Another document will soon join the crowded field of materials on Nigeria's national security strategy as the Presidential Committee approved by President Bola Tinubu on August 19, 2026 began work.
The committee, inaugurated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume is tasked with creating a unified National Threat Assessment and producing a rolling 5-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan.
Targeted towards ending fragmented security operations while tying defence procurement directly to clear operational priorities, the committee has the following Terms of Reference: Review principal/emerging security threats facing Nigeria, and assess their relative urgency and strategic implications; define operational priorities/identify capabilities required in each theatre to achieve clearly established national security objectives; identify existing capability gaps, as well as the equipment, logistics, infrastructure, technology, personnel and other support requirements necessary to address those gaps; identify procurement priorities in accordance with the assessed threats and established operational requirements, ensuring that procurement decisions are driven by strategic necessity rather than institutional preference; establish implementation steps and realistic timelines for each priority, including appropriate measures for monitoring progress and assessing outcomes; and make any other recommendations considered necessary to facilitate the formulation and effective implementation of the Strategic Defence Operations Plan.
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Expected to submit its assignment within 90 days for presidential consideration and approval, the committee is coordinated by the President's Homeland Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Adeyinka Famadewa (rtd.).
Indeed, the committee's assignment comes amid numerous national security strategy documents and white papers sitting on shelves. They include the National Security Strategy (NSS) - 2019 which replaced the inaugural 2014 NSS; Nigerian National Defence Policy (NNDP/NDP) - 2017; National Defence Policy Implementation Guidelines - 2019; National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) - 2016; Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PF-NAP for PCVE) - 2017; National Framework and Strategy for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) - 2025/2026; and National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy (NCPS) - 2021.
Others include NCTC Strategic Plan - 2025-2030; National Strategy for Combating Organised Crime - 2027-2031; the Counterterrorism doctrine and associated frameworks; Cybercrime/Cybersecurity legal and policy framework; and the Defence Sector Capital Requirements Plan - 2026. There are also the national and sectoral instruments especially the Joint and Single-Service Doctrines; Military and Service Strategic Directives; Service Orders of Battle (ORBATs); and Joint Theatre and Operational Plans.
Daily Trust welcomes the new committee and calls on it to provide the platform to address real and longstanding weaknesses in the nation's security and defence planning while putting actionable timeliness to the much talked about but largely misunderstood National Security Architecture. We also advise that it ensures its outcome strengthens coordination within Nigeria's defence, intelligence and security agencies.
The committee should also help in stopping the prevailing deployment of the military everywhere crisis erupts just because the police fails to live up to expectation. We also believe that this is the opportunity to make clear which office commands hierarchical superiority in the coordination of National Security Strategy matters. There must be institutional clarity. Towards this, we urge the committee to help clear all ambiguities through transparent delineation of responsibilities in the execution of defence operations.
Daily Trust however cautions the federal government to ensure that outcome of the committee never becomes another replication of past national security strategic documents lying fallow without implementation. Therefore, this committee's work must not be merely another document, but should provide the platform for Nigeria to have proper realignment of its national-security strategy structure.
They must also ensure that the document gives Nigeria an integrated strategic-planning system and not just provide marvellous individual policies and strategies without central operational centre. Perhaps, it is time to implement a joint clearing house for all military logistics procurement instead of the current situation where each Service originates requirements through a single institutional planning and budget process. It is time to stop the duplication of capabilities.
We believe that the committee's assignment, if approached with utmost professionalism, objectivity and patriotism, will contribute significantly to new heights for the Armed Forces and security agencies. In this vein, they should ensure that the military continues to be apolitical and must under no circumstances be drawn into any partisan fight, in order to maintain their institutional integrity. What Nigerians are looking forward to is a defence system that responds to individual security challenges while anticipating threats, establish priorities, allocating resources rationally, sustaining operational momentum and consistently translating national security objectives into measurable results.
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The Nigerian military must be duly configured to deal with existing or emerging threats through the deployment of the political and fiscal will to carry out the committee's recommendations. This, the federal government should do, using both administrative directives and required amendments including the Armed Forces Act. Nigerians look forward to a new security strategy that is responsive to all national aspirations while providing practical, actionable framework that moves the country beyond fragmented and reactive security responses toward better-coordinated, prioritised, and measurable results against ongoing threats like banditry, terrorism/insurgency, kidnapping, and other criminal activities. We urge this committee makes these expectations realisable.
