Fadahunsi urges Tinubu to sack Ribadu as NSA

The lawmaker representing Osun East in the Senate, Francis Fadahunsi, has urged President Bola Tinubu to further shake up the nation’s security hierarchy by appointing a retired military officer as National Security Adviser.

Fadahunsi said the current NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, should be redeployed to an area where his expertise would be better utilised.

The senator made the call in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Sam Segun-Progress, and obtained in Osogbo on Tuesday. He had earlier demanded a full overhaul of the country’s defence structure.

In a video of his contribution during plenary, Fadahunsi argued that the President’s security team lacks the military authority needed to command respect.

He 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’? That is part of the problem.

“The Commander-in-Chief needs to look again 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 anyone except their own general.”

Reacting to the resignation of former Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru and the nomination of ex-Chief of Defence Staff, General Chris Musa (retd.), as Defence Minister-designate, Fadahunsi, an APC lawmaker, praised the move.

But he urged Tinubu to go further by replacing Ribadu with a retired military officer “to ensure more effective coordination of the fight against bandits and other violent criminals”.

He added that Ribadu should be reassigned to an area that better suits his core competence.
According to him, those currently managing Nigeria’s defence structure have done their best, but it is time for “people with military backgrounds to come into the system and run with the President’s vision”.