Linus Aleke in Abuja
The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated a 33 member committee to overview the 2019 National Security Strategy and develop a brand new framework for addressing rising safety threats.
Speaking on the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, urged the committee members to produce a complete, sensible and actionable doc that displays the nation’s altering safety atmosphere.
Represented by the committee chairman, Major General Sarkin Bello (Rtd.), the NSA stated Nigeria’s home, regional and international safety landscapes had modified considerably because the final overview in 2019, necessitating a reassessment of the nation’s safety priorities.
“Our national security landscape is undergoing rapid and profound transformations. Since the last review of our strategy in 2019, the domestic, regional and global security environments have changed dramatically in intensity,” he stated.
Ribadu recognized terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cyber threats, misinformation, financial challenges, meals insecurity and environmental issues as a number of the threats the brand new technique should handle.
Against this backdrop, he stated the National Security Strategy 2026 would supply an overarching framework for coordinating nationwide safety, resilience and sustainable improvement.
“The National Security Strategy 2026 will serve as an overarching compass for coordinating national security, resilience and sustainable development for Nigeria. It must reflect our current realities, anticipate future disruptions and directly support the realisation of our national objectives amid the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly in the areas of human security, economic transformation and national cohesion,” Ribadu stated.
He additional urged committee members to have interaction related establishments and stakeholders in creating a method that could possibly be successfully carried out.
“Engage robustly with our resource institutions and strategic stakeholders to produce a comprehensive, realistic and actionable document. Nigeria demands a strategy that is realistic and implementable,” he stated.
To facilitate the method, Ribadu stated the Office of the National Security Adviser would supply the required administrative, technical and logistical help to make sure the profitable completion of the task.
In his acceptance remarks, the committee’s deputy chairman, Major General Emeka Onumajuru (Rtd.), highlighted the evolving nature of safety threats, stressing the necessity for a complete strategic realignment.
He famous that standard safety challenges, together with terrorism, insurgency and banditry, had grow to be more and more intertwined with non-kinetic threats comparable to cyber vulnerabilities, financial challenges, meals insecurity and local weather change.
Emphasising the necessity for a forward-looking strategy, Onumajuru stated the brand new technique should transcend reactive measures to handle the nation’s complicated safety challenges.
“To address these complexities, our nation requires an overarching framework that moves beyond reactive measures. The National Security Strategy 2026 must be an inclusive, forward-looking and highly actionable blueprint,” he stated.
He added that the committee would seek the advice of useful resource establishments, private-sector representatives and conventional leaders to be sure that the technique mirrored a broad vary of nationwide safety issues.
Major General Onumajuru additionally disclosed that the committee had 4 weeks to submit its ultimate draft to the NSA, describing the timeline as demanding.
“Our timeline is quite unyielding. We have exactly four weeks from today to submit our final draft copies to the National Security Adviser. So, it demands immediate, focused momentum,” he stated.
The committee is chaired by Major General Bello (Rtd.) and contains representatives of presidency ministries, the Armed Forces, intelligence businesses, regulation enforcement our bodies, civil society organisations and academia.
Other establishments represented on the committee embrace the Defence Headquarters, the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency, the Defence Intelligence Agency and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
