How NSA’s office struggled under Buhari, enabling Kuje Prison, other terror attacks

A former National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, has narrated how the dysfunction around former president Muhammadu Buhari frustrated security initiatives in the country and made the Kuje Prison attacks in 2022 possible.

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Mr Monguno’s narration was captured in Mr Buhari’s biography, “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari”, authored by Charles Omole.

According to the former NSA, power play by Mr Buhari’s close associates, notably his nephew Mamman Daura, Chief of Staff Abba Kyari, among others, and a lacklustre attitude by the president, contributed to failures of the security architecture.

“If the president’s first line in matters of security is the NSA, then starving that office is a way to blind the state,” Mr Monguno reportedly told the author.

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‘20 months without permanent secretary’

For 20 months, Mr Monguno said the NSA office worked without a permanent secretary, leaving institutional memory to fail.

He said even when the president signed a letter approving the posting, a ‘gatekeeper’ undermined it with a counter-note. He didn’t mention who that gatekeeper was.

In the book, members of Mr Buhari’s family and some of his appointees said in a few cases, where the former president was aware of misconduct, such as this, he failed to take decisive actions that would send a clear signal and deter others.

The former NSA explained that the special services office that records, collates and preserves the minutes of the intelligence community was sidelined.

According to him, 20 National Security Council meetings were held without the proper secretariat in attendance.

“A random staffer from the Chief of Staff’s office took notes instead, if at all,” he said.

Mr Monguno, a retired major general, said he had to fight for the right to have his secretariat in the meeting when he refused to proceed with the meeting.

The Kuje Prison attack and the failure of intel

After the July 2022 Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) attack on the Kuje Medium Security Correctional Centre in the Federal Capital Territory, the former NSA said he visited Mr Buhari with multiple files to prove that all intelligence, flagged risks and warnings were disseminated, only to fail to be acted upon.

PREMIUM TIMES reported at the time that the State Security Service (SSS) warned of a possible terrorist act, hours before the attack. However, this intelligence did not lead to better preparation and proactive measures, including the briefing of armed personnel on the ground.

Although the spokesperson for the correctional service said the intelligence was generic, other officers of the correctional service said the intelligence was specific to the Kuje prison.

They blamed the situation on the “poor,” “bureaucratic,” and “slow” process of managing and distributing intelligence.

Stalled funds

Mr Monguno also narrated how funding to the NSA office trickled to a drop, following a disagreement over the changing of the Presidential Air Fleet’s fuel supplier.

He explained that the Commander of the Presidential Air Fleet had brought to him a ‘procedural worry’ that the company supplying fuel for the fleet posed risks if indicted by a previous inquiry he had been a part of.

Mr Monguno said he wrote to the president, attached the fleet commander’s memo and recommended changing the supplier. The president approved, and two days later, the Chief of Staff, Mr Kyari, became furious. ‘Why did you do this?’ he recalled Mr Kyari asking.

Soon after, he said Mr Daura, the president’s nephew, visited his residence, telling him the move was an ‘injustice’ to the fuel supplier and speculating about hidden motives. Although Mr Monguno explained the rationale for the decision, it did not end the rift, he said.

“From that point onwards, the NSA became persona non grata to Mamman Daura,” the author wrote.

The Minister of Finance, who owed loyalty to Mamman Daura, was co-opted to withhold funds from the NSA office even after Mr Buhari’s approval.

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Mr Monguno said he inherited some funds from his predecessor, but after they finished, ‘the tap ran dry’.

Mr Moguno said he wrote over 30 reminders as well as several face-to-face pleadings with the president; he would always tell him to ‘leave the file’. He would later say he had sent it to Mr Kyari, the chief of staff.

“Subscriptions for critical systems lapsed. Technical capabilities tied to foreign partners went cold. Facilities that undergirded intelligence in and around the villa –cameras, networks–were maintained with funds from the NSA’s vote, yet the approvals to keep them current never reached the ledger,” he said.