Thread by @T_Bakare

We're LIVE! now for our State of The Nation Broadcast "RESETTING NIGERIA ON THE PATH OF PREDICTABLE PROGRESS" live.lraglobal.org

On November 16, 1960, Nigeria’s first indigenous governor-general, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, uttered the following words

…let us heal the breaches of the past so that in forging our nation there shall emerge on this continent a hate-free
#SOTNB2019

fear-free and greed-free people, who shall be in the vanguard of a world task force, whose assignment is not only to revive the stature of man in Africa, but to restore the dignity of man in the world. #SOTNB2019

Needless to say, the lofty dreams of our founding fathers that should have propelled us to attain great, lofty heights are still dreams fifty-nine years on. #SOTNB2019

Yet, with every independence anniversary comes a renewed opportunity to evaluate our nationhood and insist that a dream deferred is not a dream denied. #SOTNB2019

Despite our past and current realities, the fact that we have remained one nation is a testimony to our God-given resilience and, if properly channelled, it is also a pointer to a future brimming with great possibilities. #SOTNB2019

I believe this gift of resilient hope is worth thanking God for. Therefore, fellow Nigerians, no matter how despondent you may feel today about the state of our nation, permit me to begin this address by wishing you a belated happy Independence anniversary. #SOTNB2019

I salute the memory of our founding fathers who began this long and arduous journey to nationhood. I salute our heroes past who, over the decades, kept the torch aflame, and whose labours, I am certain, shall never be in vain. #SOTNB2019

I salute the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the security agencies who have constantly put their lives on the line in the interest of our national security, even in the most precarious of circumstances. #SOTNB2019

I particularly honour the memories of Insp. Mark Ediale, Sgt. Usman Danzumi, and Sgt. Dahiru Musa, the dutiful police officers who lost their lives to the bullets of army officials this past August. #SOTNB2019

My sincere condolences to their families; may their ultimate sacrifice not be in vain. #SOTNB2019

Let me also congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the recently constituted ministerial team, as well as members and principal officers of the National Assembly as the second term of this administration unfolds. #SOTNB2019

We trust God for all the wisdom and skills required for them to steer the ship of the nation aright at this critical juncture.#SOTNB2019

Permit me to also use this opportunity to bless God and to congratulate the nation for the phenomenal growth in revenue reported by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) since the closure of our borders. #SOTNB2019

We recall that, on January 1, 2019, we declared the word of God to us on this platform, that Nigeria would experience significant revenue growth through the Nigeria Customs Service in the year 2019. #SOTNB2019

This past week, the comptroller general of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, said:
“There was a day in September that we collected N9.2billion in one day. It has never happened before. 1/2 #SOTNB2019

This is after the closure of the border and since then, we have maintained an average of about N4.7billion to N5.8billion on a daily basis which is far more than we used to collect.” 2/2 #SOTNB2019

We see this as a sign that every word of God concerning the greatness of our nation, Nigeria, will be fulfilled even as the clock has started ticking towards another four years of democracy. #SOTNB2019

The stability of our nation is inextricably woven with the stability of the African continent. Therefore, I will set the tone of this address with a brief comment on the xenophobic intolerance that has recently defined the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa. #SOTNB2019

Permit me, at this juncture, to ask for a standing ovation for a true Nigerian, the Chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema. 1/2 #SOTNB2019

...as well as the staff of that exemplary Nigerian company, whose voluntary decision to evacuate stranded Nigerians from South Africa, free of charge, has redeemed the honour of our nation. 2/2 #SOTNB2019

Where some Nigerians have misrepresented us by their misdeeds, this model Nigerian has shown that to be a Nigerian is to be a person of dignity. #SOTNB2019

The outbreak of xenophobia in South Africa is a wake-up call to Nigeria. It challenges us to put an end to homegrown “xenophobia” and to unite as one people so we can overcome common challenges and provide leadership to Africa. #SOTNB2019

As we reflect today on the state of our nation and its place in the world, I am reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela... 1/2 #SOTNB2019

"The world will not respect Africa until Nigeria earns that respect. The black people of the world need Nigeria to be great as a source of pride and confidence." 2/2 #SOTNB2019

Nigeria is today confronted with several intersecting categories of national security threats based on the motivations and power blocs propelling such threats. #SOTNB2019

These threats to national security manifest in political, economic, ideological, ethnic, zonal, state and strategic dimensions. #SOTNB2019

