NSA’s Plan To Employ Permanent Staff Is An Aberration

The Nigerian Senate rightly stepped down a bill to allow the National Security Adviser to recruit permanent staff for his office on November 23 last year. The sponsor of the bill and Senator representing Bauchi South, Buba Umar Shehu, said the bill for an act to provide a legal framework for the NSA to appoint permanent staff for his office would “enhance institutional memory and effective performance of the responsibilities of the National Security Adviser.”

A few senators also spoke in support of the bill, arguing that the NSA’s office should not rely on contract staff for information gathering and intelligence for the country. But they couldn’t convince their colleagues on the desirability of restructuring the office of the NSA.

It was Senators Seriake Dickson and Enyinnaya Abaribe’s contributions to the debate that forced the senate to step down the bill. Sen Dickson argued that the NSA is the national security coordinator and officers from the various services are seconded to the office. He said the office is already staffed and requires no new staff of its own. He warned that the process of trying to strengthen the office could “create another problem.”

Senator Abaribe, while supporting Dickson’s views, also revealed that personnel of the various services– Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, DSS, etc. – are attached to the NSA’s office on a permanent basis and not temporarily as the sponsors of the bill claimed. He added that the NSA already has the power to hire anyone for consultation. He subsequently moved the motion that the bill be stepped down for further consultations.

The job of a National Security Adviser is a dynamic one and there’s no one answer to what the role entails. But generally, in many countries, including Nigeria the position entails analysing security issues, assessing expected trends and prioritising activities, and playing advisory role to the President.

In many cases, the nature of a country’s security threats usually informs the choice of an NSA.  Nigeria has fought insurgents and bandits through military action since 2009 during which ex-military generals were appointed NSA. The appointment of Nuhu Ribadu, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, signaled a departure from the past and suggested there would changes in strategy.

Over the years critics have blamed the inability of the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services to curb internal security on Nigeria’s over-reliance on the military. The situation relegated the police and DSS as security funding went largely to the military. Operatives of the NPF  and DSS have also complained behind closed doors that the military was  encroaching of their constitutional responsibilities for internal security.

Thus, the appointment of a retired police officer was seen as a welcome development by the civil society. It was beheld as an opportunity to reduce the burden on the military and give the police and the DSS new lease of life that could translate into positive action on internal security of the country.   While the military will be well funded to combat insurgency and other external threats to Nigeria’s sovereignty, the police and other agencies would be made more dynamic and proactive.

Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, gave voice to the frustration of security agencies when he revealed at a press conference on Monday the reason why they’re unable to stop kidnapping and other crimes in the FCT. Wike said so many critical facilities were not provided for them including operational vehicles. “You cannot believe that equipment to track criminals are not there and when anything happens, security agencies go back to the Office of the National Security Adviser or to the Force Headquarters,” he told Journalists.

This sorry scenario is not limited to the FCT alone as it’s the same situation all over the country. This is the situation Nuhu Ribadu is expected to change.

There’s no doubt that Nuhu Ribadu is eager to help President Bola Tinubu solve Nigeria’s security challenges, but seeking to have his own personnel is not one of the ways to accomplish it. If the bill being proposed sails through, it would amount to having another security agency under the direct control of the NSA. This is an aberration.  It has the potential to create several overlaps in the functions of the various security agencies and will further deepens the inter-agency  rivalry and lack of synergy that have plagued the country’s security agencies for decades.

What is needed is for the NSA to perform better oversight on the security agencies to ensure there’s inter-agency cooperation in the war against insurgency, banditry and other forms of criminality.

There’s yet no precedent for what the bill is proposing. In several countries including the United States, United Kingdom and other European and African countries where the office of the NSA is constitutionally created, the office doesn’t operate as an autonomous entity. In the US where the office of the NSA is more prestigious, he serves as the chief in-house adviser to the president on national security issues. The NSA is a member of various military or security councils and reports directly to the president like other aides.

Stephen Hadley, who was the NSA when George W. Bush was the US President from 2005 to 2009, described the scope of the job in a 2016 speech. He said the adviser needs to advance presidential initiatives within the executive branch of the federal government. But warned that the NSA “must be careful not to usurp the role of the Cabinet officers — especially the secretaries of defense and state.”

This is exactly the kind of trespass that would happen if the NSA operates as another security entity. That is why several civil society groups have risen to condemn the bill and warned against resurrecting it at the National Assembly. One of such group, the Non-State Actors Consultative Forum( NOSACOF) urged President Tinubu not to bulge to the wish of “a few desperate Nigerians pushing the cause for their personal and political interest.”

The group said allowing the office of the NSA to recruit its own staff  will  reduce the efficiency  of the office as the NSA will not be able to fill the roles with candidates with the desired expertise and speciality. “It will end up spending years (maybe decades) and billions of Naira to train these staff to the desired level of competency and the other security agencies will be reluctant to share staffs with the NSA as they will feel they are no longer stakeholders in the office of NSA,”the group stated.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.