DSS Officers Reveal Why Staff Celebrated Tinubu’s Removal Of Their DG, List His Deeds

The removal and subsequent replacement of Yusuf Bichi as the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) by President Bola Tinubu had sparked celebration among DSS staff, generating mixed reactions from the public.

Some DSS officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described his departure as “freedom from unprofessionalism.”

These officers accused Bichi of various misconducts, including undue interference in the agency’s operations by his wife and son, Yusuf Bichi. They claimed, “We believed his regime was a punishment for us. He impeded the career advancement of many officers by extending the service years of those due to retire. Some senior officers, who were due for retirement in 2021 and 2022, were retained in the service.”

A video surfaced online shortly after Bichi’s resignation, allegedly showing DSS staff celebrating his exit. However, an X user, Sanusi Jibrin, clarified that the clip was actually recorded at the Kogi State DSS office, where personnel were celebrating the appointment of Ajayi, a former director at the state command.

Another DSS officer criticized Bichi’s approach to employee welfare, stating, “The Federal Government increased our salary by 40 per cent, but there was no implementation. We were earning more than the police before, but the police are now earning more than us because they implemented their 40 per cent increment. However, there was a proposal to increase our salary by 25 per cent this year, but it has yet to be realized.”

On recruitment practices, another officer accused Bichi of nepotism, saying, “Bichi’s recruitments were arbitrary and lopsided. Three different training sessions have been conducted for some people we didn’t know when they were recruited this year alone. Most of the newly recruited personnel are northerners. His first recruitment in 2019 brought in either 420 or 450 persons from Bichi Local Government Area in Kano alone.”

The officer also highlighted the involvement of Bichi’s wife and son in the service, claiming, “His wife is another issue; she abused her husband’s office. His son, too, was power drunk. Just two weeks ago, his wife slapped a DSS director in a northern state. She also slapped at least two deputy directors at airports.”

Online, criticism of Bichi was widespread. Jafaar Jafaar, publisher of ”Daily Nigerian”, commented on X, saying, “Bichi turned the DSS into a graveyard of career aspirations. He lowered the recruitment bar, removed the multi-layer screening process to recruit personnel who couldn’t even pass the Halogen Security aptitude test. Bichi arguably recruited the highest number of Cotonou ‘graduates’ into the service. He wilfully extended the tenure of some retired directors in his good book for years, killing the ambitions of the aspiring directors. He allowed his wife to lord over the service, influencing recruitment, promotion, and discipline.”

Jafaar further alleged that Bichi’s wife “oppressed people with a superfluity of everything at the expense of public funds,” while his son flaunted a fleet of luxury cars on social media and was often accompanied by DSS operatives at football arenas, nightclubs, and political rallies.

In 2023, Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf also claimed that Bichi’s wife had threatened to prevent him from becoming the state Governor, adding that she “abused and insulted him” before stopping him from boarding a commercial plane.

Debo Adeniran, Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, noted that the alleged celebration of Bichi’s resignation by some staff did not necessarily reflect his competence as a leader. “I’m not saying the former DG is good because we could see a lot of loopholes in intelligence gathering and security issues. That staff and colleagues are celebrating his exit, it’s neither here nor there. It could be that he is very, very strict or it could be that he has not been taking care of their welfare and whatever. It could also be that he didn’t allow them to do their work the way they wanted to do it. And maybe his exit will allow them to prove their mettle, that they could work better than they were doing under him,” Adeniran explained.