Buhari Excludes Osinbajo from National Security Briefing
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly barred Vice President Yemi Osinbajo from attending a national security meeting this week. Osinbajo was apparently refused "security clearance" and “locked out” of Buhari’s first briefing with the national security adviser on the president’s orders.
Buhari personally allegedly excluded his vice president from the closed-door briefing due to security concerns over Osinbajo attending the “very sensitive meeting.” Buhari apparently felt it was too early in the day to bring Osinbajo, the former Lagos state attorney general and senior pastor, into his first briefing with the security chief, a top government source disclosed.
The exclusive meeting on Monday with National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki and other security officials lasted for hours and was part of the “debriefing process,” sources told Nigerian newspaper the Daily Trust. Buhari was informed on the security situation in Nigeria, where the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has killed and displaced thousands of people in the last six years.
“They need to brief the president on the security situation in their various areas. They need to update him officially on the situation on ground,” a presidential aide told the Daily Trust on Tuesday.The meeting comes after the president announced the relocation of the anti-insurgency command center from the capital city Abuja to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital that has suffered a series of deadly attacks in recent days including suicide bombings and a grenade bombardment. More than 50 people have been killed in Maiduguri since Buhari was inaugurated on May 29. The president said the command center would remain in the Borno state capital until the insurgents were restrained.“The command center will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents,” Buhari said during his inauguration speech on May 29.
Prior to his inauguration, Buhari expressed dismay that former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had withheld information and refused to brief the incoming government. The party-elect All Progressives Congress slammed the outgoing People's Democratic Party for hindering a smooth transition one week before the presidential inauguration, Premium Times reported.
Chief Justice of Nigeria Mahmoud Mohammed (second from right) swears in Yemi
Osinbajo (second from left) as Nigeria's new vice president at the Eagle Square in Abuja May 29, 2015. Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde
President Muhammadu Buhari forced out his vice president
ReplyDeletefrom National Security Briefing it would be “news” that
is not news. It will be par for the course. National
security briefings are for the ears of the president only
and most of the world that have presidential system of
government make this briefing to the president and those the
president invites to the briefing usually his national
security team which MAY
include the VP. Self-confident presidents such as President
Carter and Obama almost always had their VP’s in
attendance. Presidents who perceive their VP’s as a threat
or rival do not. They keep them for the purposes of going to
represent them at funerals abroad or such mundane
events.The
reason given for the alleged exclusion – that Mr. Osibanjo
does not have high enough clearance - is a ruse. VP Osibanjo
has the highest clearance that Nigeria confers, even higher
than that of the security officers doing the briefing. He is
the Commander-in-Chief in waiting and would take over
immediately in the unlikely event of Buhari not being
available.The
only possible explanation for the alleged exclusion would be
that PMB wants to understand the true situation first before
bringing in others.Please
note how often I have used the word “alleged” because
quite often one reads events written as facts turn out not
to be that factual. I think this might be one of such
storiesThe
question that Nigerians maybe asking is why PMB has not
appointed the rest of his security team. The command
structure runs from the President to the Minister of Defense
to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs with a dotted line to
the National Security Adviser. This is how it works in a
democracy. In a dictatorship the line runs directly to the
Joint Chiefs. PMB must not confuse
both.