During several debates, some experts assert that the role of the National Security Adviser (NSA) is so clear in the Act while others aver that the Office of the National Security Security Adviser (ONSA) was created with very little in the way of an identifiable mandate, save for the general responsibility of coordinating national security policy and this leaves open the possibility for significant problems. In my opinion, the Act actually created a largely undefined position copied from the U.S., that required the occupant to be self-limiting in order to succeed.
To answer WHAT ARE the roles and responsibilities of the NSA in Nigeria, we must refer to the NSA Act which established the office of the Co-ordinator on National Security or NSA as he is more popularly known. The Act says as follows:
(1) For the purpose of COORDINATING (emphasis mine) the intelligence activities of the National Security Agencies set up under section I of this Act (to wit NIA , DSS and DIA), there shall be appointed by the President a Co-ordinator on National Security.
(2) The Coordinator on National Security shall be a Principal Staff Officer in the Office of the President.
The Coordinator on National Security shall be charged with the duty of:
(a) Advising the President on matters concerning the intelligence activities of the security agencies;
(b) Making recommendations in relation to the activities of the agencies to the President, as contingencies may warrant;
(c) Correlating and evaluating intelligence reports relating to the national security and providing the appropriate dissemination of such intelligence within Government, using existing facilities as the President may direct;
(d) Determining the number and level of staff to be employed by each agency established pursuant to Section I of this Act and organising the transfer and posting of staff, especially the transfer and posting of existing staff of the Nigerian Security Organisation established pursuant to the Nigerian Security Organisation Act 1976, repealed by section 7 (1) of this Act;
(e) Doing such other things in connection with the foregoing provisions of this section as the President may, from time to time, determine.
We see from Section 1, the pre-eminent role of the NSA is coordination (which is why the Act actually named him Coordinator on National Security).
Now, we don’t know about the difficulties, if any, other previous NSAs had in coordinating the NIA, DSS and DIA. But current occupant, Major General Babagana Monguno had complained several times publicly and before the National Assembly (NASS) about his difficulty in coordinating various intelligence agencies that obviously don’t want to, or refused to be coordinated by him. Geneneral Monguno has complained bitterly about security/intelligence agencies bosses who do not attend in person meetings that he called but rather send low level representations.
And in frustration, Gen Monguno had called for a review of the Act. It was this complaint by General Monguno that led to the drafting of the bill entitled’National Security Agencies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which calls for a new Sub-section 2 to read: The President shall direct the ONSA to coordinate the intelligence activities of the National Security Agencies (ie DSS, NIA, DIA ). This bill has passed second reading but is yet to be passed into law.
From the foregoing , we may conclude that while the other previous NSAs did not complain of difficulty in coordinating the NIA, DSS and DIA (at least not publicly), General Monguno did. We may also assume that they found the Act had given them enough power and clarity to coordinate while Monguno and even the Senate found the Act inadequate and had sought through the National Security Agencies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
The full name of the bill, which implies that NSA currently has no statutory backing, sponsored by Hon. Mohammed Tahir Monguno is, A BILL FOR AN ACT TO AMEND THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCIES ACT CAP N74 LAWS OF THE FEDERATION OF NIGERIA 2010 TO PROVIDE A STATUTORY BACKING TO THE OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER AND GUARANTEE ITS OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE IN ADDRESSING CRITICAL AND GUARANTEE ITS OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE IN ADDRESSING CRITICAL NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES AND FOR RELATED MATTERS, with the only amendment requested being a new Sub-section 2 to read: The President shall direct the ONSA to coordinate the intelligence activities of the National Security Agencies (ie DSS, NIA, DIA ).
Now if the past six NSAs (except Gambo Jimeta) did not complain (at least not to our knowledge) about the inadequacy of the Act to empower them to coordinate, and only General Monguno did, then three conclusions can be drawn: 1. The other 6 NSAs found the Act adequate for them to exercise their coordination role in which case we could say nothing is wrong with the Act and the problem is with General Monguno.
2. The other 6 NSAs found the Act inadequate for them to exercise their coordination role but chose to keep quiet about it, in which case we can assume General Monguno is the brave one among them to point out a long existing problem that needed fixing and about which non of his predecessors was honest enough to admit.
