The Federal Government has renewed it’s performance contract bonds with the four paramilitary agencies and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) under the Federal Ministry of Interior.

The contract bonds are aimed at improving service delivery, efficiency and the realization of set targets across the agencies towards boosting internal security.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, noted that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), for last year’s contracts shows that all the agencies have made significant progress in fulfilling their 2025 contracts on set targets.

He stated this at the signing of the fresh performance contract during the weekend in Abuja.

Tunji-Ojo however noted that a lot more needs to be done for each agency to fulfill it’s constitutional mandate to the core especially as the ministry is central to Nigeria’s internal security.

“So, for our agencies, last year has been very good. We’ve recorded tremendous success but, as I always say, we run the risk of becoming victims of our own successes that’s why we cannot afford to drop the ball.

“This is a ministry that deals with Nigerians. Every day, we deal with Nigerians. So, we cannot afford to live in the euphoria of yesterday,” he said.

In his charge to the Nigeria Immigration Service, (NIS), Tunji-Ojo noted the need for intensified effort to secure national borders and boost internal security.

He said that “For this 2026, the Nigerian Immigration Service must pay more attention to border control. We must equip our officers, give them the required instruments, the weapons that they need, the condition of service to be able to protect every inch of our border space.

“Border governance must be at the forefront of whatever we want to do. We must get every irregular immigrant in Nigeria out of this country, we must clean the space, we must ensure that Nigerians are protected.”He pointed to key progress in the NIS including the setting up of the e-gates (electronic gate), insisting that “Our migration processes are better managed, border space is being better governed.”

The minister tasked the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), to do more in terms of inmate rehabilitation and reformation to ease reintegration into the wider society at the completion of their prison terms.

While pointing to improved service delivery, he said “We must make sure that when people go to correctional centers they are transformed, they are rehabilitated, they are corrected, and above all, they become better in Nigeria.

“As per the living condition of these inmates, you must look into that and make sure that every effort of government towards rehabilitation must be fulfilled.

“This new year, the rate of recidivism must be zero for every person that goes into the correctional center and comes back worse is an indictment of you. It’s an indictment of your capacity.

Noting marked improvement in fire response time of the Federal Fire Service (FFS), he said “The response time is better. It’s faster” but “emergency and rescue services must be brought to the front burner.

“This is not a time for negligence. You must go back to the drawing board and give Nigerians that hope that even if something goes amiss, with one phone call help will be on the way.”

Speaking on the newly assigned task of VIP (Very Important Person), protection given to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the minister called for transparency and accountability in providing protection to all civilians without discrimination.

“When we talk about our critical assets, You must be able to, with one click of the button, have an overview of all critical assets, locations, vulnerabilities, and be able to analyze every critical asset that we have in this country and be able to provide strategy towards protecting these critical assets so that economic terrorism can be brought down in Nigeria.

“For the President to have the confidence to say, take charge of VIP protection is a sign of confidence in the NSCDC,” he adds.

The National Identity Management Commission has also been urged to ensure the integrity and security of all it’s data as all times.

“It is not the number of people in your database that matters, but the integrity of the data that you have in your database. And I think NIMC has done a fantastic job in cleaning our database.” (Guardian)

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