physical and you can only defeat an ideology with your ideology and your ideology is nothing but superior knowledge and knowledge comes from the place of learning.
“I will personally ensure all our agencies have a functional library for research. The era of promotion just by writing exams will soon be over. Your promotion has to be a product of a cocktail of evaluation parameters based on experience, practicability of excellence, base on theory and ability to profer solutions.
“If you want to be a DCG for example, you must let us know that you have the idea of the challenges of the moment and you are able to forecast problems that are not yet there and profer solutions. The ability to solve a problem before it comes is what leadership is all about.
“Security is like science and that is why we talk about trends, we talk about occurrences. The ability to forecast prospective incidences would determine the level of security.”
Meanwhile, the minister announced the establishment of a team tagged: Paramilitary Brain Trust (PBT), which he said would be made up of public officers and professionals with the task of providing technical advice to the government through research and other academic endeavours.
On the CG, he said, Audi had shown capacity in leading the corps to tackle criminal elements in the country.