WHAT SHOULD BE THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NSA
Several experts on the subject matter have offered a catalogue of what responsibilities the NSA should be asked to execute and what he should confine himself to. A list of eight responsibilities have been ascribed to the National Security Advisor at one point or another through its decades of existence in the U.S. system. They are: 1-Process Manager, 2-Source of Independent Policy Advice, 3-Policy of Information, 4-Monitor of Policy Execution, 5-Negotiator, 6-Crisis Manager, 7-Articulator of Policies, 8-Operator.
Out of the eight, I find that almost all experts are unanimous on four. Avoiding those roles come close to operational involvement.
1-Process Manager: NSAs responsibility as a process manager becomes even more important because while the President’s Cabinet acts as the main forum for foreign policy formulation, but at the same time must deal with all domestic policy issues. The lack of a dedicated foreign policy and national security forum means that the NSA must put even more emphasis on acting as the process manager and ‘honest broker,’ to ensure that all ministries, departments and agencies dealing with national security get equal access to the President.
2-Source of Independent Policy Advice: Acting as a source of independent policy advice is a responsibility which the NSA must hold as very important in Nigeria just as it is in the U.S. system. Key foreign policy or national security figures are also cabinet Ministers (Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Interior ), and they are in charge of agencies or departments that come with their own ideologies and policy preferences. It must be the job of the NSA to ensure the information coming from MDAs chiefs is accurate, and that dissenting information is not suppressed. Colin Powell, commenting on this responsibility, states that the Adviser “cannot allow unpleasant information to be shunted aside. He cannot allow minority views to be ignored because they do not reflect the consensus view.” Powell’s words support the conclusion that a National Security Advisor must independently present policy views to the chief executive if these views are not being brought forward by the Department and Agency heads.
3-Packager of Information. It is apparent problems will arise if the President is not receiving all the relevant information needed to make proper decisions. This could be remedied by creating a sort of a Situation Room with the NSA and ONSA staff synthesizing all the incoming paper into coherent reports and updates for the president. ONSA should act as the nerve center for the federal government and centralizes the flow of information to the President’s office.
4-Monitor of Policy Execution. The path of information to the President would also make for the simplest method of monitoring the implementation of policy decisions, a role that has been historically accepted for the NSA in the United States, in order to ensure that policy implementation does not stagnate at different points through the bureaucracy. Without the NSA monitoring policy execution we will find that many Presidential directives and policies are left unimplemented.
In addition to the above four roles for the NSA, across different country offices studied, the key roles and responsibilities discussed in the literature for National Security Adviser (NSA) offices include:
- Analysing security issues, assessing expected trends and prioritising activities.
- Playing an advisory role. Making recommendations to the Prime Minster or President.
- Coordinating and integrating work between different ministries, departments and agencies.
While many experts have written on what the roles of the NSA should be, some have also cautioned the occupants of such offices on roles they should not take unto themselves and to be self limiting in order to succeed . Many experts are of the opinion that the NSA should not be an Articulator of Policies to the public as it is most advisable that as the NSA should not have a personal agenda. The NSA job is an intersection between Defence/Security and Foreign policy and in most governments, there is a Foreign Minister, as well as a Minister of Defence who are the accepted head of the government’s chief foreign policy and/or defence departments. If the National Security Advisor was to begin articulating foreign and /or defence policy to the public, there would be confusion as to who is in fact making foreign and or defence policy.
Similarly, the NSA should not be an Operator since the preferred role for an NSA has become that of a Counselor. In order to be an effective process manager, independent policy advisor, and honest broker, the NSA must operate at a strategic, not operational or tactical, level. That is to say, the NSA must operate at a level above that of the managers of specific sectors of the larger national security community such as the intelligence community or the armed forces.
The very essence of the NSA is that he will operate independently of major departments or agencies, and in a way that attempts to guarantee cohesiveness of national security policy throughout the government.
NEXT PART 3: THE MONGUNO YEARS AS NSA
Group Captain Saheed Shehu (rtd) is an international Defence and Security Consultant and member of Security Committee, APC-PCC