President Muhammadu Buhari and other members of the National Security Council on Thursday met 24 hours after Senators and members of the House of Representatives called for the sack of service chiefs.
The National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd.), who briefed journalists on behalf of the council after the meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the NSC did not discuss the call by the lawmakers.
Both chambers of the National Assembly had on Wednesday lamented the rising insecurity in the country and called on the President to sack the service chiefs on the grounds that the security heads, who were appointed in 2015, had outlived their usefulness.
Besides calls for the sack of the service chiefs, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, on Wednesday had demanded the President’s resignation.
Abaribe had condemned Buhari who, on Tuesday, said he was surprised by heightened banditry in the North-West and other forms of insecurity in other parts of the country.
The service chiefs – the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar – attended the quarterly security meeting, but hurriedly left the venue after the meeting ended, leaving Monguno to speak with reporters on the outcome.
When asked whether the call by the lawmakers was tabled at the meeting, Monguno replied, “The issue of the National Assembly resolution did not come up at the meeting.”
He, however, said the council was aware of the enormous security challenges facing the country. He said security agencies needed the collaboration of Nigerians to address complex insurgency the country was facing.
Monguno said the meeting called for “wider collaborations” among security agencies on the one hand and the larger Nigerian society to tackle insurgency, banditry and rising cases of kidnapping in the country, on the other hand.
But the NSA failed to speak on the specifics of the collaboration and how it would be carried out. He merely said the collaboration would involve states, local governments and communities.
The NSA stated, “There were discussions and at the end of the day, the most important thing that we came up with is the need for collaboration both between governmental agencies and the larger Nigerian society, because of the type of insurgency we are faced with, the complexities, the multiplicity of all kinds of issues.
“There is a need for both parties, governmental agencies on one hand and the larger society, to collaborate more vigorously. There is a need for us to deal with these problems in a comprehensive manner.”
The meeting was held amid strident calls across Nigeria on the Buhari regime to restructure the security architecture of the country.
Only on Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution asking Buhari to sack the service chiefs in order to inject fresh hands into the security management system. They also called for emergency to be declared in insecurity.
Monguno further said the Buhari regime was aware that Nigeria faced enormous security challenges, a reason it was seeking collaboration across Nigeria.
He said, “The challenges, all of us are aware of them; that is why in a nutshell, I said, there is a need for this government and the larger society to work together to find a solution to this problem.
“No one is oblivious of the enormity of the problem at hand. Government is aware and that is why we held this meeting at the highest level.”
The security council’s call for collaboration with Nigerians came on the heels of the South-West states’ move to set up a security outfit, Operation Amotekun, to address killings and other crimes in the zone.
The Federal Government, initially opposed the security outfit, but decided to approve it after a meeting on Thursday attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, South-West governors and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN,
Apart from the service chiefs, others at the security council meeting were the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Rafa’i-Abubakar; and the Director-General, Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi.
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