The Senator representing Osun East, Francis Fadahunsi, has urged President Bola Tinubu to reorganise Nigeria’s security command structure by appointing a retired military officer as National Security Adviser, insisting that the present architecture carries titles that lack combat-era authority.
In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Sam Segun-Progress, and obtained in Osogbo on Tuesday, Fadahunsi said the presidency’s security pillar must shift from business-heavy coordination lanes to military-respected command frameworks.
In a video clip captured from plenary, the senator criticised Nigeria’s present security label structure, noting that servicemen often reject authority that does not mirror their hierarchy.
Fadahunsi said, “The Minister of Defence is not a soldier or a retired general. The Minister of State, all of them are businessmen. The NSA is a retired policeman.
“Do you know that these soldiers call us, even those carrying superior guns than theirs, ‘bloody civilians’? And that is what is affecting us.
“The Commander-in-Chief needs to look at the military architecture around him and do the needful. If not, we will continue to waste money because they will not take orders from any other person other than their own general.”
Reacting to the resignation of former Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru and the nomination of ex-Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, as Defence Minister-designate, Fadahunsi commended the presidency but urged a further realignment to stabilise national security coordination lanes.
He, however, urged Tinubu to go a step further by “replacing the current National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, with a retired military officer for a more efficient coordination of the fight against bandits and other violent criminals.”
He added, “The current NSA should be moved to his area of core competence, where his skill can be better put to use.
“Those in charge of the defence architecture of the country have done their best, but it is necessary at this point to allow people with military backgrounds to come into the system and run with the President’s vision.”
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