The security and stability of our nation are hinged on eliminating the greed that fanned the flames of these political assassinations. #SOTNB2019

We cannot build a stable and secure nation until our politics is rescued from the grip of murderers and placed in the custody of patriots. #SOTNB2019

The economic threats to our national security are individual and corporate syndicates who loot our common patrimony, bastardise our national image, and submerge our nation’s credit rating in the cesspool of local and international criminal enterprise. #SOTNB2019

To address these threats, we need to revive our economy as a matter of urgency such that no Nigerian will have an excuse to resort to crime. #SOTNB2019

3.Ideologically Motivated Threats
Boko Haram, which derives its fuel from an extremist interpretation of Islam, falls in this category. The perpetrators of such national security threats tend to deploy terrorism and insurgency as a strategy. #SOTNB2019

Since 2011, over 30,000 people have died in the course of the war on terror. Winning this war is a national priority that has become synonymous with our quest for peace and stability. #SOTNB2019

4.Ethnic Nationalistic Threats
Due to the failure to unite as one nation, the fabric of our nationhood is being frayed by different ethnic groups threatening to go their separate ways. #SOTNB2019

We celebrate the fact that the Nigeria Customs and Immigration services have taken steps to improve border security by closing the borders. #SOTNB2019

However, we must go further to permanently resolve the loopholes in border management, because no nation can leave its borders closed indefinitely in a globalised world. #SOTNB2019

My assertion that the Nigerian state has been a threat to its own national security might sound strange. #SOTNB2019

However, when state actors such as the armed forces, the police force, and others, become perpetrators of acts of terror, the state scores an own goal and becomes a threat to its own security. #SOTNB2019

According to Nigeria Security Tracker, 8,571 civilians were killed extrajudicially by soldiers and security agents between May 2011 and September 2019. #SOTNB2019

Our national security philosophy reflects the words of King Louis XVI, France’s absolute monarch who once equated the state to himself, stating “L’État, c’est moi,” meaning, “I am the State.” #SOTNB2019

Our national security philosophy was crafted in the military era when the main preoccupation was protecting the head of state and the military junta. #SOTNB2019

This persisting faulty security philosophy is the reason governors can legally access large amounts of monies in the name of security votes that they do not have to account for; #SOTNB2019

it is why the police force, which ought to protect every Nigerian, has been comparatively neglected over the years in terms of funding, equipment, remuneration, and training. #SOTNB2019

Due to constitutional constraints, our security strategies are incapacitated at the local, state, and federal levels. #SOTNB2019

The efforts of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), for instance, have shown that Boko Haram could have been curtailed if we had community and state police forces with mastery of the terrain and ability to nip threats in the bud. #SOTNB2019

Also, despite the zonally differentiated nature of our security and border challenges, we have excluded the idea of zonal forces from our border management strategies even as an overstretched federal government continues to grapple with border security. #SOTNB2019

Despite the significant burden of national security on the shoulders of the federal government, we have failed to properly organise federal governance to meet this need. #SOTNB2019

Instead, we have a cacophony of ministries, departments, agencies and advisory bodies that have failed to place national security as the cornerstone of social, economic, political, strategic and infrastructural policies
#SOTNB2019

despite the fact that section 2(14) of the 1999 Constitution as amended states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” #SOTNB2019

Our national security challenge has worsened because the protagonist category is shrinking and many citizens are becoming bystanders due, in particular, to a low level of trust in our security agencies. #SOTNB2019

A recent report by The New York Times states that Boko Haram “fighters now have more sophisticated drones than the military and are well-armed after successful raids on military brigades.” #SOTNB2019

Our foreign intelligence service has proved inadequate in meeting our strategic security threats. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) should be our version of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Britain’s MI6, or Israel’s Mossad #SOTNB2019

but the NIA came into the limelight in the first term of this administration, not for pre-empting a national security threat, but for stashing $43m in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos allegedly earmarked for their overt and covert operations. #SOTNB2019

how much longer will we dispatch poorly trained and poorly equipped recruits to their deaths? Are we truly using Shilka guns purchased during the 1979-83 Shagari administration in 2019? #SOTNB2019

Are children of the poor truly being deployed to battlefronts while the children of the rich are shielded? #SOTNB2019

