NSA Monguno And The Prophecy of Aisha Buhari -By Mohammed Ali

NSA, Babagana Monguno

President Muhammadu Buhari’s crave to serve Nigerians and his eventual ascension to Nigeria’s Presidency in 2015 was propelled by a noble mission to salvage a dying and sapped nation. He was pained at the manner the country was being misgoverned and mindlessly raped by the political elite who consider Nigeria, an extension of a family patrimony.

Clearly, President Buhari is on this mission of redemption. But he is not achieving his set targets in governance as rapidly as intended. He came unto power on the merger of about four opposing political parties, which formed the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the slogan of “change.’ But this house is peopled by many strange bedfellows, allied to him by political fraternity.

It is plausible to argue that President Buhari is surrounded with appointees, most of whom do not share his vision and mission of leadership of the country. And they are aplenty, some of them holding very sensitive appointments.

Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari expressed the frustrations in an interview on BBC Hausa Service in 2016. She was lucid that the government of her husband, President Buhari is being sabotaged by venomous elements. She said, the saboteurs’ and moles in the system have invented multiple tricks to frustrate the success of the Buhari Presidency, which may affect the President’s 2019 reelection bid.

She thundered; “The President does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years.”

The prophetic comments attracted outrage from the political class. But the truth could not be deflated by the array of vexations which trailed it. The President has continued to operate in the midst of strange wolves in the last three years, some of whom nurse or support those ambitions which conflict with that of the President.

The saboteurs or moles are the first to see the President and, the last persons to bid him good night every day. But their loyalty to him and patriotism and patriotism to the country is translucently questionable. They are inseparably attached to other political demigods, they wished would have taken over President Buhari’s seat.

Of course, Nigerians would still reminisce the saga of the Minister of Women Affairs, Sen. Aisha Alhassan (Mama Taraba). Though a member of President Buhari’s cabinet, she could not conceal her affinity and loyalty to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is rapaciously and overtly interested in unseating Buhari in 2019.

So, they work against the progress of the government of President Buhari and the nation. With every passing minute, these appointees strewn the President’s path with near insurmountable obstacles. They are betrayers and traitors.

But Mama Taraba is not alone in this game of treachery against President Buhari. There are many others, who prefer to court and romance with President Buhari’s stiffest political opponents. They hold secret meetings, wine and dine together.

President Buhari’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen. Mohammed Babagana Monguno (rtd) appears to be the latest addition to the list of Presidential appointees, who are determinately undermining the interests of the Buhari Presidency. An office such as the NSA is sensitive enough, especially now that Nigeria is assailed by acts of insecurity which are laced in terrorism, insurrections’ and armed local conflicts.

The President needs to be properly guided by the office of NSA to make informed decisions or implement policies that would douse the tension occasioned by these conflicts in the land. But it appears Gen. Monguno is more interested in festering crisis in Nigeria to project the Buhari Presidency in bad light.

Monguno is a known affiliate of Gen. TY Danjuma (rtd) and a close ally of the Senate President, Sen. Bukola Saraki. Nigerians are aware that these two leaders have intensified their feud with President Buhari, yet the NSA reportedly still romances with them.

After his famous call for self-defence by Nigerians, Gen. Danjuma has held secret meetings with other leaders in the country ostensibly to perfect the ouster of President Buhari in 2019. And the Sen. Saraki led National Assembly met a few days ago, and released an 11-point resolution against the Presidency. From the wordings and tenor of the resolutions, it’s clear to every discerning mind that the parliament has drawn the final battle line with President Buhari.

And one of the several actions being contemplated is the impeachment of President Buhari should he refuse to do their bidding. There are strong indications that the National Assembly leadership is plotting to rattle and hijack the Presidency of Nigeria from Buhari.

The graph drawn by the detractors has also named successors to President Buhari and Gen. Monguno is allegedly promised the Vice Presidency slot in the event the plot succeeds.

Recent media reports allegedly quoted Gen. Monguno as holding a secret or close-door meeting with Senators, which flaunted the spate of crisis in the country as reason for his parley with Senators. Even if one accepts dummy sold to the public as reason for the Monguno/Senators meeting, what the NSA allegedly told the Senators in an informal forum extremely questions his loyalty and allegiance to President Buhari.

The NSA reportedly claimed the unabated insecurity in the country is caused by the disobedience of other Security Chiefs to his summons for dialogue on the matter. But ideally, if Security Chiefs are hesitant to respond to the NSA’s invitations and he has reason to believe it is insubordination, he reported the matter to the President, who promised action on it.

But while he referred the matter to the President, NSA Monguno again reported the President to Senators over a matter he would have handled quietly with Mr. President.

Monguno apparently ignored the President and preferred to cast the administration in bad light before Senators to create the impression that the President has lost control over his Security Chiefs. Gen. Monguno consciously provided the Senators with another reason they could enrich the list of offences being prepared for President Buhari’s planned impeachment.

Therefore, Hajiya Aisha Buhari’s prophetic commentary is gathering steam by the day. The strange bedfellows are becoming more daring and vicious in the cleverly crafted plots to upstage President Buhari. The President’s inability to reshuffle his cabinet has given these wolves around him the false impression that they are untouchable.

Ali is a public affairs analyst and wrote from Kaduna.