President Bola Tinubu has charged service chiefs and heads of security agencies in Nigeria to ensure they do not work at cross purposes under his administration.

Development Diaries reports that the president also charged them to work together in tackling the challenges of terrorism, insurgency, banditry, oil theft, sea robbery and piracy.

Specifically, the new Nigerian leader instructed them to prosecute anyone implicated in oil theft – a threat that his administration would not accept.

Under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, even though he promised to tackle insecurity, Nigeria witnessed migration from Boko Haram to other security threats, including banditry, herders-farmers clashes, and kidnapping.

Generally, security under the Buhari administration worsened, as Nigerians saw an increase in kidnappings and mass killings.

Data from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) shows that non-state actors killed 31,821 people in Nigeria between May 2015 and April 2023.

Buhari’s campaign rode on the heels of fixing the pervasive insecurity challenge left by his predecessor, but was unable to do this as the situation clearly worsened.

One of Tinubu’s campaign promises was that his administration would make it a fundamental responsibility to protect all Nigerians.

It is now time to set the ball rolling in this regard. It is not enough to charge the service chiefs and heads of security agencies on what to do.

Development Diaries calls on the president to set security targets for the security operatives and, from time to time, review these targets to make sure the implementation remains on course.

Photo source: Bola Ahmed Tinubu