Is this the same National Defence Academy that positioned a poor orphan from Daura, Cadet Muhammadu Buhari, and set him on the path to the presidency? These are questions the army must answer to restore public confidence in this noble institution. #SOTNB2019

The killing of policemen by soldiers was not just an isolated case of bad eggs in the army colluding with criminals; it was another case of agencies working at cross-purposes. Time and again, we have witnessed one inter-agency clash after another. #SOTNB2019

In 2017, the media was awash with the shameful clash between the EFCC and the DSS. The inter-agency clashes may have even extended to the training of our officers. #SOTNB2019

Should the establishment of separate universities for the army, airforce and navy be a priority at this time when we have a Nigerian Defence Academy? #SOTNB2019

the biggest indictment on our security intra-culture failure is not on the rank and file of our military and law enforcement agencies but the leadership. #SOTNB2019

Allegations of the deliberate spreading of alternative facts, as well as internal wranglings by service chiefs in the race to replace the Chief of Defence Staff or National Security Adviser, do not inspire confidence in the tenth year of Boko Haram’s onslaught. #SOTNB2019

I believe that these challenges of nationhood, manifesting as threats to national security, provide an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and rebuild our nation. #SOTNB2019

It is a call to an integrated national security roadmap as part of a long-term masterplan to rebuild Nigeria. #SOTNB2019

An integrated national security roadmap brings together diverse objectives of nation-building, including the social, political, economic and strategic objectives, and pivots them on the national security thrust. #SOTNB2019

The first step towards securing our nation is revisiting the philosophical foundations of governance. This calls for prioritising the security of the governed above that of the government. #SOTNB2019

It requires making a transition from the governance philosophy of Louis XVI to that of David, king of Israel, as captured in I Chronicles 14:2 (KJV) #SOTNB2019

The need to return to true federalism through devolution of powers cannot be overemphasised. Subnational governments must be empowered to provide security alongside federal structures. #SOTNB2019

The true test of leadership in a federal system is the willingness of the central government to empower the federating units. It must be a case of first among equals. #SOTNB2019

The federal government must, therefore, stop being afraid of empowered states and local governments. We must embrace multilevel policing in the spirit of true federalism, setting in place appropriate constitutional checks and balances to prevent abuse. #SOTNB2019

The National Security Council is central to dealing with the diverse threats to our national security. In this regard, the president, as Chairman of the National Security Council, must take responsibility for combating the political threats. 1/2 #SOTNB2019

by modelling statesmanship and exemplary politics as the father of the nation, reminiscent of the roles played by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of the United States of America. 2/2 #SOTNB2019

Next is the vice president. In an atmosphere of implicit trust, any government that fails to maximise the Office of the Vice President does so at its peril. #SOTNB2019

The vice president must be empowered to lead the socio-economic thrust of an integrated national security strategy that rewards enterprise, discourages crime, and ensures that every Nigerian has an honest opportunity to make a living. #SOTNB2019

The ideological and ethnic nationalistic threats to our national security call for national rebirth, reconciliation and reintegration. In this regard, once again, we cannot ignore the zonal dimensions of these threats. #SOTNB2019

From Abubakar Shekau to Nnamdi Kanu, what we are experiencing is nothing short of the regionalisation of rebellion. Nigeria’s zonal distinctions are geopolitical leadership spaces waiting to be filled. #SOTNB2019

Failing to fill them with state structures leaves room for the occupation of those zonal leadership spaces by non-state actors like regional terrorists, criminals and secessionists. #SOTNB2019

The president, by reason of the powers articulated in section 25(i) of the Third Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, should, as a matter of urgency, create a Presidential Commission for National Rebirth, Reconciliation and Reintegration #SOTNB2019

To combat the strategic threats to our national security, we must rejig our foreign policy and reorganise the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. #SOTNB2019

We must design a two-pronged foreign policy thrust aimed at managing relations with two broad categories of strategic threats and opportunities broadly defined as the Southern Foreign Policy Thrust and the Northern Foreign Policy Thrust. #SOTNB2019

In all of these, the National Assembly must live up to its oversight responsibility. The legislature must support our armed forces by making laws that will spur a radical progressive transformation of our security governance. #SOTNB2019

Our security culture objective must be to restore hope to survivors, motivate bystanders and spectators to become protagonists, and recruit contractors and dealers as agents and informants. #SOTNB2019

