Prominent Nigerian cybersecurity expert, Charles Awuzie, has ignited a national conversation with a strongly worded open letter urging the Nigerian government and lawmakers to immediately liberalise and democratise the private security industry, using South Africa as a working model.
In a viral post that has been widely shared across social media platforms, Awuzie drew a sharp contrast between Nigeria’s struggling security situation and South Africa’s highly effective private security ecosystem.
“They are not soldiers… they are not officers of the police force… they are South African PRIVATE SECURITY officers,” Awuzie emphasised.
According to official figures from South Africa’s Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA), the country currently has more than 2.4 million registered private security officers – a staggering number that dwarfs the combined strength of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
These private officers, employed by over 10,000 licensed companies, are heavily armed, technology-driven, and operate 24/7 armed-response units backed by nationwide CCTV networks and real-time monitoring centres.
Awuzie argued that the sheer scale and competitive nature of South Africa’s private security industry has made large-scale kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism practically impossible in the country.“South Africa has more armed private security officers than any country in the world – hence kidnapping, banditry and terrorism can never survive one week in South Africa,” he wrote.
Turning to Nigeria, the expert proposed that a similar democratisation of the security sector would have multiple transformative effects:
*Instant creation of over 5 million direct and indirect jobs for Nigerian youth
*Drastic reduction in kidnapping and banditry as potential criminals are absorbed into legitimate private security employment
*Massive private-sector investment in cutting-edge security technologies (AI surveillance, drones, biometric systems, etc.) that government bureaucracy cannot deliver at scale
*Healthy competition among thousands of private firms that cannot afford reputational damage from failed client protection
*Return of skilled Nigerians in the diaspora who would invest billions of naira in home-grown security solutions
Awuzie stressed that the current government monopoly on security has failed, stating bluntly: “The police is not a business. The police can afford not to act on reports but no private company can afford to do so.”
In a direct appeal to the National Assembly, he called on lawmakers across party lines – Labour Party, APC, PDP, and others – to sponsor and pass legislation that would fully liberalise the private security industry without delay.
“Security is business. Insecurity is also business. The government shouldn’t have monopoly of security – security is everyone’s business,” he declared.
As of the time of this report, neither the Ministry of Interior nor the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force has issued an official response to Awuzie’s proposal. However, the post has already triggered intense debate among civil society groups, security analysts, and ordinary Nigerians who are increasingly frustrated with the country’s deteriorating security situation.Whether Nigeria’s political class will heed Charles Awuzie’s call to “democratise the security industry now” remains to be seen, but the conversation he has started appears unlikely to fade quietly.
