SGF Inaugurates Committee on National Threat Assessment, Strategic Defence Operations

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, has inaugurated the committee recently established by President Bola Tinubu to prepare a comprehensive National Threat Assessment and a rolling five-year Strategic Defence Operations plan for the country.

The committee is to be coordinated by Office of Mr. President’s Special Adviser on Homeland Security, Major-General Adeyinka A. Famadewa (Rtd).

Some members of the committee include National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu; Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa; Minister of State for Defence, Alhaji Bello Muhammad Matawalle; and Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede.

Others are Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Waidi Shaibu; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Aneke; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Idi Abbas; Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu; Director-General, Department of State Services (DSS), Tosin Ajayi; and Director-General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Muhammed Muhammed.

Akume urged the committee to attach importance to the assignment and deliver both documents within 90 days for the consideration and approval of the president.

He called for the highest degree of professionalism, objectivity, urgency, and patriotism in the committee’s approach by consulting or co-opting representatives of other ministries, departments and agencies whose specialised knowledge might be required in the course of its work.

The SGF stated that contemporary security threats were increasingly interconnected and adaptive, with the capacity to exploit gaps between institutions, jurisdictions, and operational theatres.

Akume added that the inauguration would strengthen the country’s capacity to understand, anticipate, plan for, and respond effectively to an increasingly complex and evolving security environment.

He lauded the recent successes by the armed forces and other security agencies across different theatres, stressing the need to move beyond responding to individual security challenges to establishing a system capable of anticipating threats, setting priorities, allocating resources rationally, and sustaining operational momentum.

He charged heads of defence, intelligence, and security agencies to retain the flexibility required to respond to immediate threats and hinge their responses on a shared national understanding of the security environment and a coherent short, medium, and long-term strategy.

The SGF explained that the committee was expected to help establish a coherent strategic system in which Nigeria’s assessment of threats would determine operational objectives, while the objectives would, in turn, determine the capabilities required.

“In simple terms, we must establish a clear path from threat to objective, from objective to capability, from capability to resource, and from resource to measurable outcome,” Akume said.

He said the national threat assessment should provide the government with a comprehensive and objective understanding of Nigeria’s security landscape by identifying what threatened the country, why the threats mattered, how they were likely to evolve, the consequences of failing to address them, and the appropriate government response.

He added that the assessment would provide a common planning basis for the armed forces, intelligence services and other relevant security agencies while helping the government discern between immediate threats requiring urgent operational responses and emerging threats demanding early investment in intelligence, technology, infrastructure, doctrine, training, and other capabilities.

Akume stated that the five-year strategic defence operations plan, which should establish what must be achieved in each operational theatre and identify the forces, capabilities, equipment, logistics, intelligence and other enablers required to achieve the objectives, would translate the National Threat Assessment into a practical and prioritised operational requirements.

He said the timeframe would provide the medium-term horizon required for force development, capability acquisition, infrastructure development, training, maintenance, research and development, and the strengthening of Nigeria’s defence industrial base.

The plan would operate on a rolling basis and would be reviewed annually to accommodate emerging threats, changing operational realities, technological developments, and lessons from ongoing operations.

Akume said military and security personnel, who continued to demonstrate courage and commitment in defending the country, deserved a strategic framework that clearly defined their objectives and provided the capabilities, resources, and support required to accomplish them.

In his closing remarks, Special Adviser to the President on Homeland Security, Famadewa, expressed appreciation to Tinubu for the confidence reposed in members of the committee and for the opportunity given to them to contribute to the security and wellbeing of the country.

He tasked the members to synergise towards strengthening Nigeria’s security architecture, stressing that the assignment must be approached as a shared national responsibility.