By Enyichukwu Enemanna
At his first meeting with Service Chiefs, President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu has cautioned against any attempt to work at cross purposes, but urged they should work in synergy.
The West African country has been confronted with security concerns especially with activities of terror group, ISWAP and Boko Haram since 2008, in addition to banditry in the northern region of the country.
At the meeting on Thursday, President Tinubu also mandated the security agencies to develop a blueprint to deal with the issue of crude oil theft.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, said the President demanded frequent consultations among the agencies.
Monguno said: “The President has revealed that in moving this country forward, he needs the security agencies to redouble their efforts. And he’s also pointed out that his own philosophy is one of 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 own 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 has made it very, 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.”
The NSA said the president told the security chiefs during the two hours meeting of his determination to build on gains made so far, reverse misfortunes and turn the tide in favour of the country.
He added that Tinubu said the country should not be on its knees struggling while other countries were walking and achieving greater heights.
He said: “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.
“First and foremost, he 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 in defending this country, from the great big menace of terrorism, insurgency, banditry, oil theft, sea robbery, piracy, etc, etc.
“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.
“He is already mandated by the security agencies to come up with a blueprint as far as he knows as far as it’s concerned, it 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 you 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 to carry out the assignment.”
Those in attendance at the President’s first engagement with heads of the nation’s security and intelligence agencies include the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; 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.
