President Buhari had a closed-door meeting with the Service Chiefs on Thursday June 18, where he told them that excuses would no longer be tolerated and asked them to do more to secure the nation and Nigerians.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Retired Major General Babagana Monguno, who spoke to the State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, said the President informed the service chiefs that their best is not good enough and that they must do better to put an end to the high level of insecurity in every part of the country.
”A meeting was just concluded between Mr. President and heads of the security agencies, that is the operational heads consisting minister of defence, the service chiefs and on the other hand, the intelligence components that is consisting of myself and the intelligence heads.
Today’s meeting basically focused on recent developments. Mr. President expressed great concern over the declining security situation in the country. He is extremely unhappy about what is happening and he feels that, even though the security agencies are doing their best, their best is not good enough for him and wants an immediate reversal of the current trend and immediate reversal of our misfortunes in all their dimensions.
Mr. President also told us clearly in no uncertain terms, that he and indeed the administration campaign to power on the platform of three issues, fighting insecurity, overcoming our economic difficulties and dealing with the scourge of corruption. More so, he noted that it takes common sense for anyone to understand that without security, the pursuit of the other two will just be an exercise in futility.
He, therefore, warned the security agencies to take into consideration the wider implication of the gradual decent of the security of this country, he is not going to accept any further escalation of the security situation. He also stated, that no one was forced on him, he selected everyone individually based on what he feels their records had revealed and therefore, it is up to individual organisation to live up to the expectations.
Again, Mr. President has also said that, it is extremely important that we in the security agencies, must ensure that we justify the leadership by not disappointing the populace. He also pointed out the immediate areas of concern and these areas are also interlinked and we must find a way out, especially the issue of proliferation of drugs, small arms and light weapons. These two issues also go hand in hand with the major issues of criminality in this country, be there banditry on one hand on the north west of Nigeria or terrorism in the North-East.” Monguno said
In attendance at the closed-door meeting were the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar; the Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok Ekwe Ibas; the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai and the Inspector General of Police Adamu Mohammed.
Others included the Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Usman, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Yusuf Bichi; and the Director-General Nigeria Intelligence Agency Ahmed Abubakar.
Also in attendance were President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha and Minister of Defence Retired Major General Bashir Magashi.
