40 Questions For Gen. Monguno, Buhari’s NSA For 8 Years, By Mohammed Kachallah Gulmari
The recent revelations by retired Major General Babagana Monguno, former National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari, in the biography: “From Soldier to Statesman,” demand rigorous scrutiny.
While Monguno portrays himself as a victim of a predatory “cabal,” his eight-year tenure and the specifics of his account raise profound questions about his own competence, accountability and motives.
The following forty questions, flowing serially, interrogate the contradictions and omissions in his narrative, challenging the foundation of his professed victimhood and effectiveness.
The 40 Questions go thus:
1. If the cabal was so powerful and your office was starved of funds, why did you remain in the office of NSA for eight full years instead of resigning on principle?
2. Does your lengthy tenure not suggest a level of complicity or acceptance of the dysfunctional system you now condemn?
3. How do you define your own competence as NSA when you admit the country’s security architecture was “effectively blinded” under your watch?
4. Is blaming a “cabal” for eight years a substitute for personal accountability and strategic ingenuity?
5. What tangible, successful security operations can you directly credit to your leadership as NSA, independent of the cabal’s interference?
6. You claim your office was starved of funds, yet the prestigious Counter-Terrorism Centre was built. With which specific funds was this project executed?
7. Can you provide a detailed accounting of the budget for the Counter-Terrorism Centre and the contractors involved?
8. If the Finance Minister withheld your funds, as claimed, what special arrangement or pressure secured funding for this capital project?
9. Did you raise the illegal withholding of approved funds in any Federal Executive Council meeting or through other official, public channels?
10. What precise role did you play in the infamous midnight siege on the National Assembly and the removal of DG SSS, Lawal Daura, in 2018?
11. Were your professional recommendations as NSA solely responsible for their removal, or were there other political forces at play?
12. How did these removals improve the intelligence coordination you lament was sabotaged by the villa?
13. Did you ever oppose the method of their removal, given the constitutional and institutional crises it provoked?
14. Can you explain the source of wealth for your then Director of Finance and Administration (DFA), Brig. Gen. Jafaru Mohammed, who was reported to own lavish mansions in Abuja, Kano, Lagos, and Kaduna?
15. As the NSA, what disciplinary action did you take regarding these allegations about your DFA?
16. Is it true that you own properties in the United Kingdom and the United States? If so, can you declare them and explain the legitimate source of funds for their purchase?
17. Did you ever submit yourself to the Code of Conduct Bureau to verify the legitimacy of your assets, both domestic and foreign?
18. How can you reconcile allegations of a cabal enriching itself with unanswered public questions about the wealth of your own close aide?
19. You describe a single incident about aircraft fuel as revealing the cabal. Does this not reduce grand corruption and security sabotage to a petty contractual dispute?
20. Why did you not formalize your repeated “face-to-face pleas” to President Buhari into written, minuted reports that would create an undeniable paper trail?
21. You sent “30 reminders” that were ignored. At what point does persistence become futility, and why not make a public stand?
22. You claim the Special Services Office was sidelined. Why did it take until Boss Mustapha became SGF to forcefully insist on its inclusion?
23. Operating without a permanent secretary for 20 months is a major administrative failure. Why was your office unable to overcome this “political calculus”?
24. You say Buhari and Nigerians were “victims.” As NSA, are you not a member of that same victimized leadership class that failed the nation?
25. Is publishing these accusations in a biography after leaving office, not the very definition of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?
26. If the national security infrastructure was crumbling due to lapsed subscriptions, what interim, low-cost intelligence strategies did you develop?
27. You blame petty sabotage repeated often. As NSA, what was your “petty persistence” to counter it, beyond memos that went unanswered?
28. The book reveals you were made “persona non grata” by Mamman Daura. Does this not admit that you were effectively outmanoeuvred and sidelined by non-officials?
29. Why did you never consider a public resignation with a detailed statement to expose the cabal while in office when it could have pressured the system?
30. How do you reconcile your powerful constitutional role with the image of an NSA who needed permission to fund villa surveillance?
31. Is this biography not a carefully timed attempt to salvage your legacy by shifting all blame to a cabal and a deceased president?
32. What is your response to critics who say you were a convenient, quiet NSA for a system you now condemn, and your silence was purchased with your tenure?
33. Did you ever directly tell President Buhari that his Chief of Staff and relatives were undermining national security?
34. You quote Buhari as saying “Leave the file” or “I’ve sent it to Malam Abba.” Why did you accept this circular delegation of authority over critical security funds?
35. What is more damaging: a powerful cabal or a security adviser who documents his own powerlessness for eight years without a decisive action?
36. Can you name the specific members of this “cabal” beyond the late Abba Kyari and Mamman Daura?
37. Did this cabal have any positive influence on any security or government policy, or was it solely a destructive force?
38. How did this cabal manage to control the presidency so completely without, according to you, the president’s conscious consent?
39. Is it not a failure of intelligence that the NSA could not compile a definitive, actionable report on the cabal’s activities for the president?
40. Finally, having watched insecurity worsen from 2015 to 2023, do you believe your tenure as NSA made Nigeria safer, and if not, why should history judge the cabal more harshly than you?
