Tinubu orders 90-day national security threat assessment, five-year defence plan

President Bola Tinubu has directed a nine-man committee of Nigeria’s top military and intelligence chiefs to produce a comprehensive National Threat Assessment and a rolling five-year Strategic Defence Operations Plan within 90 days.

The President gave the directive on Wednesday at the Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House in Abuja, constituting the committee under the coordination of his Special Adviser on Homeland Security, Major General Adeyinka Famadewa, who will also serve as its secretary.

Tinubu said operational requirements were currently being considered separately, without a common national threat assessment or medium-term plan.

He said this made coordination more difficult and limited the efficient use of resources, a gap the new framework is designed to address.

What Tinubu is saying

Tinubu said the National Threat Assessment will identify the principal threats facing Nigeria, determine their relative urgency, and establish operational objectives for addressing them.

The Strategic Defence Operations Plan will translate that assessment into concrete priorities with clear resource and capability requirements.

• “The operation demonstrated what can be achieved when our agencies work together with a clear objective and the necessary intelligence,” he said, citing the recent rescue of pupils and teachers abducted in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State as evidence of what coordinated security action could deliver.
• He said the new framework would “provide a common understanding of the threats facing the nation, the operational objectives to be achieved and the capabilities required to address them.”

The President directed the committee to commence work immediately and submit the completed documents for his consideration and approval within 90 days, after which the plan will serve as the principal framework for coordinating military and defence operations over the medium term.

The nine-man committee includes the National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, Minister of Defence General Christopher Musa, Minister of State for Defence Bello Muhammad Matawalle, Chief of Defence Staff General Olufemi Oluyede, Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Waidi Shaibu, Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Idi Abbas, Director-General of the Department of State Service Tosin Ajayi, and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency Ambassador Muhammed Muhammed.

The committee may also consult or co-opt representatives of other ministries, departments, and agencies where their participation is required, giving it flexibility to draw on specialised expertise beyond the core military and intelligence membership.

Once approved, the Strategic Defence Operations Plan will guide a corresponding multi-year defence spending and procurement plan.

This will ensure budgetary resources are aligned with agreed national security priorities rather than individual agency requests.

The President further directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Office of the National Security Adviser to take all necessary steps to give immediate effect to the directives.

Get up to speed

Tinubu’s directive comes as Nigeria continues to face significant security pressures, with recent data showing the scale of violence, kidnapping and the resources being committed to defence.

• Between July 26 and August 8, 2026, Nigeria recorded 106 violent conflict incidents, 445 casualties and 256 kidnapping victims, according to security data from Nextier.
• Banditry was the dominant threat during the two-week period, accounting for 35 incidents, 246 casualties and 196 kidnapping victims.
• The latest figures come against a backdrop of sharply higher defence spending.
• In April, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that Nigeria’s military expenditure rose 55% year-on-year to $2.1 billion in 2025, up from about $1.35 billion in 2024.

The increase placed Nigeria among the world’s fastest-growing military spenders in 2025, with SIPRI linking the rise to the country’s worsening security challenges, including insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, and communal and separatist violence.