A 90-day ultimatum has been handed to Nigeria’s defence, intelligence and security chiefs to submit a national threat assessment and a five-year strategic defence operations.
President Bola Tinubu gave the directives through the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume Wednesday while inaugurating a presidential committee made up of the NSA, defence ministers, service chiefs and agency heads.
George Akume said the plan should move Nigeria from reacting to threats to anticipating them, linking threats to objectives, capabilities, resources and measurable outcomes for Tinubu’s approval.
President Bola Tinubu has given Nigeria’s top defence, intelligence, and security chiefs 90 days to submit a national threat assessment and a five-year strategic defence operations plan.
Akume, who inaugurated the Presidential Committee on National Threat Assessment and Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan on behalf of the President, urged members to approach the assignment with professionalism, objectivity, urgency and patriotism,
The committee, comprising the National Security Adviser, ministers of defence, service chiefs and heads of major security and intelligence agencies, is expected to move Nigeria’s security from reacting to individual threats to anticipating them, prioritising risks and aligning resources with clearly defined national security objectives.
The SGF said the documents must be submitted within 90 days for President Tinubu’s consideration and approval.
He said the initiative had become important considering the nature of security threats plaguing the nation.
While acknowledging recent successes recorded by the Armed Forces and other security agencies, the SGF said the country could no longer afford an approach focused largely on responding to threats after they emerged.
According to him, Nigeria needs a system capable of anticipating threats, setting priorities, allocating scarce resources properly, and ensuring successful outcomes.
He said operational responses by defence, intelligence and security chiefs must be based on a shared national understanding of how security works and a short-, medium- and long-term strategy.
The SGF expressed concern that operational requirements were sometimes considered independently without sufficient reference to an agreed national threat assessment.
The committee, he explained, is expected to establish a clear link between threats, operational objectives, military capabilities, resources and measurable outcomes.
“In simple terms, we must establish a clear path from threat to objective, from objective to capability, from capability to resource, and from resource to measurable outcome,” he said.
