Nigerian Navy moves to end inter agency rivalries
From Ani Bassey
In a bid to end inter agency rivalries by Nigeria’s military and paramilitary agencies, the Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy has engaged about twelve military and paramilitary agencies on inter agency cooperation to enhance the country’s security.
The engagement which took place at the Nigerian Navy Primary School, Ikot Ansa in Calabar had as theme: Strengthening inter agency cooperation amongst security agencies at the tactical level: a panacea for operational effectiveness.
Flag Officer Commanding the Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral AS Akinwande who flagged off the seminar said the complex nature of Nigeria’s security challenges requires mutual trust to meet the challenges.
He said they have always had interagency engagement at the higher level but a lot can be achieved by coming down to the lower level to talk directly with the lower cadre.
“I will like to stress that the complex nature of security challenges demands the security agencies emplace a very robust, collaborative arrangements that will foster common understanding of security challenges, mutual trust as well as intelligence sharing to meet these security challenges.
“We have always had inter agency engagement at the higher level, that approach has attained some level of success in terms of cooperation.
” We believe that a lot can be achieved by coming down to talk to the men where in we have observed that we have issues at the lower level which is what prompted this seminar.
“We want to talk directly to the lower cadre, our men out there in the field.
“We expect that at the end of the seminar, the outcome will foster that much needed inter agency collaboration, cooperation, mutual trust and common understanding among them as far as meeting the contemporary and complex national security challenges that confront us”, he said.
Speaking on the theme, Dr. Ubong Essien, a resource person emphasized that security agents are a reflection of their agencies and that the agency must moderate, sanction and also look inward at what the agent does at the tactical level.
Also speaking on the sub topic on “importance of building trust and communication among security agencies”, he said lack of trust among security agencies makes it difficult to cooperate and the organisational culture of an agency can change a lot.
Also speaking, Dr. Atehle George, whose lecture was titled “Conflict resolution and mediation techniques: A solution for effective interagency collaboration” said security agencies should avoid cross cutting mandates, focus on their mandates and not position.
He added that no agency is superior to the other and that collaboration and partnership is for the overall development of the society.
Chief Staff Officer, Headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command Rear Admiral EA Zipele in his closing remarks said every agency is unique in its own way and there is no place for superiority of agencies.
He thanked the Flag Officer for organizing the seminar and tasked participants to go back with the idea that everyone is important.
