The nation-wide clamour for greater security of life and property in the country reached a crescendo early in the year, and led to an imperative to review the nation’s security strategy in order to tackle new threats and confront old ones. Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the new 2019 National Security Strategy at the Council Chambers, State House Abuja. The objective of the new document is the “achievement of a safer and more secure nation,” the President said. He acknowledged that the new roadmap is a product of elaborate discussion among all security organs and ministries, departments and agencies of government.
National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno, who provided an insight into the making of the new strategy, said it resulted from a forensic review of the first one issued in 2014. According to him, “the focus of today’s strategy is multi-dimensional and it is to guarantee the safety of human lives. The approach is comprehensive and looks at how agencies will collaborate to guarantee security in our country.” The new strategy is in line with the new notion of national security which has the “people” and not the “state” as the reference subject.
Such a shift in focus would be considered fundamental, if not revolutionary, indeed. For decades, the security services have conflated ‘state security’ with “national security” even when it was clear that the priorities of some regimes could not be in consonance with “national interests.” We congratulate the government on this qualitative upgrade which will only become meaningful with a corresponding change in ethics and modus operandi to give effect to a people-centred security system.
The old and new threats to security include money laundering, financial crimes, environmental pollution, human trafficking, illegal bunkering, trans-national crimes, crude oil theft, illegal fishing, cyber-crime, terrorism, kidnapping, militancy, small arms proliferation, armed banditry, pastoralists-farmers conflicts, among others. Each threat seems to demand special measures. To take care of sectional and factional groups some of whom are engaged in banditry, militancy and insurgency, the Federal Government is considering opening a dialogue with them to curb agitation and foster some understanding to enable the groups ventilate their grievances which could go a long way toward reaching some settlement that would achieve peace and security. The ultimate aim, of course, is national peace and harmony and it is thought that any effort to curb the agitations would go a long way to enhance national security.
Nigeria’s first National Security Strategy was conceived in 2014 and launched in January 2015. It was designed to guide, organise and harmonise the nation’s security policies and efforts to make sure that all services work harmoniously. Thus the strategy provides a common framework on which the country would co-ordinate and unify its efforts to defeat threats to Nigerian interests. It is therefore an important written, a well-documented plan which is overriding other mini-plans and which highlights in broad terms the geo-strategic environment that encompasses Nigeria’s internal and external threats as well as corresponding strategies to deal with them.
The document stated, among other things, that “our political security measures will encompass the following multi-sectoral responses: promote national unity and national cohesion by fostering a culture of civility and inclusive public discourse, and ensure political stability based on multi-party democracy, grassroots political participation, political inclusiveness, strong democratic and political institutions and a free, fair and credible election process devoid of all kinds of violence. We will enhance good governance based on development, accountability, zero tolerance for corruption at all levels, sound regulatory mechanisms, due process, rule of law and human rights.”
According to it, “we will promote non-discrimination among all Nigerians irrespective of gender, religion or ethnic origin; we will ensure sound fiscal federalism as a deliberate socio-economic strategy; we will also promote a mixed economy that encourages creativity and entrepreneurship and innovation in wealth generation while ensuring equity in resource distribution.”
We believe that the National Security Strategy document clearly resembles what the average Nigerian would consider as a dream as well as an aspiration. Henceforth, it would be good if the security services work in unison to realise the goals of the new security strategy.