In a Presidential statement, the NSA was named Co-Chair along with Humanitarian Affairs Minister for the newly formed National Humanitarian Coordination Committee.
A source in the presidency said “that is an indication that the President has no issues with the contents of the memo,” even though there are concerns in the Villa on how the memo was leaked.
Also the source explained that National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno did not attend the meeting between Service Chiefs and President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday because he was out of the country.
It was revealed that the movement of the NSA has never been put in the public domain.
“This is an intelligence matter, no one issues a statement stating that the NSA and other Service Chiefs are travelling, and that is so for security reasons.”
The source explained that the movement of the NSA is not subject to public exposure. “The truth is that on Monday the President approved the constitution of a National Humanitarian Coordination Committee (NHCC) and he appointed the NSA as co-Chairman.
“The NSA and the President have a smooth working relationship and the same can be said of his relationship with the Chief of Staff. I think Nigerians need to learn more about the sensitivity of the role of the NSA,” the source said.
Some Nigerians on social media had raised eyebrow over the absence of the NSA and the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari at a meeting with Security Chiefs claiming that it could have been as a result of the memo leak from the Presidency.
A letter by NSA Monguno to the Chief of Staff was leaked to the media by unknown persons. In the letter, Mr Monguno said Mr Kyari’s directives to service chiefs were sometimes issued without the knowledge much less approval of the president, a practice he said has added to government’s failure to contain insecurity.
“Chief of staff to the president is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn to an oath of defending the country,” Mr Monguno, a retired major-general, said in the December 9, 2019, letter.
“As such, unprofessional practices such as presiding over meetings with service chiefs and heads of security organisations as well as ambassadors and high commissioners to the exclusion of the NSA and/or supervising ministers are a violation of the Constitution and directly undermine the authority of Mr President.
“Such acts and continues meddlesomeness by chief of staff have not only ruptured our security an defence efforts, but have slowed down any meaningful gain that Mr President has sought to achieve.”