Group kicks agaisnt establishment of a new security outfit in Nigeria

By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

Non State Actors Consultative Forum (NOSACOF) a non governmental organization has kicked against a proposed bill on the establishment of a new security outfit under the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

This was contained in a press statement made available to our reporter in Dutse by the forum’s convener, Comrade Abdurrazaq Alkali.
The group in the statement, called on the president to be cautious over the alleged effort by some politicians and people in government trying to alter certain structural and constitutional changes in some government institutions that may create confusion for his administration.
The statement reads,”Mr President Sir, the present push for a bill by some members of your government to make the National Assembly change the provision that establish the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and allow the NSA to establish and recruit own staffs similar to existing government agencies and parastatals is ill informed and can set a very bad precedence”.

The statement explained further that “concealing the fact that the true intention and motive for such move is about their personal and political interest”.

Comrade Alkali added that “First and foremost, passing this bill will mean that the overall office of the NSA infrastructure will have to be overhauled to avoid conflict with the sections of the constitution that establish it or the section of the constitution will have to be expunged to accommodate the bill provision”.

The forum in the statement expressed the fear that “This has the potential of creating many overlaps in the functions of some already existing intelligence agencies such as National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Department of State Service (DSS) etc with the same vision and mission, aims and objectives that may further widen disunity, rivalry and lack of synergy between the various security agencies”.

“Presently the NSA has been the fulcrum of maintaining and enforcing co-operation between the security agencies, and one key component of its success is due to the fact that it derives staffs and collaborations from the various security agencies, such that the agencies do not see the office of the NSA as a rival agency”, the group emphasis.

“Thus, restructuring the office of the NSA into an agency and allowing it to recruit its own staffs00 will very much reduce the efficiency in the operations of the office of the NSA”.

The statement maintained that “This is because the office of the NSA will not be able to fill the roles with candidates of the desired expertise and speciality, it will end up spending years (may be decades) and billions of Naira to train these staffs to the desired level of competency.
“On the other hand security agencies may be reluctant to share staffs with the NSA as they will feel they are no longer relevant in the office of NSA.
“With the current security and financial challenges bedeviling the country, this is definitely a wrong move and a wrong timing as well”.

The statement also noted that the office of the NSA is known to be one of the only offices that work with highly professional and skilled staffs extracted from the various security agencies mainly based on merit, skills and capacity.

“Mr President, the onus of making the right decisions about our country rest on your shoulders and I am confident that you will not allow such dubious bill to be pushed through using your name and or support”.

The convener therefore commended president Bola Ahmed Tinibu on his proactive actions so far in the implementation of some policies and institutional restructuring in order to salvage the future of this country.

Comrade Alkali concluded, saying, “since the coming of president Bola Ahmed Tinibu’s administration, it is quite clear to all Nigerians that it will not be business as usual”.