By rewarding and guaranteeing protection for those who blow the whistle on terrorists, kidnappers, criminal herdsmen, cattle rustlers and bandits, we will shrink the population of the antagonists. #SOTNB2019

we must competitively reward valour in our security agencies. Team and individual award schemes should be instituted for police officers and members of the armed forces who bravely bring down criminal gangs and terrorists while ensuring that human rights are respected. #SOTNB2019

In addition, celebrating valour and heroism must become a central feature of our cultural experiences. Nollywood and the creative industries must be supported to produce inspiring epics and biopics in honour of our heroes. #SOTNB2019

We can begin to redesign our security architecture by taking a number of first steps. The funds being funnelled into extra universities should be channelled towards building the capacity of the Nigerian Defence Academy. 1/2 #SOTNB2019

and prosecuting the war against Boko Haram. We must then refocus the training of our soldiers to cater to unconventional warfare. 2/2 #SOTNB2019

To create lasting change, we must institutionalise security interventions rather than respond with a fire brigade approach to emerging challenges. #SOTNB2019

A well-designed security architecture requires a sophisticated enough security infrastructural outlay. First, we must ensure that we kit and equip our soldiers and security agencies adequately. #SOTNB2019

We must also ensure that the living conditions of our soldiers and police officers meet standards of decency. #SOTNB2019

We must embark on massive infrastructure renovation in all barracks across the nation. This will boost the morale of our officers and spur them to fight on for their beloved country. #SOTNB2019

Nigeria would do well to leverage our proposed foreign policy framework with a view to attracting international collaborations in acquiring, deploying and even innovating military, security and intelligence technologies. #SOTNB2019

In dealing with inter-agency discordance, much depends on the heads of each agency and the decisiveness of Mr. President who is the Chief Security Officer of the nation and the Chairman of the National Security Council that brings all the agencies together. #SOTNB2019

I appeal to Mr. President to take a serious look at the composition of the service chiefs and set stringent standards and objectives below which no service chief must fall, otherwise, they risk replacement. It is a call for leadership by measurable objectives. #SOTNB2019

To the service chiefs, perhaps the words of a fellow general, James N. Mattis, popularly known as Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis, former US Secretary of Defense, will serve as sufficient indictment. 1/3 #SOTNB2019

"In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are, if you cannot create harmony— 2/3 #SOTNB2019

even vicious harmony—on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. 3/3 #SOTNB2019

let me challenge the church to awaken to its responsibility as a watchman over the nation. National security strategies are incomplete without the spiritual role of the watchman. #SOTNB2019

In the words of Reverend Father George Ehusani:
"Nigerian Christians…cannot sit idly and complain endlessly about the deplorable state of affairs in our country. We must get into action in whatever way is open to us, 1/3 #SOTNB2019

and ignite our Christian candle to fight back the forces of darkness and decay, whether as responsible parents or respectful children, devoted teachers or diligent students, God-fearing doctors or dedicated nurses, 2/3 #SOTNB2019

dutiful administrators or faithful labourers. If a sufficient number of Christians lit their candles in this way, then we can be sure that dying Nigeria shall rise again to greatness, by the power of God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 3/3 #SOTNB2019

The time to reset Nigeria on the path of predictable progress is here... It is time to return to the foundations of our nation – foundations which were laid by our founding fathers, but which are now devastated. It is time to rebuild. It is time to reset. #SOTNB2019

I am reminded of the pre-2019 election admonitions of Elder Statesman and former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku #SOTNB2019

“…judged by all the relevant indices, Nigeria today is clearly underperforming and lacking national cohesion as never before. If our country is to succeed on the road to political stability 1/2 #SOTNB2019

and realisation of its rich development potential, it must, by restructuring its present governance architecture. It must return to the true federalism that it practised in the years before the military intervened in our national politics.” 2/2 #SOTNB2019

Fellow Nigerians, upon the foundation of a restructured Nigeria, we can forge a new nation, one of diverse peoples, bound together in unity like the colours of a rainbow, beaming light to the world, 1/2 #SOTNB2019

working in collaboration, not in conflict, with the rest of Africa, including South Africa, a fellow rainbow nation. 2/2 #SOTNB2019

I remain confident as ever that Nigeria will be saved, Nigeria will be changed, and Nigeria will be great in my lifetime. Amen. #SOTNB2019

Thank you for listening; God bless you, God bless Nigeria, and God bless Africa. #SOTNB2019