By his task in the conduct of the affairs of today’s Nigeria, and his style of accomplishing the task, Colonel Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (rtd) does not portray a personality many of his fellow countrymen would wish to envy.
The National Security Adviser (NSA) radiates at least two striking personalities – there could be more, depending on how individual Nigerians study the present calamitous security situations of the country, and what citizens like him should (did I hear you say must?) do to salvage it.
For the sake of whoever doesn’t know his pedigree, Colonel Mohammed Sambo Ibrahim Dasuki is the son of Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, the 18th Sultan of Sokoto. By this virtue, he is a prince of the Sokoto Sultanate from the House of Buhari Dan Shehu (Buhari the son of Shehu Uthman Danfodio, the founder and spiritual leader of the 19th Century Sokoto Caliphate).
Dasuki was trained several had institutions like the Nigeria Defence Academy; US Army Field Artillery School, U.S Army Command and General Staff College, American University (where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations) and George Washington University (where he obtained an MA in Security Policy Studies).
As a colonel in the Nigerian Army, he was once the Aide-de-camp (ADC) to the Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who he reportedly served so loyally to incur the wrath of the then Chief of Army Staff (later Head of State), the late General Sani Abacha who is said to have told him to his face: “Sambo, I think there is a Caliphate arrogance in you that needs to be checked later.”
Currently, Dasuki radiates a rather perplexing personality. As the National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, he is the Chief Counsellor and Superintendent of the implementation of the country’s security policies and programmes, aside being the principal tool in the formulation and moulding of these policies and programmes, at least in the sense of what is normally meant to be seen by the general public.
Understandably, the National Security Adviser is certainly among a special caste of citizens who, by both training and assigned duty, should see things through the special prism of State Security and Intelligence, although, in today’s complex World, there is a growing population of freelance security and intelligence operatives and mercenaries.
By his appointment to this capacity to perform his assigned tasks made epically challenging by the rather blistering situation he must wade through, Dasuki is radiating a personality so mystifying to some of his fellow countrymen who had expected to see spectacular success in combating insurgency coming in leaps and bounds.
During the time of his predecessor, the late General Andrew Azazi, the security situation in the North-Eastern part of the country was gradually becoming alarming, and in the context of a rather adolescent thinking, a Northerner who should know how best to navigate the terrain and sweep out insurgency with much ease and as fast as required by the country’s prevailing political situations, should be appointed as the National Security Adviser.
Not long after his assumption of duty, the song of some Nigerians began to die in their lips, as the poet would say, and they trudged home with heavy feet appallingly disappointed that the epic calamity of insurgency was rather worsening, eroding fast into the country’s territories in the manner of cancer.
They often ask questions such as ‘What is he doing there?’ ‘Didn’t he foresee the enormity of the challenges, the frightful heights of the hurdles he must scale, to perform the task?’ ‘Didn’t he know that he would not be able to perform it?’ Was he tricked into accepting the appointment and, subsequently, trapped and hamstrung to handle the task according to how some invisible and invincible forces clandestinely instruct him to, which has resulted in what majority of Nigerians assess as disappointing performance?’ The list of such questions irritating the minds of such Nigerians seems endless.
For me, Dasuki exudes the exceptional personality of an army officer so verse in the tact and strategy of handling challenging tasks which resulted in the achievement of some concrete successes that would not be immediately comprehensible and appreciable, especially by his fellow citizens who know very little or nothing about the art and science of treading on the delicate turf of security and intelligence to handle delicate tasks at delicate times.
In this context, the public view and assessment of his personality on the scale of the task he handles seem completely inconsequential. His personality may tower in terms of some crucial and outstanding successes achieved on the scale of his assigned tasks, he should normally not bother being assessed in the reverse by the ‘unintelligent’ fellow citizens who may feel unjustifiably disappointed by his performance.
Aside some hidden political considerations and pressures, and these are certainly not unlikely, the fact that he has stayed put in his challenging office all through, carrying the massive weight of his enormous task and wading through the, until recently, escalating calamity of insurgency, should suffice to satisfy Nigerians that he is writing an impressive score sheet of himself as NSA, which he may be ready to proudly brandish before whoever slights his noble pedigree and his personality as a fine military officer, or questions his ability and trustworthiness in handling the task of crushing insurgency, or, worse still, cast any aspersion on his patriotism as a faithful, loyal and honest Nigerian.
These two personalities finely entwined to shape one solid personality of a Proud Prince and finely trained military officer who has painstakingly built an enviable prowess by exploring regions that majority of his peers dread to tread in such terribly challenging circumstances and times when only a very few toughly built personalities in his class can carry out tough assignments.
It is becoming glaringly clear both in the ‘providential’ circle of security and intelligence and in the general public that his occupation of the NSA capacity, and his tact and strategy in his efforts at combating insurgency, despite some intermittent escalations, have outstandingly served as the most impervious shield for the country, or, at least, the affected regions of the country, against more perilous terror activities which could possibly have occurred if a personality like him had not been appointed.
Despite the raging controversy over his recent utterances and actions, Colonel Mohammed Sambo Dasuki has indisputably proudly achieved two spectacular successes: shielding the country from unforeseen more dreadfully calamitous insurgency endeavours with some unfathomable tact and strategy, despite what may seem as sporadic escalations; and the ongoing rapid de-escalation of terror activities signposting the end of insurgency, to render the coast clear for the country to berth on the shores of safe and secure 2015 general elections, in the best interest of this corporate entity called Nigeria.
These are no mean feats. This Prince is flamboyantly dressed in gleaming prowess