President Bola Ahmed Tinibu has warned the Nigerian Service chiefs that they cannot operate at cross-purpose under his supervision. The Nigerian leader charged the security chiefs to work together in a unity of purpose to confront the Nigerian security challenges of Terrorism, banditry, oil theft, sea piracy, and other sundry crimes among others. The National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno, while briefing newsmen yesterday said, Mr. President had his first meeting with the service chiefs and heads of Intelligence Agencies at the state house Abuja that lasted for about two hours.
During the meeting he said, Tinibu charged the service chiefs for continued consultation with each other for a general appraisal committee, so that they don’t work against each other, saying that the president has made it clear that he would not tolerate oil theft, while he will embark on reform of the security architecture.
According to Monguno, “The president has revealed that in moving this country forward, he needs the security agencies to redouble their efforts. And he also pointed out that his own philosophy is one of the contemporary security measures dealing with the requirements of the time.
“He has made it very clear that he will not accept a situation in which our fortunes keep declining. And his trajectory is that national security has to be coordinated, there has to be wherever, whatever it says whether it is a basket system, but there must be a clearing house.
“All agencies must work to achieve one single purpose. Working at cross purposes and colliding with each other is not something that he will condone.
He further explained that President Tinibu has made it very clear “that all the security agencies must comply with the demands of coordination, with the demands of frequent consultations and also timely reports which must be acted on.”
“Having been briefed by the participants of the meeting, Mr. President, addressed prevailing issues confronting the nation in terms of insecurity and also mentioned his own philosophy towards dealing with national security issues.
“He (Tinubu) appreciated the armed forces and intelligence agencies and the wider paramilitary agencies for the work they have been doing in the past couple of years. Their sacrifice, their loyalty and he also paid tribute to those who died defending this country, from the great, big menace of terrorism, insurgency, banditry, oil theft, sea robbery, piracy, etc.”
The NSA added that “He is going to embark on a lot of reforms in terms of our security architecture, he is going to take a closer look at our misfortunes in the maritime domain, focusing particularly on the issues of oil theft that is not going to tolerate. Wherever the problem is coming from, it must be crushed as soon as possible.”
President Tinibu has revealed his determination to build on the gains achieved so far, reverses the misfortune, and turns the tide in favor of the country.
He said the president was not happy that other nations are progressing while Nigerians are on their knee gnashing their teeth.
According to Monguno, “He (Tinubu) has already mandated the security agencies to come up with a blueprint as far as he knows, as far as it’s concerned, he doesn’t have the luxury of time, And whatever changes will be made have to be done as soon as possible.
“The president also has decided that whatever ventures the armed forces are going to be engaged in, they must carry along those operatives in the theatre. They must be well-fed, well-kitted, motivated, and given all that they require.
“President has said clearly that he will do whatever is within his powers to enable the operational elements but the intelligence agencies must also make their work easy for them by providing the type of intelligence that they require carrying out the assignment.”
The chief of Defense staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor while speaking about the meeting said the security chiefs have received new instructions from Mr. President on how national security should be driven and the message was loud and clear.
In his statement, Irabo said, “The meeting went very well. What we’ve done is to give the President, Commander-in-Chief, the situation of the security across the country and even beyond our borders of what the current situation.
“We also got a mandate from him as to how he wants the security disposition across to be. “So we have left Mr. President fired with that mandate and to realign our intervention to fit, not just the expectation of Nigerians, but with the mandate that Mr. President has given to us”, he added.
Present at the meeting were; the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabo, included the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao; and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.
Others include the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
