DSS Director-General Advocates for Mandatory Recruitment of First-Class Graduates to Enhance National Security

Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi, Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), has called for a policy that would make the recruitment of first-class graduates into the DSS compulsory.

Speaking at the University of Ilorin’s Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, he emphasized that integrating top academic talents into the intelligence service would strengthen national security and improve intelligence operations.

This initiative, he argued, would ensure that Nigeria’s security framework benefits from the expertise and analytical capabilities of the nation’s brightest minds..

Delivering the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture titled “The Roles of the DSS in Security, Peacekeeping, and National Integration,” Mr. Ajayi, represented by Deputy Director Mr. Patrick Ikenweiwe, emphasized the necessity of a paradigm shift in the recruitment processes of security agencies.

He argued that integrating high-achieving graduates into the DSS should become a compulsory national policy, drawing parallels to Israel’s selective university admission system.

Mr. Ajayi highlighted the critical role of intellect in intelligence work, stating, “Tell me, how would a ‘Dundee’ (dullard) be able to keep security in a criminal gang that is constituted of first-class people? It takes intellect to track criminality.” He advocated for academia to provide detailed records of exceptional students to facilitate their recruitment into national service.

The lecture also addressed the evolving nature of security threats in Nigeria. Traditional challenges such as sabotage, subversion, and espionage have transformed into more complex issues, including terrorism, insurgency, separatist agitations, militancy, cybercrime, and economic sabotage.

Mr. Ikenweiwe reaffirmed the DSS’s commitment to addressing these threats through strategic collaborations with sister agencies and continuous stakeholder engagement.

He provided an overview of the DSS’s mandate, referencing the NSA Act CAP N74 LFN, 2024, and SSS Instrument No. 1 of 1999, which empower the service to prevent and detect crimes against Nigeria’s internal security, protect non-military classified national security matters, and advise the government on all matters of national security interest.

This proposal underscores the DSS’s dedication to enhancing its operational effectiveness by leveraging the intellectual prowess of the nation’s brightest graduates, thereby strengthening Nigeria’s overall security framework.