NewStats: 3,261,688 , 8,174,791 topics. Date: Friday, 30 May 2025 at 07:14 AM 3p1b4g

The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, appears to have taken sides with Abba Kyari in the chief of staff’s raging battle against the national security adviser, Babagana Monguno, TIMES can report based on fresh documents and knowledgeable officials.

In a move decried within the national security circles as being aimed more at “cutting the NSA to size” than maximising personnel efficiency, Mr Buratai ordered the immediate withdrawal of top army officers attached to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) earlier this month.

A few days after seven colonels and three army generals serving at the NSA were ordered to leave without being replaced on February 4, the remaining team of 13 army officers serving at the NSA were notified to report elsewhere on February 10, leaving the fortified ONSA facility without any army protection, according to security sources and the notice of deployment seen by TIMES.

Twenty-three army officers serving at the ONSA were posted out without being replaced in two batches on February 4 and 10, documents showed.

Mr Monguno was away from the country at the time of the postings, our sources said, but he rejected the entire exercise as a charade upon his return and ordered the personnel to disregard Mr Buratai’s directive and remain in place.

Yet, Mr Buratai himself has not rescinded his decision, over two weeks after the first letters of deployment went out.

‘Vindictive postings’

Mr Buratai approved postings of about 137 army officers serving in over a dozen military departments and formations between February 4 and 10. Twenty-three army officers serving at the NSA were transferred out without being replaced, the largest redeployment from a single outpost.

The officers consist of two majors-general, one brigadier-general, seven colonels, seven lieutenant colonels, five captains and one lieutenant.

Those affected include Adeyinka Famadewa, a major-general and principal staff officer to the NSA, TIMES learnt. Ado Ibrahim, a colonel and military assistant to the NSA, was also transferred and given three days to report at his new posting in Jaji, home of the military infantry in Kaduna State.

Other than core intelligence analysts of non-uniform career, the NSA, which coordinates all intelligence and security agencies of the Nigerian government, has always been staffed largely by personnel from security and law enforcement agencies in the country, according to officials familiar with its personnel practice.

The Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Navy, police, State Security Service, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the National Intelligence Agency, the civil defence, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service all have personnel at the NSA.

“Any federal law enforcement agency you could think has personnel at the NSA, but most of the directors there are military officers,” a former official of the agency told TIMES.

The former NSA official, who spoke under anonymity because he is still in service, said all the agencies have the powers to make changes to their respective personnel serving there.

“But it has to be in liaison with the NSA before officers could be changed or withdrawn,” the source said. “This is because it takes a cumbersome process to vet personnel before they are itted at the NSA and some requirements have to be satisfied before they are posted out.”

National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno

Mr Monguno returned to the country in the middle of the postings between February 4 and 10. The first batch of the redeployment was reported by Daily Nigerian on February 7, but additional details like the second and total withdrawal of army officers and the lingering stand-off that emanated from it are just being uncovered by TIMES.

All the officers posted out of the NSA were ordered to report at their new posting within three days, failure of which they could face disciplinary action, the transfer memo said.

But Mr Monguno allegedly insisted the officers would not leave the NSA, dismissing their transfer as a vindictive measure taken by Mr Buratai to stand in solidarity with Mr Kyari, who is allegedly helping to keep the service chiefs in office despite public outcry and a resolution by both chambers of the National Assembly.

Army spokesperson Sagir Musa declined requests seeking comments over the crisis. The NSA does not have a spokesperson.

A rudderless team

Mr Buratai’s determination to cut army to the ONSA and Mr Monguno’s decision to spurn it has resulted in a stand-off that could threaten the country’s stability, as military officers are caught between obeying their most-senior commander and another authority that supervises the entire military architecture, security experts said.

The confrontation marks one of the most damaging fallout of a ceaseless animosity between the NSA and Mr Kyari, a former journalist and banker now widely considered the most powerful associate of the president.

It came a few weeks after Mr Monguno, a retired army general who led the military intelligence for several years, wrote a series of memos to President Muhammadu Buhari and other of national security framework, informing them of how Mr Kyari’s undue and dangerous “meddlesomeness” was frustrating efforts to address Nigeria’s acute insecurity.

Two of the NSA’s series of confidential circulars have now been obtained and published by TIMES earlier this week, sparking nationwide uproar and fresh calls for Mr Buhari to take charge of his government and abandon his arcane delegation of powers to close aides.

The published memos, both dated December 9 2019, contained Mr Monguno’s frustration with how Mr Kyari has been overriding key security decisions taken by the president. In some cases, the NSA said, Mr Kyari would summon security chiefs for meetings, a power he has no constitutional backing to wield.

Security sources told TIMES Mr Kyari has been the top State House official pushing for continued stay of service chiefs despite relentless calls for the president to remove them as security has worsened under their watch.

The service chiefs, which comprise the chief of army staff, chief of naval staff, chief of air staff and the chief of defence staff, were appointed shortly after Mr Buhari assumed office in 2015. They were all senior military officers nearing retirement at the time they were appointed in July 2015.

But when they were due for retirement after two years in July 2017, the president asked them to remain in office for another six months, a decision that caused many in the military to grumble about their uncertain career progression.

When the six months tenure elongation elapsed in December 2017, Mr Buhari again extended the tenure of the service chiefs, commending them for a great service and citing the need to maintain existing approach to tackling insecurity, especially the ongoing war against Boko Haram.

