By:
DR JOHN LUKA NJILING.
In the trail of the bloody Dimka coupe which claimed the life of Gen. Murtala Mohammed, the Country and more specifically the Supreme Military Council woke up to the embarrassing reality that there was no organized, centralized body to aggregate and process intelligence, for the proper policing and securing the government of the day and by extension the Country.
The Police Special Branch ( PSB) could not properly investigate and police the military because of Mandate constraint, while the Research Department ( RD) of the ministry of foreign affairs was more concerned with foreign intelligence and counter intelligence. The void had to be filled up with a body that could do all the job, forestalling future misadventures by young idealistic military officers. Thus, the National Security Organisation (NSO) was formed.
Lt. Col. Abdullahi Mohammed was to head the new Organization which was the amalgamation of the Police Special Branch (PSB) and the Research Department (RD) of the Ministry of Foreign affairs. The NSO became the foremost security body in the country, focusing on both domestic and foreign intelligence and also counter intelligence. The Organization had a far reaching network within the military, the police, civil service,and even political parties, so much so that the succeeding administration was accused of using the secret body to harass and intimidate political foes.
During the second republic,President Shehu Shagari appointed Alh. Umaru Shinkafi, a Police officer, as the DG NSO who was succeeded by Ambassador Mohammed Lawan Rafindadi, a career diplomat who rose through the ranks of the research Department (RD) of the ministry of foreign affairs.
The Ibrahim Babangida Presidency replaced the Office of the DG NSO with that of the Coordinator of National Security. Lt col Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was given that office, which was gradually mutating into something new. In the year 1993, January to be precise, the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) was created and manned by Lt. Col. Aliyu Gusau.
Prior to the creation of the Office of the NSA, Lt Col Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was given the task of re-organizing the security architecture of the Country, which he did painstakingly. Gradually dismantling the NSO into three formidable, security organisations namely; the State Security Services (SSS) now DSS, the National Intelligence Agency ( NIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency ( DIA). Before that period, all the former DGs of the NSO were the Chief security advisors to the President of the time.
So far, Nigeria had Nine National Security Advisors, right from the inception of the office , out of which only two had no
military background. Alh. Ismail Gwarzo who was Abacha’s NSA and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Thus, began our gradual and almost permanent decent into the militarization of the office of the NSA.
The straight metal jacket thinking circus that the holder of the office has to be a retired Army General makes this kind of thinking most unfortunate, it is however, one of the reasons we find ourselves in this security quagmire of today. The falsely established dogma that security is only about a very bogus defense budget that have zero chances of being probbed and a retired Army General, superintending and facilitating defense contracts and arms purchase, producing a very rich military top brass with ill-equipped rank and file soldiers and the country less secured than ever.
The seminal absence of originality in thought is the major cause of our under-development in Africa.
The idea that once some thinking originates from high places, then everyone coroborates it in a choir like chorus, without the freedom to even improve it along the line. This kind of adulation stems from sycophants who do everything to please the principal for their selfish gains.
For instance, there was a time when seven points agenda was the fad, so every governor quickly concocted their own point agenda, every governor’s program for his state was coined into some point agenda,as soon as Yar’dua passes on, it all varnished, so also the building of state universities, no governor had the moral courage to chart a different direction for his state, consequently producing more graduates with few job placements. The recent fad happen to be the building of flyovers, Governors Squize structure where they’re not even needed simply because it is now the most fashionable thing to do. it goes on and on like a performance circle.
Nigeria and Nigerians have been through a whole lot. We have passed through all the stages in conflict progression and so we desperately need an acute departure from the norm.
As far as the entire philosophy and Management of our security system and apparatus is concerned. This had happened with the appointment of MALLAM NUHU RIBADU into the office of the National Security Adviser. This pick can be aptly captured ” A ROUND PEG FOR A ROUND HOLE”.
When President Dwight Eisenhower the world war 2 General appointed the first National Security Advisor in the person of ROBERT CUTLER, He had something far mondane from the brute military force in mind, as the job description stipulated. In 1947, when the National Security council act was signed into law, the office was to coordinate National Security, Foreign affairs ,and International Economic policy.
It is our lot, the third world nations to reduce security issues to brute and crude force that can easily be defeated by any highly motile or evasive enemy. Our symbols betray the philosophy behind our security institutions. It’s either an Elephant, a Hippopotamus, a Crocodile or a Rhino, these animals are utterly helpless in any open contest, that depends on skill, agility speed, manuever, imagination, vision and all the attributes that defies any modern sophisticated security outfit.
The choice of MALLAM NUHU RIBADU as the tenth NSA is a complete abrogation of this perpetual unending chorus, of having people from a selected stock to manage our security affairs. Now we have an infrequent even chance, to rethink and transmute our security management philosophy. From a curative and defensive mode to a PREVENTIVE, PRE-EMPTIVE and OFFENSIVE measures.
This normally requires a quality of imagination, a temper of the will and a youthful vitality of the mind, which I know is found with RIBADU IN ABUNDANCE. The time is right upon us to see and do security affairs not just as a matter of MOTIVATED ARMED PERSONEL atop armoured vehicle patrolling the countryside. It is neither the allocation of huge defense budget with zero chance of scrutiny or investigation, there-upon creating an impregnable fortress of national heist. While all our Nation’s flanks remain ever defenceless. The managers grow richer and bigger almost always unperturbed, unchallenged, and as free as the wild migratory birds.
RIBADU from the much I learned and observed from him views security as a GENUINE DEGENERATION OF THE HUMAN CONDITION, and not just the break down of law and order, it’s something much more broad and all encompassing. Food security, for example is a contention that any serious government must as a matter of necessity tackle head-on. A well fed population is likely to far removed from internal strive,and less combative.
All our security calamities stem from either the management or mismanagement of our socio-political security, Economic security and all the intangible issues that when left unattended to, eventually degenerates into the national embroilment that have caught up with us for the past decade or even more.
The Influence and workings of the office of the National Security Advisor varies from administration to administration, and it depends not only on the qualities of the person appointed into the position, but also about the style and management philosophy of the President.
The NSA serves as an HONEST BROKER of policy options for the President in the field of National Security, rather than an advocate for his own policy. In that light, i believe the president has found the right man for the right Job. In MALLAM NUHU RIBADU.
This is of course one of our cherished National ideals, to find the right people for the right jobs at the right time for the right purpose.
ROUND PEG FOR A ROUND HOLE. So goes the old adage and rightly so, in the Appointment of MALLAM NUHU RIBADU AS THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA…..
