Crack in Buhari’s team as NSA accuses Kyari of sabotage

Infighting dangerous for Nigeria – Ex-military officer Presidency mum The National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno has alleged that undue interference by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, on matters of national security has slowed down meaningful gains that Buhari had sought to achieve. 

In a leaked memo to the service chiefs, which was published yesterday by an online platform, Premium Times, Monguno directed them (service chiefs) to desist from taking further directives from Kyari.

Although the presidency declined to respond to the issue yesterday, security experts and political analysts who spoke to Daily Trust described the development as unhealthy and dangerous for the country. According to Monguno, in the memo, Kyari’s directives to service chiefs were sometimes issued without the knowledge or approval of the president, a practice he said had added to the government’s failure to contain insecurity.

“Chief of Staff to the president is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn to an oath of defending 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. 

“Such acts and continued meddlesomeness by chief of staff have not only ruptured our security and defence efforts, but have slowed down any meaningful gain that Mr. President has sought to achieve,” Monguno, a retired major-general, said in the memo dated December 9, 2019. 

A former director in the presidency who would not want to be named said hierarchically, the chief of staff was the head of all political appointees of the president and somewhat higher in rank to the NSA but said it was ‘not clear’ if he has the power to either call for or preside over a meeting with the security chiefs without the permission of the president. 

He said the office of the chief of staff was “like a clearinghouse in the villa” that was responsible for any meeting with the president including with the service chiefs. He said the tussle between the two offices was a few years ago, resolved after clarifying with the “US presidential system of government which placed the chief of staff above other appointees. In fact, the NSA’s office is not in the villa, unlike that of the chief of staff.”