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First-Class Graduates Should Be Forced To Join DSS – Deputy Director

BySodiq Lawal

PublishedFebruary 13, 2025

The deputy director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Patrick Ikenweiwe, has said that first-class graduates in Nigerian universities should be compelled to serve in the country’s secret service to strengthen national security.

He made this statement on Wednesday while speaking at the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture organised by the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.

Representing the Director-General of the DSS, Adeola Ajayi, Ikenweiwe delivered a lecture titled ‘The Roles of the DSS in Security, Peacekeeping and National Integration’.

He argued that individuals with poor academic performance should not be entrusted with sensitive security duties, insisting that only the best minds should oversee the nation’s intelligence framework.

“If I have my way, the best of the lot from every academic institution must be forced to serve in the secret service. That is how it is in the so-called developed nations,” he stated.

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Drawing comparisons with Israel, he cited a system where students who achieve high scores in university entrance examinations are compelled to proceed with higher education.

“Tell me, how would a dullard be able to keep security in a criminal gang that is constituted of first-class people? You need intellect to track criminality,” he remarked.

He urged Nigerian universities to provide the DSS with details of their top-performing students for recruitment into the security service, stressing that such a move would enhance the nation’s intelligence-gathering and peacekeeping efforts.

“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 added.

Sodiq Lawal

Sodiq Lawal is a passionate and dedicated journalist with a knack for uncovering captivating stories in the bustling metropolis of Osun State and Nigeria at large. He has a versatile reporting style, covering a wide range of topics, from politics , campus, and social issues to arts and culture, seeking impact in all facets of the society.