Details have emerged of President Bola Tinubu’s maiden meeting with the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, and the service chiefs at the State House, Abuja.
Those at the meeting include the Chief of Defence Staff, Maj. Gen. C.G Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. T. A Lagbaja; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla; Chief of Air Staff, AVM H.B. Abubakar and the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
The meeting which began at 03:00 pm local time is President Tinubu’s first formal engagement with the security heads since their appointment on June 19.
Although the meeting held behind closed doors, the NSA, Mallam Ribadu reveal some details about the meeting during a briefing with state house correspondents at the end of the meeting.
Mallam Ribadu explained that essentially the president had directed them to work as a team in order to more diligently deliver on their mandate.
Asked about the outcome of the meeting, he said, “We are here to thank Mr President for the opportunity he gave us to serve our country and to serve his own government. We also pledged our loyalty to him, Nigeria and Nigerians.
“We believe the choice he made is the right one, the correct one, and we know what he wants for this country.
“We’re going to work tirelessly to ensure that we accomplish the objective of securing our country, establishing peace, stability and getting our lives back.
“He gave us the assurance that he’s with us hundred percent. He told us that we must work as a team and that there’s work to be done; he’ll expect us to deliver and we’re grateful for the opportunity. That’s why we are here.”
Asked what will be the starting point for the new security heads, Ribadu said, “Where we are today and you can see already things are improving in our country.
“If you can see the record of crimes andactivities of criminals are going down, it will continue to go down. We’ll secure this place.
“Nigerians have seen the quality of the people that are given opportunity, they are probably some of the best we have and they are not going to fail you, they’ll certainly deliver.”
