The security doctrine on how to effectively maintain and secure the country formed the high-point of discussion on Monday when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met the new National Security Adviser (NSA) Mr. Nuhu Ribadu and the new service chiefs for the first time, since their appointment on June 19, 2023.

The President had on June 19 removed all the service chiefs he met in office exactly three weeks after his inauguration and appointed new ones whom he directed to resume work immediately.

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser

The President promised the security chiefs his 100 percent support for them to discharge their duties and secure every part of the country. He also emphasised the need for them to work in synergy and not in silos in order to achieve the goal of securing the nation.

Between May 2015 and May 2023,some data in public domain showed that over 55,000 Nigerians were killed by terrorists, bandits, and armed gangs during the administration of immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari. The former Commander – in – Chief was criticised by many over the alarming killings in the country under his watch.

The President at the Monday meeting, however, urged the newly appointed service chiefs to work as a team, insisting that there is work to be done. The meeting held behind closed doors as expected marked the beginning of a presidential assessment of the performance of the NSA and the service chiefs and the marking of their scoreboard. It lasted for about two hours.

President Tinubu had in his Inauguration speech at the Eagle square on 29 May, this year promised that: “We shall defend the nation from terror and all forms of criminality that threaten the peace and stability of our country and our subregion.

“Security shall be the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity nor justice can prevail amidst insecurity and violence. To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security doctrine and its architecture.

“We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide, better training, equipment, pay and firepower”, said.

The NSA, Nuhu Ribadu after Monday’s inaugural meeting with the Commander-in-Chief told State House Correspondents that the President assured the service chiefs of his unwavering support during the meeting and the service chiefs, on their part, pledged their loyalty to the President and Nigerians, also underlined their commitment to work tirelessly to secure the country.

His words: “We are here to thank Mr President for the opportunity he gave us to serve our country and to serve his own government. We also pledged our loyalty to him, to Nigeria and Nigerians. “We believe that the choice he made is the right one, the correct one, and we know what he wants for this country. We are going to work tirelessly to ensure that we accomplish that objective of securing our country, establishing peace, stability and let’s get our lives back”, he said.

Explaining that although the task ahead is a big one, it would be done, the NSA, who is a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said :”Where we are today, and you can see already, things are improving in our country. If you see, the record of crimes and activities of criminals are going down, it will continue to go down. We’ll secure this place,” he said.

According to him: “Nigerians have seen the quality of the people that are given the opportunity, they are probably some of the best we have and they are not going to fail you, they’ll certainly deliver.”

The Chief of Defence Staff, Maj. Gen. C.G Musa; the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen T. A Lagbaja; the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla; the Chief of Air Staff, AVM H.B Abubakar, and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun were all at the meeting.

Yerima Advocates Dialogue with Bandits

Also on Monday, the President received in audience the former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Sani Yerima, who advocated for dialogue with bandits as a way of controlling their menace. The bandits are categorised as a terror group by security analysts.

Senator Sani Yerima

Senator Yerima disclosed this while addressing journalists after meeting with President Tinubu in Abuja. According to him, the current government should conduct a similar dialogue as the one that led to the amnesty programme for militants in Niger Delta after dialogue with the Umar Yar’Adua administration.

He likened his proposal to what Late President Musa Yar’dua did with Niger Delta militants by negotiating with them and creating the Amnesty Programme which restored peace and security to the Niger Delta region.

“These people are Nigerians and I believe that the Nigerian military and other security agencies have the capacity to deal with them squarely if directed and are given the resources they require, support and the political will. But the collateral damage that will be associated with the actions they will take is what I believe should be avoided. In the past, the late President Umaru Yar’adua had similar interaction with militants of the Niger-Delta and it was successful,” he said.

President Tinubu in 2022 had during his campaign tour of the North -west promised to eliminate the bandits terrorising the north if elected president. Tinubu assured Nigerians that they would not regret if they gave him the mandate as president.

Tinubu made the assertions in Kaduna while addressing thousands of party faithful and Kaduna residents, at the flag-off of the North-west presidential campaign rally, held at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium. He also promised to prioritise job creation, gainful employment of Nigerian youth, and improvement of agricultural production by establishing a marketing board that would give both farmers and consumers standard prices of agricultural produce.

He stated, “We thank God Almighty that brought you people here, we thank you for remaining loyal and faithful to our party, you will never regret it. In Shaa Allah, all those trouble makers, all those kidnappers, killers who are troubling the security of Kaduna and northern Nigeria, I assure you, we will eliminate them”.

Some persons have however, urged the President not to engage into any dialogue with the bandits because it may be counter-productive. According to Senator Shehu Sanni, the bandits are not a coordinated group like the Boko Haram or Iswap and have no known ideology that they are pursuing. Again, the bandits have no known leader and no command-control.

Some other analysts made reference to dialogues between the bandits and two governors in the North, Masari of Katsina and Matawalle of Zamfara which held with fanfare but was never able to restore peace in their states as the bandits continued to attack their citizens.