Newsbreak: Pressure mounts on Presidency to replace NSA Monguno with Al Hamza Mustapha

Newsbreak: Pressure mounts on Presidency to replace NSA Monguno with Al Hamza Mustapha

“He fits into the new agenda of the Presidency”

By Abubakar El Salam

Influential Northern leaders mostly from the North West are pushing for a replacement of the National Security Adviser, (NSA) Babagana Monguno.

The powerful lobby group wants the NSA to be replaced by the former Chief Security Officer, (CSO) to late Sani Abacha, Major Al Hamza Mustapha.

A reliable source told Irohinoodua that the group pushing the new agenda have already held meetings with Al Hamza Mustapha asking him to take offer. The source said Mustapha “fits into the new agenda of the Presidency.”

The plan is to replace Munguno with Mustapha. We do not know why they want Mustapha but I think his supporters believe his background and knowledge of Nigerian security and his sense of loyalty to the former Head of State Abacha are to his advantage” the source told our correspondent.

Mohammed Babagana Monguno is also from Bornu State like Mustapha. He retired from the Nigerian military Intelligence as a General. He attended Kings College in Lagos. Many see him as a very honest and upright military officer with a deep sense of discipline anf justice. His admirers said for some years he has been at loggerheads with hardliners within the Presidency and that his cosmopolitan outlook, his wide experience across Nigeria and his taste for fairness and justice makes him the perfect man for the job in a plural society like Nigeria.

Munguno is currently the  National Security Adviser. He was the Chief of Defence Intelligence from July 2009 to September 2011; and the Commander of the Brigade of Guards from 2007 to 2009 during which he was said to have distinguished himself as an excellent officer.

Another source said Mustapha has been a close ally of President Mohammadu Buhari during his days as the Chairman, Petroleum Trust Fund, (PTF)

“Mustapha was the bridge between Abacha and Buhari. He was like the middleman. The President has a good working relationship with him spanning decades” our source said.

Al Hamza Mustapha was born in 1960 in Nguru, Bornu State. He attended Hausari Primary School, Nguru between 1967 to 1974 for his foundation education. “Although relatively very young in comparison with his peers, he was appointed the Class Monitor and a Prefect in his final year. Young Hamza also attended Government Secondary School, Nguru between 1974 to 1979, where he was appointed House Captain and Sports Prefect during his final year.”

He was ADC to late General Sanni Abacha from 1985 to 1993 and Chief Security Officer, (CSO) to Abacha from 1993 to 1998.