PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu last week announced the appointment of Major General Adeyinka Famadewa (retired) as his Security Adviser on Homeland Security. While announcing the appointment, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, described Famadewa as a highly decorated retired general with over three decades of distinguished military and intelligence service spanning national security strategy, intelligence fusion, counter-terrorism operations, and international security diplomacy. His career, we were told, reflects a rare blend of operational excellence, strategic foresight, and institutional leadership in safeguarding Nigeria’s territorial integrity and national interests.
The newly created office of Homeland Security is novel in the annals of Nigeria’s security architecture. Since we became an independent nation in 1960, this would be the first time that such an office would be created. At war with several insurgent groups for over a decade, with little or no progress recorded, perhaps the time is ripe to think outside the box and adopt a different strategy in tackling the persistent menace.
Fashioned after the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established on November 25, 2002, when the then President George W. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 into law, the DSH was created in response to the 9/11 al-qaeda attacks.
To ‘properly’ welcome Famadewa to his new office, Boko Haram elements, last week, stormed a primary and junior secondary school in Askira Uba Local Government area of Borno State, where they abducted several pupils. The attack occurred around 9a.m. at Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School on Friday as the pupils were settling down for the day’s classes.
On the same day, another terror group stormed LA School, Ahoro-Esinele, and Community Grammar School, Ahoro-Esinele, both in Oriire Local Government Area in Oyo State, where a teacher who challenged the attackers was shot dead on the spot while the School Principal and several pupils were kidnapped.
The Executive Chairman of the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Nureni Aderemi Adeniran, in consultation with the State Commissioner for Education immediately ordered the closure of all primary schools in neighbouring communities, including Surulere, Oyo East, Oriire, and Olorunsogo.
Less than five hours after the initial order was issued, Adeniran again, perhaps on the instruction of the State Governor, Seyi Makinde, ordered the reopening of all the schools earlier closed due to the provision of additional security that has been drafted to the affected communities. “Parents and guardians are strongly urged to remain calm, as security agencies have assured the government of sustained surveillance and protection across all identified communities,” Adeniran stated.
The daring welcome of Famadewa to office by gunmen and kidnappers makes Nigerians more anxious. Nigeria is in a state of anomie. No where is safe. Those that believe that the South west is safe are having a rethink. What many have dismissed as an impossibility in the south west has now become a reality. If school children can be abducted in broad day light in Oyo State, one wonders where can be called a safe haven in that region.
In the first two years of the Tinubu’s administration, at least 10,217 people have been killed in attacks by gunmen in Benue, Edo, Katsina, Kebbi, Plateau, Sokoto, and Zamfara state. According to statistics from Amnesty International, Benue state accounts for the highest death toll of 6,896 people, followed by Plateau state, where 2,630 people have lost their lives to insurgents. When he assumed office three years ago, Tinubu assured Nigerians that he would tackle insecurity headlong. Instead, things have only gotten worse, as the authorities continue to fail to protect the rights to life, physical integrity, liberty, and the security of millions of Nigerians across the country.
Rather, new armed groups have emerged, including Lakurawa, that are causing havoc in Kwara, Sokoto, and Kebbi states. Hundreds of villages have been sacked by gunmen in Benue, Borno, Katsina, Sokoto, Plateau, and Zamfara. Many remote communities in the North that have not fallen to bandits are surviving by paying taxes and royalties to the criminals.
A security report by Beacon Consulting, a firm that specialises in Security Risk Management stated that from May to December 2023, there were 5,802 deaths and 2,754 kidnappings in the country. The situation worsened in 2024, with 7,544 killed and 6,453 abducted between January and September. Many of the kidnappings and abductions were primarily done for ransom payments. Another survey done by SB Morgen (SBM) Intelligence, a geopolitical research firm, shows that kidnappers demanded over N48 billion from victims and their families between July 2024 and June 2025. The research firm, in its latest report, titled ‘Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry,’ stated that out of the total amount of N48 billion demanded as ransom, N2.57 billion was paid to the criminals.
According to SBM, no fewer than 4722 people were kidnapped in at least 997 incidents, in which at least 762 people were killed in the same period. “Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis has evolved into a lucrative criminal enterprise, with N2.57 billion ($1.66 million) confirmed in ransom payments and 4,722 civilians abducted in just one year,” the report reads. “The Northwest remains the most violent, while the Southeast and Southsouth face targeted religious abductions and financial extortion. “Unless security forces dismantle these networks and address root causes – poverty, unemployment, and weak law enforcement – the cycle of kidnappings, ransoms, and deaths will continue unchecked, leaving ordinary Nigerians in perpetual fear.”
