Mr. President, in times like this, if you are really serious about the Nigerian people and their growing frustration with insecurity, then the current national security team with their lack of clarity in security operations ought not to be around the presidency– effective today.
Sir, your personal and official identity, and your presidency, have been hampered by your national security team’s inability to sensibly respond to the fast-moving insecurities in the nation.
Sir, it will be a bad idea for many to believe your political opponents who have stated that you have allowed the North-East crisis to continue because of your desire to perpetuate yourself into another presidential office in 2015.
Sir, prove your political enemies wrong by letting the current-serving chiefs go, as they are simply a bunch of failed national security heads with a clear record of disastrous decision-making and security outcomes.
Mr. President, what are they telling you now about the Kano bomb explosions at the central mosque with hundreds of people wounded and killed?
Mr. President, Emir Sanusi recently challenged the people to take up arms against the rebels , a directive that went into effect when some of the gunmen who had opened fire on the worshipers in Kano, were pursued and killed instantly with the peoples’ hands and anything they could get a hold of.
The death toll would have been more, if not for the brave hands of the people who heeded Emir Sansui’s call for civilians to arm themselves.
Mr. President, where was the intelligence team?
One can understand the difficulties of unearthing potential violence in remote rural areas, but for God’s sake, this blast happened in one of the nation’s largest cities!
Again, Mr. President, what is the latest excuse from the National Security Adviser, Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector General of Police, Department of Security Service’s Director-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’s Commandant General, Nigerian Prisons Service’s Controller General, and others.
With the highest forms of security and operational incompetence of these leaders clearly evidenced by incidents of failure after failure, not even one of them have willingly stepped down from their position of failure, none!
Yes, in the past the President has replaced some heads in the military, intelligence, national security, and police. But the current level of insecurity and the increasing spread of violence are far worse than previously and as such we need better security handlers immediately.
Sir, just on the basis of the unknown numbers of police officers, soldiers, weapons and armored vehicles still missing, we need a different approach to dealing with national security issues.
Mr. President, what the nation needs now is a bold new face to address the issues of security advisement and policies in the areas of defense, intelligence and national security.
It is now time for us to gain new insights into evolving political and geopolitical security challenges from businessmen, intelligence specialists, academics and safety-minded traditionalists.
Even if the U.S. government was to grant Nigeria’s request to purchase more lethal equipment to fight the Nigerian rebels and assist with other needs, including intelligence sharing, it is critical to remember they deeply lack a cultural understanding of the Nigerian people in terms of the attitudes of security and intelligence personnel. As such, let’s put to use the cultural knowledge of our expert natives — businessmen/women, intelligence specialists, academics and safety-minded traditionalists and others — in our fight against the internal machine and aggression of the Nigerian insurgency.
Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi is a Forensic, Clinical and National Psychologist and a former Secretary-General of the Nigeria Psychological Association. Jos5930458@aol.com
