Apparently, the situation at the Villa has now calmed. Yet, there is no denying the fact that the issues have not been entirely quashed. In fact, it can be said that there is still a cold war in the affairs of the nation’s security circles. Things came to a head when the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), via a circular dated December 9, 2019, titled, “Disruption of National Framework by Unwarranted Meddlesomeness,” accused the Chief of Staff (COS) to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, of usurping his powers and those of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Monguno, in the circular copied to all Service, Intelligence and Security Chiefs including the Ministers of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Interior and Police Affairs as well as the COS to the President, accused Kyari of authoring two circulars on September 13 and November 26, 2019, respectively, with contents and directives which were at variance with the president’s orders. He said that what Kyari is doing is an aberration as he is not authorized to preside over national security meetings nor competent enough to determine and manage the nation’s security architecture and trajectory.
To this end, he warned Kyari to desist from continuing in these line of actions and also directed the security and intelligence chiefs as well as the ministers to follow the established line of authority in national security coordination through the NSA.
Part of the letter read: “For clarification, other than direct verbal directives from the President, written directives ’emanating from Mr President would be conveyed with a copy of his manuscript directive or at minimum, bear his signature.
“Similarly, you are reminded that the Chief of Staff to the President is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn in an oath of defending the country. 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.”
Although Monguno has made his grievance known, it is apparent from the unfolding drama that Kyari has the upper hand and, rightly so, especially if the circular from the Office of the NSA accusing him of hijacking the function of coordinating the security activities of the country is anything to go by.
This accusation, seemingly wrongly made by Monguno has, expectedly, created a lack of trust between himself and Kyari. The accusation is seemingly wrong because it takes only a pedestrian knowledge of Kyari to understand that he never dabbles into responsibilities that are not statutorily his throughout his career. Abba Kyari knows how dangerous it could be to overstep his boundary within the corridors of power.
Before he became a lawyer, Kyari obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick, England, in 1980. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1983. In 1984, he obtained a Masters’ Degree in Law from his alma-mater, the University of Cambridge.
Between 1988 and 1990, he was the editor with the New Africa Holdings Limited Kaduna, (publishers of Democrat Newspapers). He served with the Borno State Executive Council as commissioner for forestry and animal resources in 1990 and he was a secretary to the Board of African International Bank Limited, between 1990 and 1995.
Abba Kyari was at a time an executive director, management services, United Bank for Africa Plc. (UBA) and later the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Bank. He was appointed a director of Unilever Nigeria Plc. in 2002.
Thus, Kyari, it can be said, is an accomplished man who has used his vast experience in the management of the affairs of the Presidency and, specifically introduced measures, in line with the objectives of the Buhari-led administration, to streamline administration and combat corruption.
Currently, a concerted fight against corruption has broken out in many spheres of the country’s social life where corruption has reared its ugly head. Public awareness of and tolerance for corruption has seen a sea change over the past few years as information and expectations, all generated by Kyari, have caused people to expect more from their leaders.
However, while much of the focus of the current struggle to reduce corruption is on making bribes more difficult to pay and accept, “corruption” involves much more than bribes. Corruption, defined more comprehensively, involves inappropriate use of political power and reflects a failure of the political institutions within a society. Corruption seems to result from an imbalance between the processes of acquisition of positions of political power in a society, the rights associated with those positions of power, and the rights of citizens to control the use of that power.
Power leads to temptation for misuse of that power. When such misuse is not disciplined by the institutions that represent the rights of the citizens, corruption can follow.
And, rightly, this is the point Kyari seeks to make which, unfortunately, his attempt pitches him against some interests in the country. In fact, in the view of Kyari, a successful fight against corruption, which is really one part of the challenge for effective governance of societies, would seem to require a thorough understanding of the link between the institutions, including military, and corruption.
Of course, it is said that if you trouble corruption, corruption will trouble you. Nowhere is this saying made visible than in the many fights, one of which is from the ONSA, that Kyari fights.
Therefore, accusations such as Kyari acting contrary to protocols and in a situation akin to acting in the capacity of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, convening and chairing meetings with heads of defence, security and intelligence agencies with their supervising ministers in attendance are anything but the truth.
Agreed, new initiatives introduced by Kyari have potency to and, in some cases, actually unsettles some institutions and individuals and they will continue to do so until those unsettled come to terms with the style of Kyari that is designed to improve the way activities are carried out in government circles.
Exploring ways to protect Nigerians from COVID 19
If nothing else, Nigeria, especially under this administration, should be commended for its foresight and ability to deal comprehensively, with health disasters. Here, how the administration has dealt with the outbreak of ebola disease readily comes to mind.
Now, the government has foreseen the economic problems that may come in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and says it would explore ways to protect the people and the economy.
President Muhammadu Buhari reveals the readiness of the country to battle Covid-19 and measures that the country will adopt to achieve its objective. The president spoke in Abuja when he hosted the members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) led by Professor Doyin Salami.
With oil prices oscillating between $29 and $30 dollars in recent times, against the $57 dollars benchmark for the year 2020 budget, he said: “We will see how to survive fallen prices, as we already envisaged the problem.”
He said protecting the people from vagaries of international economic fortunes and associated fallen prices of oil, is a priority of government, “and we will do our best to do so.”
Already, the federal government has banned all travels outside the country by officials of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) till further notice.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, who announced this at the end of inaugural meeting of the Presidential Task Force the Control of Coronavirus (COVID-19), advised private citizens to cancel all travels abroad, especially to high risk countries.
The 2019 coronavirus started in the city of Wuhan (Hubei province) and belongs to the same group of viruses as SARS and MERS. In most cases, these viruses lead to relatively mild symptoms such as fever, coughing and shortness of breath (according to the World Health Organization). Because SARS has plagued China before (in late 2002 and 2003), it seems natural to compare the situation then to now.
Based on the current data, the 2019 coronavirus seems to be less deadly than SARS. Where SARS had a mortality rate (number of deaths per number of affected people) of 10%, the 2019 coronavirus’ most recent numbers indicate a significantly lower mortality rate.
Although it is not clear yet whether the 2019 coronavirus is more contagious than SARS (they both are assumed to spread through the air), it does seem to be spreading faster than SARS. The 2002/2003 SARS outbreak led to a total of about 8,000 cases over a course of eight months while the 2019 coronavirus has almost that number in a couple of weeks.
The coronavirus that is currently spreading in China and beyond its borders, has financial markets rattled. Luckily, experience with virus outbreaks in the past, in Nigeria, shows that the economy often bounce back quickly.
No doubt, as the president rightly pointed out, the economic impacts of Covid-19 on Nigeria hinges on the ability of the government to contain the virus and its policy actions to mitigate the said impacts.
However, even if the virus outbreak turns out to be comparable to SARS, its global economic effects are likely to be larger than in 2002/2003. Because economies are more interlinked than 17 years ago with global economic growth already in a deceleration phase, the virus is another risk that supports the view that we could see global recession this year and that central banks will probably have more work to do in terms of providing stimulus.
Agreed, Nigeria does not expect any permanent damage to the economy. In the past, economies were forced to make up for temporary losses after the dust had settled and in the case of Coronavirus it won’t be different.
Although the current crisis could make it even harder for Nigeria to live up to its recent pledge to build widespread infrastructure, it is unlikely that Buharinomics will fail to deal with impacts of the disease on the country’s economy.
However, in case of a further spread of the virus globally, the risk of permanent damage to our economy could increase significantly. Thankfully, the PEAC advocated hard work for Nigeria to keep its head above the waters.
