By Tunde Johnson, Abuja
Mohammed Babagana Monguno, National Security Adviser (NSA), has been blamed by security experts in the country, for the inability of the Federal Government to promptly address farmers and herders crisis that has led to death of over 1,000 Nigerians, displaced over 10,000 households and led to death of security operatives in the country.
Peters Omale, Coordinator of a pressure group, National Peace Vanguard (NPV), said the NSA has grossly failed on the style and management philosophy of the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari to combat all forms of insecurity in the country.
Omale averred that Monguno is supposed to serve as the Chief Adviser to the President on national security issues, but has failed and made the President to lose respect among Nigerians and in the comity of nations.
According to him, President Buhari should immediately sack Monguno for exhibiting gross insensitivity to the genocide being perpetrated by his kinsmen.
He recalled that Monguno’s appointment to the exalted office some years ago was greeted with cynicism by security pundits.
Omale lamented that his lacklustre leadership and lame duck attitude to the management of national security in Nigeria has brought schism amongst the security chiefs and made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
He said with the growth of terrorism and insurgency, it is with respect to this function of protection against domestic threats and violence the office of NSA was introduced but has been inept despite huge annual budgets.
‘’The NSA’s poor leadership has sadly engendered infighting and chaos amongst the head of the Directorate of State Security, the Inspector – General of Police and the Chief of Defence Staff.
‘’The National Security Adviser to the President has failed woefully to handle the critical and sensitive task of national security thereby emboldening the invidious Fulani herdsmen that has been committing genocide in Benue State and across Nigeria,’’ he said
He, however, decried that the Northernization of the office of the National Security Adviser saying that ‘’ the key strategic departments of counter terrorism, finance and accounts and procurement are being manned by misfits from the north thereby lending credence to the belief in certain quarters that the languid and ineffectual National Security Adviser was propped up by sinister forces to turn a blind eye to the systematic massacre in Nigeria.’’
He stated that the office of the National Security Adviser is strategic, important and tangential to national peace and therefore must be manned by a competent and patriotic professional committed to the rule of law and humanity.
He recalled with nostalgia the superlative records of past NSAs like Seriki Muktar, Gadzama, and the late Gen. Owoeye Aziza.
Emphasizing that these gentlemen brought panache and competence to the office of the NSAs unlike the current occupant of the office whose surname is mediocrity and corruption, Omale said that the “office of the NSA should not be left in the hands of charlatans whose ineptitude and clannishness have brought tears to our compatriots in Benue State who are being mowed down in cold blood on a daily basis by the blood – sucking Fulani militia masquerading as herdsmen.”
