Security of lives and property remains a top priority of every government. A known fact is that no meaningful development or progress can be achieved in any environment devoid of peace.
This explains why the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must place a premium on the issues of security, as development can only occur in an atmosphere devoid of strife.
As a country, Nigeria has had its shares of conflicts.The Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, banditry in the North West and North Central, clashes between herders and farmers in North Central and state of kidnapping in the south have kept security operatives extremely busy in the last 10 years or more.
The outgone President Muhammadu Buhari, no doubt has invested heavily on security personnel and equipment to contain this growing threat, however, a lot still has to be done in order to meet the expectation of Nigerians.
Thus, the Tinubu administration has a huge burden and the need to lay the right foundation to ensure that the gains of the past few years are sustained and built upon. No doubt, there have been gains.
The Nigerian military has taken the battle to the insurgents. It was in this country that the insurgents took over a large swathe of area and planted their flag to claim territory; it was also in the country that we had suicide bombers, detonating in market places and killing scores of people.
Churches and communities have been attacked. One of the most devastating attacks which put the insurgency on the international stage was the bombing of the UN building in August 2011, followed by the kidnap of over 200 Chibok girls in 2014.
However, there has been a major curtailment of such devastating attacks. It is thus important that for any sustainable development or any achievement that the president Tinubu’s administration would desire, tackling insecurity should be atop the pecking order.
Apart from the traditional heads of the armed forces, the question that readily comes to mind is; who coordinates the entire security architecture as National Security Adviser (NSA)? It is by getting this right that the success or otherwise of the President Tinubu’s government in the continued fight against insecurity would be judged.
The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) is important. The right choice of the occupant of that office would determine the trajectory of success or otherwise that the fight against insurgency would take. It is not an office that one would experiment with.
It is important that the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu presidency gets it right in order to sustain and build on the gains of the outgone administration.
I know , over the years, the military Generals failed except few, but still, A military background is important to combat the current terror. Not a middle level officer, but someone who would immediately earn the respect of all the security heads.
Such an appointee must command international respect on the basis of personal and professional achievements.
Nigeria has produced a lot of military generals; however, none of them except few have continued to remain relevant, maintaining national and international relevance.
–Onoja, a security consultant, writes from Lugbe, Abuja.
