• How mutual suspicion fuelled NSA, CoS feud
After weeks of a reported rivalry between the Chief of Staff (Cos) to the President, Abba Kyari and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd), they met yesterday for the first time.
Kyari and Monguno were in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to witness the inauguration of a 12-member National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) by President Muhammadu Buhari.
For weeks, the duo has been at daggers drawn, with the NSA accusing the CoS of undue interference in matters bordering on national security, a role which is originally within the purview of his (Monguno) office, among other scathing allegations.
In a memo, the NSA had warned the president’s “all-powerful” chief of staff against meddling in security affairs in the presidency. He also warned the nation’s service chiefs to stop taking orders from Kyari, a civilian, and to be wary of his interferences.
The memo, addressed to the service chiefs and copied the president and ministers for foreign affairs, defence, interior, police affairs and Kyari himself, was dated December 9, 2019.
The two top officials have not met since the leaked memo penultimate Monday trended, while the presidency and CoS maintained a deafening silence.
But their meeting in Aso Rock yesterday was inevitable. Neither of the two could avoid it and it did not happen without a mild drama.
First to arrive at the venue of the NASC event, Kyari proceeded straight to his allotted chair in-between the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha and the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF) with the NSA sitting next.
Monguno sat two chairs away from Kyari who was seen engaging in a discussion with the SGF.
However, before the commencement of the scheduled ceremony, Kyari momentarily broke his chat and beckoned on the NSA to return to his originally allotted seat, but Gen. Monguno looked way. Eventually, Monguno returned to his original seat after a second pause and another subtle plea by the CoS. Both did not speak to each other. The mild drama took place shortly before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari.
Kyari has long been hailed as one of the most powerful men in the Buhari presidency and allegedly the head of “a cabal” accused of running the Buhari administration behind closed doors.
The CoS is known to be one of the president’s closest aides. He plans Buhari’s schedules while ministers are said to queue in his office to see the president.
But Monguno said that Kyari’s directives to the military top leaders were sometimes issued without the knowledge, much less approval, of the president, a practice he said had added to government’s failure to contain the prevailing insecurity in the country.
“As 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.”
Monguno’s letter came as insecurity returned to the centre stage, a major cause for worry among Nigerians.
The president has repeatedly promised to curb the crises, many of which he met in the office, but has largely failed like his predecessors, to contain.
According to them, the current security heads have been unable to rein in Boko Haram insurgents since 2015 when President Buhari named them to take charge of the various arms of the nation’s security architecture.
The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, reportedly said in recent media interviews that the military had degraded the insurgents’ capacity to attack Abuja and other cities outside the war-ravaged northeast.
But many Nigerians have blamed the administrative misdemeanor on Buhari’s seeming lukewarm disposition to governance.
Prior to the leakage of the December 9, 2019 memo by the NSA, the wind of mutual suspicion blowing in the presidency shortly after President Buhari secured a second term had begun to gather momentum.
It was learned that even before the 2019 general elections, a decision had been taken not to reappoint the then Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali and his colleague in the Ministry of Interior, Lt. General Dambazau (rtd) so as to effectively rejig the nation’s security architecture and give some bite to the fight against insurgency, illegal mining, banditry and other forms of security upheavals.
While allusion was made to the preceding administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, when the office of the NSA was very powerful and was used as the campaign headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Monguno and others from the beleaguered Northeast grumbled that similar authority had not been vested in the ONSA occupied by a “son of the soil” to prosecute the war on terror.
“So, even when Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd) from Kano State succeeded Dan Ali from Zamfara, while Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar from Bauchi State and Major General Tukur Buratai occupied the offices of Chief of Air Staff (CAS) and Chief of Army Staff (COAS), the President’s directive made it impossible for the COAS to bypass Kyari,” the source explained.
Piqued by the development, Monguno became apprehensive, especially as the renewal of his appointment has not been forthcoming.
Presidency sources alleged that Monguno’s secret memo to the president was leaked from Kyari’s office ostensibly to pit the NSA against Buhari, adding that a similar leak attended Kaduna State governor’s memo when efforts were being made to create a rift between Mallam Nasir el Rufai and the president.
With the Kaduna State governor coming out to declare support for power shift to the south in 2023, one of the three camps scheming to produce Buhari’s successor has given up, leaving those loyal to the Chief of Staff and those clamouring for “Northeast’s recognition and reward for their support for President Buhari’s second term.”
