President Bola Tinubu on Thursday met with the nation’s security apparatus at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he gave marching orders to the nation’s security agencies in the country to redouble efforts in dealing with the menace of terrorism, insurgency, banditry, oil theft, sea robbery and piracy among others that have conspired to weigh down the country.
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At the meeting where he unveiled his security philosophy, Tinubu who decried the declining security in the country, said he will not accept a situation in which the nation’s fortunes continues to dwindle, as his administration is determined to build on whatever gains that have so far been made.
Briefing newsmen at the end of the two hours meeting tagged General Security Appraisal Committee, the National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd) quoted President Tinubu as saying that the new administration is determined to turn the tide of insecurity besetting the country.
To this end, he said President Tinubu particularly mandated the security agencies in the country to work together towards achieving set objectives, adding that “working at cross purposes and colliding with each other, is not something that the new administration will not condone.
He explained that the President further directed security agencies to comply with the demands of coordination, imbibe frequent consultation and timely reports which must be acted on.
“He is going to embark on a lot of reforms in terms of our security architecture, he will take a closer look at our misfortunes in the maritime domain focusing particularly on the issues of oil theft, that he is not going to tolerate. Wherever the problem is coming from, it must be crushed as soon as possible.
“He has already mandated the security agencies to come up with a blueprint. As far as he knows, he doesn’t have the luxury of time and whatever changes will be made, have to done as soon as possible.
“The president also has decided that whatever ventures the armed forces are going to engaged in, they must carry along those operatives in the theatre, they must be well fed, well catered for, motivated and given all that they require. The president has said he will do whatever that is within his powers to enable them.”
He said the President also directed that the operational elements of the intelligent agencies must make their work easier by providing the needed intelligence that is required to effectively prosecute their assignments.
Earlier before departing the state House, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, said the security chiefs received new instructions on how the President wants security should be pursued, assuring the team was already inspired to carry out the new tasks.
“The meeting went very well. What we’ve done is to give the President, Commander-in-Chief, the situation of the security across the country and even beyond our borders of what the current situation is.
“We also got a mandate from him as to how he wants the security disposition across to be. So we have left Mr President fired with that mandate and to realign our intervention to fit, not just the expectation of Nigerians, but with the mandate that Mr President has given to us,” he said.
Among those who attended the meeting were Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; the Chief of Air the Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao, and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.
Others were the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
The meeting is President Tinubu’s first official engagement with the heads of the nation’s security and intelligence agencies since he assumed office last Monday.
He had earlier met with the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, at the Villa on Wednesday.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
