From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has launched the National Crisis Management Doctrine (NCMD), which he said aims to bridge the security services gap by encouraging collaboration among ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The NCMD, which was developed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in coordination with relevant MDAs, would ensure greater successes in tackling national crisis.
According to a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari at the launch, held in the State House, commended the efforts of the National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno (Retd), his staff and members of the working group from various responder MDAs for the remarkable work in developing the doctrine.
He described the achievement as a significant milestone in recognizing the need for coordinated, effective and efficient national crisis management.
“This shows the renewed promise and commitment of this administration to managing crisis in the country,’’ he said, while urging ONSA to continue to play its coordinating role amongst crisis response stakeholders to achieve greater successes.
President Buhari also thanked the British Government for its assistance in developing the doctrine, as well as the US government for its support, and urged them to maintain the relationship.
He recalled that at the start of his administration, Nigeria faced multiple security challenges, including terrorism, kidnapping, armed banditry, ethnic militia attacks, oil theft, rape, gun running, and other acts of violent extremism.
“The emergence of the Boko Haram terrorist group as well as bandits and kidnappers in Nigeria considerably changed the country’s security situation leaving panic in the minds of the populace.
“These and other security challenges confronting the nation tend to stretch the deployment of our security agencies, resources and national security apparatus.
“Owing to the dynamics of these crises, the Office of the National Security Adviser revised the National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) which I endorsed in August 2016.
“Within this strategy are certain works streams which include the Prepare and Implement strands that seek to mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks by building resilience and redundancies to ensure continuity of business; and a framework for the mobilization of coordinated cross-government efforts respectively. In his remarks, the NSA explained that work on the doctrine started in 2014 but was given impetus after the President endorsed the revised NACTEST, which has five work streams namely: Forestall, Secure, Identify, Prepare and Implement.
He said the NCMD, which is a subset of the NACTEST, fulfills the work streams to ‘Prepare’ and to ‘Implement.’
“The doctrine provides a detailed methodology for national crises response, outlining how the various relevant MDAs should interact at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.
“It is to be noted that the NCMD can be used to manage both malicious threats and civil emergencies owing to the general principles set out within it.”