New Telegraph

Insecurity: Patriotic counsel for Mr. President

 

 

The nation was taken aback recently when President Muhammadu Buhari openly reprimanded his Service Chiefs that he would no longer condone excuses for the unending insecurity in the country.

 

As it will be recalled, precisely on Thursday, June 19, President Buhari, in obvious symbolic move to restore public confidence in his administration’s capability to handle the security challenges confronting the country, pointedly charged all leaders of the Armed Forces, other security agencies and the Inspector-General of Police, to henceforth put up their very best to secure Nigeria for all Nigerians.

 

Reiterating, National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, remarked after the event that the president was reminding the security chiefs that their appointments were purely his own decision and they were not based on external recommendations, adding that it was up to them to justify their appointments and confidence reposed in them by President Buhari. Gen. Monguno further spoke on a number of other issues concerning President Buhari’s charge to the security chiefs in tones, which, to the discerning mind, demonstrate that the Buhari security architecture needs some overhauling as the NSA also confirmed in a news that was widely reported in the media last week Tuesday.

 

This assertion is pillared on the fact that the National Security Adviser is a senior official in the cabinet of the President on national security issues. Also, as NSA, he participates in the meetings of the National Security Council and other deliberations on security and intelligence matters.

 

Most importantly, the NSA manages national security on behalf of the President through the National Security Council, the Joint Intelligence Board and the Intelligence Community Committee. In a similar vein, National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) has been coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) since 2014.

 

Of course, this is where one’s patriotic counsel to Mr. President on his next choice of National Security Adviser becomes compellingly evident. It is quite bewildering that interagency rivalry, widely identified to be the bane of achievable success by the key government security agencies in fighting insurgency and terrorism generally, persists in the country.

 

This is in spite of adequate funding of the military and other security agencies in their counter-insurgency and banditry expeditions, by the administration of President Buhari since he assumed democratic leader  ship of Nigeria. It is even more bewildering that traditional military-centric approach to counter terrorism and insurgency in the country has continued to be the most esteemed option of the security agencies till date in their offensives against terrorists and insurgents.

 

But, quite most bewildering is the fact that all of these have continued to persist under the watch of the NSA as the chief adviser to the President in an age where counterintelligence, stealth surveillance, infiltration, intelligence sharing and systemic propaganda are of prominent importance in curbing today’s globalized and sophisticated threats to world peace generally.

 

One reason that has been roundly adduced for the rigid, ineffective and adequate result-unyielding approach of the security agencies in fighting insurgency and banditry, particularly in the current political dispensation in Nigeria, is their regimented mentality of ‘fire for fire’, which of course, is implicit in their profession  al training.

 

This particular situation is further catalyzed by the tradition of appointing people with military or quasi-military experience and background to the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) since 1990.

 

It is thus stating the obvious that in appointing the next NSA, there is need for a shift from the seeming norm of engaging people with military or quasi-military background to competent, non-military professionals with requisite experience in employing multilateral and bilateral methods in solving non-state interference in the internal activities of Nigeria; management of strategic communications in civil-military relationship for effective peace building and democratic governance in Nigeria.

 

As a matter of historical fact too, the ONSA has not always been exclusive preserve of Nigerians with military or quasi-military background in Nigeria. In April 1980, late President Shehu Shagari appointed Dr. Bukar Shuaib as National Adviser on National Security and he was later succeeded in 1983 by Prof. Shehu Ahmad Said Galadanchi, who is currently General Administrator of the Abuja National Mosque.

 

They were professionals with non-military background.

 

The submission here in a nutshell is that, apart from being a civilian professional without regimented mentality who can view all the pressing security issues in Nigeria holistically; he should have the capacity to cause same (holistic approach) to be applied to counter terrorism and insurgency operations in all the flashpoints in Nigeria.

Straight off the hook and in addition to the foregoing, below are the qualities Mr. President may look for in appointing NSA for the current security challenges being faced by our country:

 

He should be a civilian professional without regimented mentality who can view all the pressing security issues in Nigeria holistically.

 

He, as the chief adviser to the President, must possess deft knowledge in counter-intelligence, stealth surveillance, infiltration, intelligence sharing and systemic propaganda

 

He should not be more than 55 years in age and should have the capacity to cause same (holistic approach) to be applied to counter terrorism and insurgency operations in all the flash-points in Nigeria.

 

Similarly, he should be a man lettered in law and jurisprudence with at least, second degree (LLM) in law.

 

He should equally have the knowledge of enforcement of law and criminal justice.

 

He should have wide knowledge of international business, public policy, public economy and cross-cultural economic management.

 

He must be knowledgeable in statecraft and counter-intelligence.

 

He must be abreast of all issues in internal security of Nigeria

 

He must possess requisite knowledge in counter-insurgence and counter-terrorism and be able to understand management of strategic communication.

 

He must have deft knowledge in bilateral and multilateral dynamics of international politics.

 

Lastly, he should be an international security expert with wide knowledge of contemporary threat to peace at national, continental and international or global levels.

 

All these salient facts are the reasons for one’s patriotic counsel for Mr. President on his choice, especially as providing adequate security for Nigerians is a cardinal focus of his election campaign, and has also remained a covenant his administration has with citizens of the country since 2015.

 

 

Dr. Ibrahim, an international diplomacy expert and crisis management, writes from Abuja

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