President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday held his first meeting meeting with newly-appointed National Security Adviser (NSA) and uniformed members of the National Defence and Security Councils at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, telling them: “There’s Work To Be Done.”
Both the National Defence Council and the National Security Council are statutory bodies under the Third Schedule Part I Federal Executive Bodies (Established by Section 153).
In fact, Section 26 says: “The Council shall have power to advise the President on matters relating to public security including matters relating to any organisation or agency established by law for ensuring the security of the Federation.”
In the same vein, the National Defence Council also advises the President in matters of defence.
Apart from the NSA, the uniformed members of the two Councils include, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff and the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
The meeting comes two weeks after the President approved new appointees to the offices, specifically on June 19, 2023.
And on Monday, July 3, 2023, the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who was equally appointed on the same day, led the uniformed members to the meeting. They include Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla; Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Hassan Abubakar; and the Acting IGP, Kayode Egbetokun.
Arising from the meeting, Mallam Ribadu said: “We’re here to thank Mr President for the opportunity he gave us to serve our country and to serve his own government. We also pledged our loyalty to him, Nigeria and Nigerians. We believe the choice he made is the right one, the correct one, and we know what he wants for this country.”
“We’re going to work tirelessly to ensure that we accomplish that objective of securing our country, establishing peace, stability and let’s get our lives back. He gave us the assurance that he’s with us hundred percent. He told us that we must work as a team and that there’s work to be done, he’ll expect us to deliver and we’re grateful for the opportunity. That’s why we are here.
“Where we are today and you can see already things are improving in our country. If you see the record of crimes and activities of criminals are going down, it will continue to go down. We’ll secure this place. Nigerians have seen the quality of the people that are given opportunity, they are probably some of the best we have and they are not going to fail you, they’ll certainly deliver. Thank you very much.”
