Presidential aide Dada Olusegun has revealed that National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu once served as President Bola Tinubu's special adviser on security for three weeks.

According to him, this gave Tinubu the confidence to appoint Ribadu as NSA, partly due to the fact that both men had worked together during their time in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

In an opinion piece, Olusegun highlighted the progress Nigeria has made in terms of security since Ribadu was named as NSA.

He said, "When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu broke from standard tradition and announced the appointment of former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as his National Security Adviser, a lot of eyebrows were raised with many expressing doubts about the wisdom behind entrusting a former police officer with the task of advising the president on the seemingly complex issues of national security.

"But Malam Nuhu Ribadu is no ordinary policeman and surely, President Bola Tinubu is no ordinary president. Crucially, they are not strangers to each other having known each other and worked together politically since the ACN days. Before his elevation as the National Security Adviser to President Tinubu, Malam Nuhu Ribadu served as his Special Adviser on Security for almost three weeks. Therefore it is safe to state that Tinubu's choice of Ribadu as NSA was a thought-out decision.

"Malam Nuhu Ribadu has spent 25 full months as NSA to the President and within this period, he has redefined a lot about that office and what it can achieve. Nigeria's security landscape over the past two years has changed drastically. It is necessary to highlight the scale of security challenges across different parts of the country that President Bola Tinubu's administration inherited as of May 29, 2023. This will give us a clear picture of the remarkable progress made in the area of national security under this administration.

"A peep into the security challenges Tinubu inherited.

"The Tinubu administration inherited at least four major security headaches that were seriously threatening Nigeria's national security and they include the following:

"Terror Attacks in the North:* Between 2022 and early 2023, Nigeria began to witness a kind of resurgence in deadly attacks by Boko Haram beyond Borno where they were initially restricted by the security forces. For example, in July 2022, a splinter group of Boko Haram staged a daring attack in which over 100 terrorists descended on the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja from three sides simultaneously, killing five people and freeing over 879 inmates with over 16 persons injured. On the same day as the Kuje attack, terrorists attacked a presidential convoy in Dutsinma, Katsina State.

"Terrorists also in late July 2022 attacked officials of the 7 Guards Battalion of the Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade in a surprise ambush around the Bwari Area Council in the FCT, killing eight personnel and leaving three soldiers injured. Earlier in March 2022, another daring terror attack on a Kaduna-bound train from Abuja resulted in the death of 10 persons and the abduction of 61 passengers. Terrorists also began to increasingly stage attacks on both military and civilian targets across parts of the North East.

"Proliferation of Banditry in North West:* Banditry increased in intensity around 2022 with many states in the North West and a few areas in the North Central coming under siege by deadly bandits. Mass kidnapping for ransom, cattle rustling and other violent crimes became rife to the point that many food-producing communities and agricultural produce hubs such as Birnin Gwari became ghost towns, negatively impacting food security. Kaduna alone recorded 1,192 killings and over 3,348 kidnapped under the previous administration. The spate of kidnapping-for-ransom was one of the reasons adduced by the Buhari administration for embarking on the currency redesign policy.

"Large-scale crude oil theft/pipeline vandalism:* The menace of oil theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refineries was another security challenge that increasingly became chronic in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The combined impact of these was the drastic decline of Nigeria's crude oil output. Nigeria averaged 998,602 barrels per day in April 2023 - way off the 1.5mbpd OPEC quota for Nigeria."

ASA