THE release of leaked memo published by Premium Times in which the National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno, accused Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari of illegally exercising presidential powers on behalf of the President has generated a furore in the Presidency.

Monguno detailed how Kyari in a series of confidential circulars had “allegedly” meddled with issues of national security by addressing key security officials on national security without President Buhari’s approval.

The memo also disclosed that Kyari had issued controversial security orders to the NSA and service chiefs contravening the nation’s constitution while accusing the Chief of Staff of circumventing the president’s directive by imposing his own decision for implementation on sensitive security issues.

However, recent revelations from documents released to the media also showed that the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, withdrew twenty-three army officers from the Office of the National Security Adviser without replacement, a move described as the “largest redeployment from a single outpost”.

The officers affected include two majors-general, one brigadier-general, seven colonels, seven lieutenant colonels, five captains and a lieutenant.

The office of the NSA, which co-ordinates the intelligence architecture of the government is usually staffed with personnel from every security agency in the country but the latest development is a deviation from the norm.

Is the Chief of Staff empowered by law to summon a security meeting without the NSA?

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo adopted the office of the Chief of Staff into the Nigerian political structure in 1999, though Nigeria’s constitutional democracy borrows the American model where the office has first operated, the role of the office of the chief of staff does not carry any constitutional status.

The 36 State Governors also named a chief of staff since 1999, including successive Presidents which has made the office an integral part of the government playing both bureaucratic and political functions.

The Office of the Chief of Staff to the President or a State Governor in Nigeria is not recognised by the constitution of the country either by an Act of the National Assembly or a law enacted by a State House of Assembly.

On the Nigerian State House website, the staff of the office of the President performs the following functions which include “administrative duties, protocol, security and media”, and the Chief of Staff to the President is responsible for “managing the President’s schedule and correspondence and any other duties that may be assigned by the President”.

However, the constitution of the country does not give a broad interpretation to place the office of the chief of staff either as personal staff of the President or an official position attached to the President or State governor.

Richard Akinola, a pro-democracy activist told The ICIR that the chief of staff to the President’s duties does not include calling a security meeting with the service chiefs without the involvement of the NSA.

“I cannot say the chief of staff is issuing directives on behalf of the President because it means that the President is aware that his chief of staff is taking security decisions on his behalf which is not proper.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/gatekeepers-men-who-managed-nigerias-presidents-from-1999/

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