Did you see the viral video of personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) rejoicing when Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi was appointed in August this year as the Director General of the nation’s elite security agency? His appointment and the burst of rhapsody that trailed it appeared like a herald of a new era in the agency.

On Wednesday, 28 August when he assumed office, taking over the staff of leadership from Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi, the euphoria hit a higher decibel. The celebratory sights and sounds from the DSS camp, especially from its head office in Abuja, were too expressive to be ignored.  It can only tell one or two stories about Ajayi and his persona.

First, it could mean that his appointment was not an imposition of a tyrant of the Pharaonic order; a leader who bears down on his followers with whips and stings without as much as minding about their welfare. The second reason could be that Ajayi is popular among his people on account of his pedigree of good deeds, progressive thinking and positive human relations. He must be, truly, a relatable leader. Some of the DSS personnel made reference to his welfarist nature. They spoke about his professionalism and amiable disposition that make him both accessible and empathetic.

One of the good qualities of a great leader is relatability. A good leader must be relatable, pliable, flexible and such a person must also be a good listener. The jubilant DSS personnel, male and female, did not hide their joy. At last, our own has come to us, they seem to say.  Such outpouring of good wishes on a new appointee of a critical agency in Nigeria is not new, but it’s rare.

The flip side of the coin is that the jubilation that succeeded Ajayi’s appointment is an indictment of the leadership Bichi who was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on 14 September 2018, to replace Matthew Seiyefa. Whatever his shortcomings may be, it was obvious that many DSS personnel were happy to see the back of Bichi. But this piece is not about Bichi and his weaknesses. It’s about the DSS and the need to break from its dour past and atavistic behavioural pattern.

The DSS is regarded as an elite security agency. In its early days, it acted as one, showing strong elements of civility. It later morphed into a brutish band of goons, menacing to the public and forceful in its operations. It operated with hubris. In some cases, above the law. It disobeyed court orders. Invaded court premises with guns and in gestapo-style assaulted citizens who dared to ask questions. Was it a case of show of force? It didn’t have to do that. The DSS is not like the military which has the responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of the nation. In uniform or not, the military is expected to deploy maximum force to discharge its duty. But not so for the DSS. They don’t have to don uniform to be effective. They need not bear guns to be respected. They just need to be smart-thinking, intelligent, accessible to the publics (both the high and the low for effective intelligence gathering), intuitive, proactive with a trained ability to remain silence, stealth and not showy in the course of duty. The DSS should have the capacity to relate with market women, all manner of traders, artisans, the unschooled, the learned, corporate moguls, business magnates and just any being around them. The best and most effective intelligence could come from a roadside beggar, even a wimp on the downside of life.

But the DSS in recent years has been operating openly as trigger-happy goons, as masked men out to intimidate and strike terror into the people. They announce their arrival anywhere with swashbuckling braggadocio; mean, menacing and full of acrid bluster.

We cannot forget the vile show of shame displayed on August 7, 2015 when heavily armed, masked and hooded DSS operatives barricaded and desecrated the nation’s symbol of democracy, the National Assembly. They locked down the National Assembly. Nobody got in, nobody went out. Whatever may have provoked such primitive invasion and crass display of Hitlerism by the DSS simply beggars belief. It took the intervention of the then Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, himself a no-nonsense leader, to restore order. Typical of him, Osinbajo directed the termination of the appointment of the then Director General, Lawal Daura, with immediate effect. That brave act of leadership salvaged the nation’s democracy from a misguided affront from the DSS. Nigeria does not deserve such affront on its fragile democracy. And coming from the DSS, not the military, makes the matter both embarrassing and pathetic. Away with such banal behaviour from an elite agency that ought to wear civility like a cassock.

The DSS has attracted odium in the past through other barbaric acts to the shame of some senior and junior staffers of the agency. Perhaps, this could be one of the reasons many operatives were enraptured in joy when Ajayi was appointed. Ajayi has been projected as a ‘great guy’, a ‘good man’ by many within the DSS fold. He must not disappoint. He should fetch from this spring of goodwill around him to reform the agency in terms of values, welfare, capacity building, civil orientation and infusion of technology into the operations of the agency. In these days of cyber-everything, ethical and non-ethical hacking, Artificial Intelligence, among other geeks, Ajayi must ensure that the DSS that he leads is ahead of the crooks threatening the internal security and peace of the nation.

So far, Ajayi has shown that he is leading a DSS that is capable of operating within the ambit of the law. The civil manner they handled the case of Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, and social justice crusader Omoyele Sowore recently when both were arrested at different times at the airport for different reasons is proof of ongoing reform within the agency. Ajayi is on the right trajectory; he should stay the course.

First published in Sunday Sun