By Fred Itua, Abuja
Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume is a former leader of the upper legislative chamber and currently heads Army Committee. He represents Borno South in the Senate. In this interview in Abuja, Ndume spoke on the need to replace non-performing ministers. He also spoke on insecurity in the North East.
There are calls that President Muhammadu Buhari should sack the current ministers not performing. Do you subscribe to that?
Just as the President rejigged his Service chiefs, he should also reshuffle his cabinet so that non-performing ministers can be replaced with those that will implement the policies and programmes of the Federal Government faithfully.
As chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, what hopes are there for a quick end to insecurity particularly, insurgency and banditry especially with the appointment of new Service chiefs?
The appointment of new Service chiefs is a welcome development. That goes to show that the President is keeping to his words. He promised to rejig the security apparatus when he made his New year broadcast and assured Nigerians that the war against insurgency and other forms of criminality that have been disturbing the country will be properly addressed. What he just did is part of the implementation of his promise. It is just a change of guard but the good thing about it is that new military chiefs are not only qualified but they also have the field and operational experience. The new CDS is well known to me, he is a gallant, intelligent, humble and performing officer. It was during his tenure that he upgraded the army-civilian relationship to the next level. The Chief of Army Staff is also a theater commander at one time even though it was for a very short time. He knows the terrain very well and he has the experience. The Chief of Air Staff was also at the theatre, at a time, he was the Deputy Commandant of the Operation Lafiya dole. The Chief of Naval Staff is also not new to fighting insurgency. We are confident that the team that is very conversant with the insurgency problems, will perform and Nigerians would heave a sigh of relief.
The Senate had many times passed resolutions to urge the President to change the Service chiefs, and now the change has been effected. But is this enough? Does that solve the problem?
No! That is not all! Some efforts have been put in place and more efforts are still being made. A New military hardware has started coming in. 23 fighter helicopters have started coming in, we are expecting the arrival of Tucano this year. The budget of the armed forces has improved so much. We expect that the ministry of Finance should release money off front. The President should then give them a time line since they now have everything they need. If they don’t perform as expected, government should not waste time to sack them. I believe that if the new set are given what they need, to execute the war, they would tackle insurgency, banditry and all forms of criminality.
What about this problem of lack of team work among the security agencies? What do you think should be done to enthrone proper coordination in the fight against insecurity?
Personally, I would suggest that the office of the National Security Adviser be strengthened to perform that job. He should monitor and coordinate the activities of security agencies for the President. He should report to the president on daily or weekly basis. I believe that the insecurity war could be brought to an end within six months if the current crop of Service chiefs are given what they need. Also, there must be deadline for delivery. There must be a work plan for insurgency and work plan for the banditry. The President should ask the Service chiefs to give him the time within which they would end the insurgency and the time provided will determine their tenure. If they don’t perform, government should not waste time in replacing them. The war could be brought to an end before the rainy season starts. Therefore, the beginning of the rainy season should be the target for the issue of insurgency especially in the North East.
Concerns have been expressed about the performance of the armed forces particularly in terms of intelligence gathering. How do you think this can be improved upon?
No! Intelligence gathering is not the problem; the major problem is the lack of synergy between them. The idea of the service chiefs reporting to the Chief of Staff is wrong. It is totally out of place because we have a senior person in the military hierarchy that should do the work. The role of coordination and Supervision of security issues in this country must be that of the National Security Adviser. The Minister of Defence, who is a retired general should equally supervise them.
How do you think this can be achieved?
The President should not deal directly with the Service chiefs because they will tell him what he wants to hear. But the NSA would be able to ask questions and put them to more tasks. There must be a situation room in the office of the NSA where daily reports of what’s happening in the operations would be obtained on daily basis. There must be work plan too to be brought by all the Service chiefs. At the moment, everybody is doing what he likes. The fact that the budget has improved, the performance should improve. Their releases should be given upfront. If they are given what they need, they would perform. The NSA should coordinate or monitor their activities. If necessary thing was done, the insurgency would end in six months.
Generally speaking, as a lawmaker who has been representing Borno South for over a decade, what do you think can permanently put an end to this insurgency?
Let me be honest with you! Anti insurgency operations in the North East won’t succeed without the cooperation of Nigerians. The security agencies should relate with governors of affected states. The army should improve on the relationship between them and the civilian JTF, Vigilante and the hunter groups. Very important to have numbers but more importantly, the hardware to tackle it. The Army is now coming in with 8, 000 new recruits. The security outfit should be adequately equipped to address the issue of banditry in most states of the country. The Service chiefs should be coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser. It is wrong of them to report to the Chief of Staff to the President. There must also be synergy among them. A situation room should also be created. They should strive to get and make use of civil intelligence too.