Abdullahi Muhammed
President Muhammadu Buhari is planning a complete overhaul of the current security architecture to address the worsening insecurity situation in the country, National Security Adviser (NSA) Mr Babagana Monguno, said on Tuesday.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the National Security Council meeting in Abuja, the NSA said the president directed heads of security agencies to rejig their strategies.
He said the president emphasised to the security chiefs that their best is not good enough for the country and its people.
“The president said to the service chiefs you are doing your best as far as I am concerned but there is still a lot more to be done. I am more concerned about the promise we made to the larger Nigerian society and I am ordering an immediate re-engineering of the entire security apparatus.
“He has also directed that we must rejig our strategies both in terms of operations and intelligence; we must rejig our strategy to prevent further catastrophe.
“That we must bear in mind that we owe a duty to the electorate and at the end of the day, without securing the nation, all other things like revamping the economy and fighting corruption cannot be addressed,” he said.
He said following the marching orders given by the president to service chiefs and heads of security agencies, the office of the Minister of Defence is working out a plan that would help ameliorate the security situation in the country.
“Based on the marching orders given to us by the President from the last time till now, basically, these are operational matters that are best dealt with by the Minister of Defence.
“I know there is something he is working on which has led to this meeting being delayed slightly because it was actually supposed to take place before the sallah break but I think one or two things have come up which I don’t want to disclose but I want Nigerians to be comfortable that something is being done since the last marching order,” he said.
The NSA told journalists that the meeting resolved that drugs have a major link with crime and killings in the country and so something must be done fast to address the situation.