“Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.’’ – From the poem ‘No man is an Island’ by 17th Century English motivational poet, John Donne
By Iliyasu Gadu
Ilgad2009@gmail.com, 08035355706 (Texts only)
Let us not muck about it. Although Nuhu Ribadu retains his position as National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the appointment of Major-General Adeyinka Famadewa (Rtd) as Special Adviser on Homeland Security should now dawn on him (Ribadu) that as far as issues of National Security are concerned, he has now been demoted to the second rung in pecking order. For all practical purposes, bar the shouting, Ribadu is now surplus to requirements in the Tinubu national security architecture.
The duties and job description alone says it all. If you have been riding that position for upwards of three years and suddenly someone is appointed to take over the meaty part of the job you have been doing, what should that tell you? And if you are still in denial and doubting whether you have been kicked in the teeth or not by this new appointed right before, what do you make of the fact that the gentleman that has been so appointed comes from the service that considers itself the most superior of all the military and security services in the country?
When Ribadu was first appointed, it elicited a considerable stir from the security superstructure in the country where it was thought of as misnomer for a man of Police background to be appointed to what many thought was a reserve for any of the military services. The only other time that a Police officer was appointed to that position was during the military regime of General Sani Abacha with retired Police Commissioner Ismaila Gwarzo.
As someone who has spent a considerable time in the labyrinthine business of power politics and intelligence, National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu demonstrated surprising naivety in his official conduct.
As NSA, Nuhu Ribadu veered off his professional moorings that called for discretion and chose instead to operate as a political flag bearer. A National Security Adviser (NSA) in any country, in view of the very sensitive nature of the job, is supposed and expected to operate with stealth without bringing much attention to himself. Ribadu however chose valour rather than the discretion the job required. His involvement in his native Adamawa politics was the talk of beer parlour gossips. He was seen ferrying clerics and marabouts to Niger in pursuit of religious diplomacy with the military Junta of Abdulrahman Tchiani, an exercise that ultimately bombed.
Ribadu also found himself involved in partisan politics which resonated embarrassingly in the public space and in the Nigerian deep state. To many, he appeared too excited at being appointed to the position of NSA by President Tinubu that he forgot to remember that the job did not call for him to be a toady and sheepishly fawning at the President like an over enthusiastic schoolboy made a prefect over his school mates.
If there were doubts about Ribadu’s unnecessary partisan proclivities in this regard, his statement ‘’Nobody fights Tinubu and wins’’ promptly cleared such reservations. This was not a statement that portrayed him as a professional spymaster with years of experience spent bringing Nigeria’s economic and security felons to Justice which he did admirably in his role as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This was a statement a little notch higher than what a known Tinubu enforcer like MC Oluomo would utter in Mushin, Lagos as warning to political opponents of the president in that precinct.
Would there be any tears for the lanky Adamawa born cop? Nary a little.
From the moment Ribadu presented himself as a politically exposed NSA, he lost the plot. And when he delved deeper into the world of Nigeria’s insecurity issues by openly being cozy with the insurgents, he gave impetus to his legion of naysayers who had always suspected him of covertly supporting the insurgents. Again his alleged statements to effect that the insurgents were brethren and that no matter their offences, they should not be discarded and treated as enemies to be hunted down reeked of an unpardonable indiscretion that must have made even his backers in The Presidency cringe. And when the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) carried an exclusive report that a helicopter was sighted dropping cash in a location meant for selected insurgent groups as ‘’settlement’’ then we did not need to read the tea leaves to know that Ribadu was skating on thin ice as NSA.
In the world of mirrors, cloaks and daggers which he operates and in which he had spent a considerable time over the years, Ribadu need not be told that survival depends principally on thinking while standing. For a job where many had questioned his appointment from many angles in first place, it does not pay to be repeatedly caught with smoking guns lots of time as Ribadu did by acts of omission and commission.
The tragedy is that Ribadu failed to see that the ground was gradually shifting under his feet all this time. The discovery that some of the officers accused and apprehended for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government of President Tinubu were drawn from his office should have signaled to him that the powers that be above him would certainly not view this lightly. If a coup plot is being hatched right under the man on whose hands the security architecture of the administration and indeed the country is entrusted, then it is no rocket science to expect that the days of the man at the centre of it all as the top security adviser to the government are numbered.
With the new appointment of an adviser on Homeland Security effectively splitting the job, this is a backhanded slap to Ribadu that he is no longer trusted on the job.
Some have speculated that Ribadu will be left with the foreign component of the job, liaising principally with the American government and the lobbying and PR firms laundering the image of the Tinubu administration. For the government, that will be convenient step to take in biding time with a person who knows too much and may possibly spill the beans if pushed suddenly out of the power and security loop. But the optics of photo ops with President Trumps White House, Congress and State Department American officials who themselves may likely be swept out of office in the November mid-term elections later this year is not as far reaching as a full time NSA which Ribadu would have to share with General Famadewa.
Indeed, going forward, Ribadu may be tolerated for now but at some point, perhaps not too far from now it will not be out of place to hear or read that President Tinubu had accepted the resignation of Nuhu Ribadu as NSA on ‘’health grounds’’ as happened with similar high-profile appointees of this administration who had to be shoved out to bite the dust when they became either inconvenient or surplus to requirements.
In the likely event of that happening, for Ribadu who spent a proportionate time of his tenure as NSA being indiscreet and having a go at perceived political opponents of his principal, the above opening remarks in this article is highly recommended in his moments of reflection.
Iliyasu Gadu, a former Foreign Service Officer who served at the Nigerian Missions in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK), is also a columnist with Daily Trust
