The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, of undue and dangerous interference on national security matters.
\nConsequently, Monguno has fired a warning memo to all service chiefs to desist from taking further directives from Kyari, according to documents made available to newsmen, yesterday.
\nMonguno said Kyari\u2019s directives to service chiefs were sometimes issued without the knowledge much less approval of the president, a practice he said has added to government\u2019s failure to contain insecurity.
\n\u201cChief of staff to the president is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn to an oath of defending the country,\u201d Monguno, a retired major-general, said in the December 9, 2019, letter.
\n\u201cAs such, unprofessional practices such as presiding over meetings with service chiefs and heads of security organisations as well as ambassadors and high commissioners to the exclusion of the NSA and\/or supervising ministers are a violation of the Constitution and directly undermine the authority of Mr President.
\n\u201cSuch acts and continues meddlesomeness by chief of staff have not only ruptured our security and defence efforts but have slowed down any meaningful gain that Mr President has sought to achieve.\u201d
\nMonguno\u2019s letter comes as insecurity returns to centre stage as a major cause for worry among Nigerians.
\nViolent attacks linked to bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers and vandals have continued to claim multiple lives and properties across the country.
\nThe president has repeatedly promised to curb the crises, many of which he met in office, but has largely failed like his predecessors.
\nSecurity experts, opposition and federal lawmakers have responded by advising the president to fire his service chiefs.
\nThe service chiefs have been unable to rein in Boko Haram insurgents since 2015 when Buhari named them to take charge of various arms of the nation\u2019s security architecture.
\nWhile previously held swathes of land have been taken back from terrorists, deadly attacks on civilians and military targets have worsened since 2018.
\nThe Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai, said in recent media interviews that the military has degraded insurgents\u2019 capacity to attack Abuja and other cities outside the war-ravaged northeast.
\nNational security sources said, yesterday, that the fresh memo showed how Kyari has helped in keeping the service chiefs in office despite overwhelming call for their ouster.
\nIt also underscored the frustration faced by Monguno and others who found Kyari\u2019s influence over the president too domineering for national benefit, sources said.
\nKyari and two presidential spokespersons, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu did not return requests for comments about the memo, yesterday afternoon.
\nBut reacting, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the revelation by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd), that strange persons have been presiding over critical affairs of governance has validated its position that President Muhammadu Buhari has abdicated the responsibilities of his office.
\nA statement issued by party\u2019s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, read: \u201cFollowing this revelation by no other person than the NSA, the PDP reiterates its earlier position that President Buhari should waste no further time in relinquishing his position as President since it is now obvious that he has become overwhelmed by official duties.
\n\u201cThe PDP holds that security is the most important element of governance, followed by the welfare of citizens and since President Buhari has relinquished these statutory responsibilities, he has no other reason to remain in office.
\n\u201cThe party says the NSA\u2019s letter, which is already in the public domain, further exposes the fact that our nation has been on autopilot under President Buhari, whose abdication of serious matters of state is directly responsible for the untold suffering, anguish, pain and escalated insecurity in the country.
\n\u201cThe PDP describes Gen Monguno\u2019s revelation as a national tragedy which showcases the fact that Mr President Buhari has become so irredeemably overwhelmed to the extent that the responsibilities of his office, including presiding over very sensitive security matters, have now been taken over by his Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, who functions as a de facto President.
\n\u201cNigerians are invited to note the verdict by the NSA, who, in support of the position of the PDP, affirmed that such situation is responsible for the failure of the government to defend Nigerians and find a solution to the worsened insecurity under President Buhari\u2019s watch.
\n\u201cOur party recalls that even the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, had severally alerted that strange elements had usurped the functions of the president and urged Nigerians to speak out for their country.
\n\u201cIt is now clear that the demand by Nigerians calling on President Buhari to resign was borne out of patriotism and love for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, of undue and dangerous interference on national security matters. Consequently, Monguno has fired a warning memo to all service chiefs to desist from taking further directives from Kyari, according to documents made available to newsmen, yesterday. Monguno said Kyari\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,26],"tags":[688],"class_list":["post-227949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-front-pix","tag-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/227957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}