The president has continued to renew the tenure of the service chiefs, mostly biannually and sometimes without an official statement.

“The service chiefs now seem to believe they have been retained in office at the benevolence of the president’s chief of staff and not the president himself,” said security and political analyst Sola Olubanjo. “There is a serious danger in such a mindset.”

Mr Olubanjo said the hostility between the NSA and the chief of staff has already started throwing up issues whose implications may be too costly for the country.

“If it is true that we already have a situation in which military officers are unable to obey the chief of army staff because the NSA asked them not to, then we might not be able to comprehend where the country is headed,” the analyst added.

Ken Eluma Asogwa, a legal practitioner who chaired a political action committee that backed Mr Buhari at the last election, said it was bad enough that Mr Buratai ordered withdrawal of security chiefs from the ONSA.

“I am not privy to the information, but I know TIMES is credible enough and I will say that I am disappointed that we have this kind of situation,” Mr Eluma Asogwa said. ” It is bad enough that the chief of army staff ordered withdrawal of personnel from ONSA and even more unspeakable that they were unable to obey his directive.”

The analyst said Mr Buhari cannot afford to keep tolerating disastrous developments in his national security framework without mitigating them, especially at this time of national emergency on security.

“The NSA is the one who would be advising the president on security matters, either intelligence, training or exercise, and not the chief of staff,” he said. “The president should take charge now.”

https://www.timesng.com/news/headlines/378335-exclusive-abba-kyari-monguno-war-army-chief-buratai-moves-against-nsa.html

President Abba Kyari should try as much as possible to reduce the noise, as a president of the country, he shouldn't be seen fighting like a market woman....


I was expecting President Abba Kyari to handle the situation like the way he handled the life of buhari, but it seems President Abba Kyari has disappointed me.

The expired product (Burutai) knows he is still displayed on the show glass ( still retaining his job) because NAFDAC (Abba Kyari) has not removed it.

The most stupid thing therefore would be for an expired product to take up a fight with NAFDAC.

Burutai has got to align with Abba Kyari to save his head.

Abba kyari overriding the president while we have a vice president.....
Last time I checked,the position occupied by Abba kyari isn't Constitutional...so I just have One question to ask...

WHERE IS OUR VICE PRESIDENT...Yemi OSIBANJO?

Imagine this generation of useless leaders Nigeria have ever had.They dont even care if Nigeria is finally destroyed in their egocentric fight.Buratai fighting NSA? Nigeria is doomed.

Nigeria is an international village!

Puppet President.

I believe this is a joke or false news because I don't believe that the coas will secretly be fighting the national security adviser

Zoo country but fools and zombie think otherwise

God is about to expose some secrets in the enemy Camp

Na waa ooo

Monguno is fighting Aba Kyari, Buratai is fighting Monguno, Boko Haram is decimating the north with reckless abandon, yet Buhari is silent ...

Real trouble in paradise !

I don't expect an inefficient man to stand with someone who criticize his inefficiency. This current CoAS is the worst of it all. But Nigeria is a joke cause some military postings should be a constant. Removing the staff at NSA office is like removing the security staff at Aso Rock because you are fighting with the President

Hand of Esau, voice of Jacob.
Who does not know who is pulling the string.

A mere aide acting as president? It means the one parading himself as president buhari is nothing but a dummy and a impostor.
The likes of Abba Kyari, Mammam Daura and Buratai have commited high treason. They all must be arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to death for endengering Nigeria's national security by installing a Impostor as president of Nigeria. There's no greater crime for a group of evil minded men to commit like bringing in a impostor to act as president of a country while they rule the country from the shadows.
ONE NIGERIA IS DEAD!

Little wonder why the terrorism fight is just tales by moonlight.

So the security issues has been reduced to games of supremacy

"A house divided against itself cannot stand"






Do you know I give cheap loans?

Interesting

Just imagine! The country has gone to the dogs!!!

Abba Kyari is now the president and some fools who collect a meagre stipend of 30k monthly will come here to shout 'Our darling daddy' up and down, selling rotten audio suya.

Anyone who contributed to the enthronement of this calamity called buhari will suffer a great suffering, whether old or young, male or female. I stretch out my hand and lay a curse on them!!!

Racoon:
Imagine this generation of useless leaders Nigeria have ever had.They dont even care if Nigeria is finally destroyed in their egocentric fight.Buratai fighting NSA? Nigeria is doomed.

Abba kiyari send no one even buharis and his family have no say.

Nigeria is in a very pitiable situation now.

Okay

Do you expect Buruntai to fight against the person who puts turkey and snake meat on his table ? Sai president Abba Kyari

This fight is why Military is not winning the fight.

Next thing now, they will start pulling up so many fraud cases against Munguno

fergie006:


https://www.timesng.com/news/headlines/378335-exclusive-abba-kyari-monguno-war-army-chief-buratai-moves-against-nsa.html

pitch thy tent!!!

President Abba Kyari

Drama everywhere

Party don start.

Hehehe

This country is in serious mess, and it surprises me each time that useless dead animal meat seller comes here to say sing praise of our docile president. Can you imagine what Buratai is preoccupying himself with instead of chasing Shekau, all because remote control Abba Kyari won't have Monguno question his remote control power over docile Buhari.