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As the debates around restructuring the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) deepen, Non State Actors Consultative Forum (NOSACOF), a pressure group, has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to assent to the Bill if it is transmitted to him. The Forum said doing otherwise means he is wilfully pandering to the desire of a few desperate Nigerians who are championing the cause to fatten their personal and political capital.
A bill seeking to empower and restructure the ONSA, sponsored by Senator Buba Shehu, was first read on the floor of the Senate on November 7, 2023. The Bill, which also seeks to allow the ONSA recruit its own staff like similar government agencies, sparked off a polarised debate at the upper legislative chamber. In the end, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, threw the document back to the senators for further consultation with more stakeholders, in view of its sensitive nature. However, NOSACOF, in a statement dated January 9, 2024 and signed by its Convener, Abdulrazaq Alkali, maintained that a restructured NSA poses grave security risks to the nation.
He explained that the move was selfish, ill-informed and totally injurious to the country.
Alkali also explained that the Bill, if passed, will make ONSA vulnerable to hurtful politicisation through biased and unjustified recruitments as witnessed in many government agencies (including some security agencies).
“First and foremost, passing this bill will mean that the overall infrastructure of the ONSA will have to be overhauled to avoid conflict with the sections of the constitution that establishes it, or the section of the constitution will have to be changed to accommodate the bill.
“Also, the end product of the bill is restructuring the ONSA into an agency or parastatal with unlimited privileges over the already existing intelligence agencies such as National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Department of State Services (DSS), and the military. This has the potential of creating many overlaps in the functions of these agencies and will further widen disunity, rivalry and lack of synergy between the various security agencies,” the group noted.