This is the grim reality that Famadewa is inheriting, and the question on everyone’s mind is if he will be able to perform any magic to turn the situation around. It is no surprise that many Nigerians have expressed reservation as to whether he would be able to work smoothly with Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, whose duties and functions the new Homeland Security Adviser has now been given. Except there is a clear demarcation of duties, there could be a cold war and in-fighting between the duo. Again, who has the final say in any security situation now? Is it Ribadu or Famadewa?
Although the rank and files in the military establishment may be favourably disposed to working with Famadewa, being a retired General and seen as one of theirs, Ribadu has managed the situation well despite being considered an outsider when he was appointed to that position. As a retired police officer, military authorities don’t like taking orders from police officers, whether serving or retired.
Despite the close rapport between Tinubu and Ribadu, the new appointment may be a way of also clipping the wings of Ribadu, whom many are saying is also interested in the Presidency in 2031, when political power will return to the North. Famadewa’s appointment could be a way to monitoring his movement, as Tinubu does not fully trust Ribadu. In fact, it can be said that Tinubu does not trust anyone 100 percent, for obvious reasons. That has been his style since 1999 when he was elected as Governor of Lagos State. His governance style has always been defined by a deep-seated suspicion of those who might grow too powerful. He never allows a single pillar of support to stand alone; he always installs a counter-pillar to checkmate it.
We saw this repeatedly throughout Tinubu’s political evolution in Lagos. His governing doctrine has never been built around allowing a single subordinate to accumulate unchecked authority. Every major political actor is balanced by another actor, another structure, or another loyalty network. Power, in the Tinubu model, is never left concentrated in one hand for too long. It played out during Fashola’s regime. Remember one of his quotable quotes: “May our loyalty not be tested” ? The same thing played out with Akinwunmi Ambode, who unfortunately, didn’t get a second term and the counter-balance that Mudashiru Obasa, Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, served to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
While the Presidency’s official stance is that Famadewa’s office will focus on ‘Immigration and Civil Defence’, his true role may be far more than that.
Again, Famadewa is a fellow Yoruba man. In the complex ethnic calculus of Nigerian governance, this is the ultimate currency of trust. By placing Famadewa directly into the most sensitive part of the security architecture, Tinubu has installed a man who possesses not only a professional history with the security establishment, but also a deep ethno-political bond with the President.
Crucially, Famadewa is not a newcomer in the security establishment. He served as the Principal General Staff Officer (PGSO) at the Office of the National Security Adviser for six years (2015 – 2021) under the Buhari administration. During that time, he was the architect of the Intelligence Fusion Centre (IFC), a platform designed to integrate data from the DSS, NIA, and DIA.
Famadewa is also an officer of the old school who understands Hausa dialect. That is a plus in Nigeria’s security cycle. Whatever is happening, Famadewa will be Tinubu’s eyes and ears.
Whether his appointment is to strengthen the nation’s security architecture or to protect Tinubu in the military establishment, the need to monitor and guard our borders cannot be overemphasised. The North-East and North-West borders need to be better controlled to prevent foreign elements from destabilising local communities. Fulani nationals from neigbouring countries of Niger and Chad easily find their way into Nigeria without any challenge. Our borders are so porous that prohibited goods, including weapons are transported freely. The porous borders in most parts of the North also allows insurgents and bandits to easily move their operations to new areas.
Will Famadewa succeed in enhancing national security or would the security of Tinubu be his major preoccupation in that office? That remains to be seen. What is sure is that we cannot continue to do the same thing the same way and expect a different result. While Northern politicians and their counterparts in the military are giving soft landing to captured terrorists by ‘rehabilitating’ them and asking them to swear by the Qur’an before reintegrating them back into the society, a Famadewa may not be able to achieve much unless all of us in Nigeria show the will and determination to tackle insecurity headlong rather than see and treat terrorists as ‘our brothers’.
For now, let us welcome Famadewa into our national security architecture. We are sure that he knows that he has the unenviable task of coordinating the rescue of the abducted school pupils in Oyo and Borno States for now. May the odds forever be in his favour, and ours. Amen.
See you next week.
– Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.