By Ishaya Ibrahim
Following the apparent face-off between the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Babagana Monguno and the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Abba Kyari, that has resulted in a leaked memo, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to end his taciturnity and personally address the nation on the issue. The NSA, had in a recent memo, accused Kyari, of giving directives to Service Chiefs without his knowledge, a situation he said has worsened Nigeria’s security situation. He asked the Service Chiefs to desist from doing so.
“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 continues 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 said in the memo.
PDP describes the development as command crisis rocking the Presidency, in which, according to it, strange elements have been exposed as having taken over critical issues of governance, including security matters.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP noted that Nigerians have become apprehensive that the Presidency had remained mute in the face of revelations of the NSA, that Presidential responsibilities, including presiding over very sensitive security matters, have been taken over by the Chief of Staff.
The party argued that any President, who is on top of issues of governance, and who has not relinquished his duties, would have immediately addressed the nation on such an issue of urgent national importance.
It stressed that “President Buhari’s taciturn posturing in the face of a command crisis is worsening our already perilous security situation and further validates global apprehensions that Mr. President has become overwhelmed by the demands of his office and completely abdicated his duties to a cabal.
“The PDP insists that Mr. President holds it as a duty to Nigerians to personally speak to the situation immediately as our nation is undergoing an insecurity situation that is unknown to our national history”.
It counselled the Buhari Presidency not to attempt to use the decoy of silence to sweep such issue of grave national concern under the carpet, as such could compound the security situation in the country.
Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media, Garba Shehu, neither picked nor returned calls seeking to confirm or refute the report, when our Correspondent reached out to him on the issue.