The Director-General of the Department of State Services, Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi, has called for a policy mandating the recruitment of first-class graduates into the intelligence agency to strengthen national security.

Ajayi made this call while delivering the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Kwara State.

In his lecture, titled “The Roles of the DSS in Security, Peacekeeping, and National Integration,” Ajayi emphasised the need for a paradigm shift in recruitment and staffing within security agencies to ensure only the best minds are enlisted.

Represented by the DSS Deputy Director, Mr. Patrick Ikenweiwe, the DG argued that recruiting top academic performers into the DSS should be a compulsory national policy, similar to Israel’s selective university admission system.

The DSS DG stressed the need for a shift in public perception, noting that many Nigerians view security agencies as adversaries rather than allies.

He warned that such attitudes negatively impact intelligence gathering, peacebuilding, and national integration.

“Like I know, in Israel, there is one examination that students take to get admitted into the university. The moment you score above 70 marks, you have no option but to be sent to the university there.”

He contended that intelligence work requires exceptional intellect to tackle sophisticated criminal networks.

“Tell me how would a ‘Dundee’ (dullard) be able to keep security in a criminal gang that is constituted of First Class people? You know, it takes intellect to track criminality.”

“So, if I have my way in this country, and we keep praying that we do the right thing, the academia should be able to supply us, sincerely, the details of students who have excelled in their various fields of study so that they would be forced to serve this great nation,” he said.

The lecture further highlighted the critical role of intelligence agencies in safeguarding national security, emphasising that public perception of security organisations as adversaries rather than allies hampers intelligence gathering and peacebuilding.
Addressing Nigeria’s security landscape, Ikenweiwe noted that traditional threats such as sabotage, subversion, and espionage have evolved into more complex challenges, including terrorism, insurgency, separatist agitations, militancy, cybercrime, and economic sabotage.

https://punchng.com/dg-seeks-compulsory-recruitment-of-first-class-graduates-into-dss/