The portrait that emerges from these questions is not of a shrewd security strategist but of a bureaucrat who clung to title for eight years while documenting his own irrelevance. He presents himself as a meticulous note-taker of his powerlessness, a chronicler of his own failure to influence, lead, or resign. His narrative reduces the monumental security failures of an era to petty villa squabbles over fuel contracts and blocked memos, while he remained the dignified, well-dressed face of a security apparatus he admits was “blinded.” He now seeks to shape history by revealing secrets in a book, a final, safe act of defiance that required no courage when it mattered.
The ultimate indictment is not just of a cabal he describes, but of a man who watched the house burn for eight years, meticulously recorded who blocked the water, but never once shouted “fire!” loud enough for the public to hear—until everyone had safely left the scene.
Dr. Mohammed Kachallah Gulmari wrote in from Gombe
Aisha vs Buhari, Dangote vs Farouk And Gov Buni’s Development Stride In Yobe, By Hassan Gimba
Many things happened in Nigeria last week that will trend for a time. Among them were two weighty revelations, one of which led to two ‘juicy’ resignations. There was the revelation by Aisha Buhari, the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, that the former president began locking his door to keep her out of his room. Reason? That he heard Villa rumours that she wanted to kill him. An old General fearing the woman who has been married to him for over 30 years!
The other was by Aliko Dangote, the richest Black man on Earth. He revealed that Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has spent $5 million over six years on his four children’s education at Swiss secondary schools. Well, most likely, Nigerians might not have heard the Dangote allegation had Farouk not stepped on his toes, one way or the other. But then he once told us about the refineries in Malta, so it may not be because someone threatened to take the ice cream out of his mouth. Again, someone else might have used the information for “trade by barter,” so sleeping dogs will continue to lie. This revelation could have been the reason Farouk resigned. Whatever the case, may the elite continue to regale Nigerians with more revelations against one another.
And beyond those revelations is the ‘inconceivable’ and ‘impossible’ feat achieved by Yobe State a little earlier than these two revelations.
For those who do not know Yobe or the milestone achievements of His Excellency, Governor Mai Mala Buni in the state across various sectors, the fact that Yobe has emerged Nigeria’s number one state in Primary Health Care is unimaginable.
But it is neither inconceivable nor impossible for those who have been following the state since Buni became Governor.
Leadership newspaper of 15 December wrote: “Yobe State has once again distinguished itself as a national pacesetter in healthcare delivery, emerging as Nigeria’s leading state in Primary Health Care (PHC) following outstanding performances at the 2025 PHC Leadership Challenge Awards held in Abuja.
“Under the visionary leadership of Governor Mai Mala Buni, the state clinched both regional and national honours, reinforcing its growing reputation for excellence in grassroots healthcare.
“Yobe was named the Best Performing State in the North-East for the second consecutive year, winning the title in 2024 and 2025, with each award attracting a $500,000 prize.
“In an even more remarkable feat, the state also emerged as the Overall Best Performing State in Nigeria at the 2025 edition of the awards, securing an additional $700,000, bringing the total prize money earned by Yobe to $1.2 million, a clear testament to the state’s sustained investment and reforms in the health sector.”
The name Yobe used to be synonymous with “Number one from the rear,” but “Number one in front”? It is something new that began with the ascension of Governor Buni to the state’s governorship. How did he make Yobe a home of peace, an educational model whose students are now winning national and international accolades, an agricultural hub on the way to becoming the nation’s food basket, the best-performing state in the North-East, health-wise, for two years running, and the overall best in Nigeria this year?
What did he do to make the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report that the state is the most affordable place to live in Nigeria? According to the NBS reports of July 2025, “Yobe State is Nigeria’s most affordable state to live in, with low costs driven by falling inflation and successful agricultural programs boosting food security and local markets, making it relatively cheaper for housing and daily living compared to other states, especially around cities like Damaturu and Potiskum where business thrives, though security improvements are key to sustained affordability.”
When, on 29 May 2019, Honourable Mai Mala Buni became the seventh to be sworn in as Governor of Yobe State, but the fourth man to assume that office, he made specific declarations that many waited with bated breath to see come to fruition.
He announced a state of emergency on education and also promised to enhance agriculture, which is the mainstay of the people. He told the people of the state that “Yobe First” in everything, to empower indigenes, would be his mantra and that he would pursue peaceful coexistence and quality health delivery for the people.
Of course, without peace and good health, which farmer can farm and which student can learn anything? Or is there a teacher who can teach without them?
So, he first did all he could to establish peace in the state by providing security agencies with the resources they needed, thereby boosting their capacity to confront crime and criminals and, consequently, their morale.
He went further to make the political landscape level and fair, jettisoning the “by all means” politics hitherto known in the state in favour of a healthy contest between brothers who desire to contribute their quota for the benefit of the state. This was attested to by no less a personality than Adamu Maina Waziri. Waziri, a founding father of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now among the doyens of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), is one of Yobe’s greatest politicians and the state’s most prominent opposition figure since 1999.
Not only that, he was among those who worked to create the state, serving as the movement’s Secretary. Therefore, he should be familiar with the state’s political history, having been part of it from the beginning. And anybody who knows him knows that he is a very fair person. One of the attributes he shares with Buni is their capacity to be fair to people, even when they are not on the same page. And though he would fight any opponent, any day, including Buni, for political control of Yobe, he still once opined that the Governor has brought peace to Yobe politics, which used to be a “do or die” affair. Many attest that the hitherto volatility of politics in the state is now a thing of the past. Having put the peace process in place, he declared a state of emergency on education and launched an ambitious ₦25 billion appeal fund.
The aim was to take out-of-school children off the streets and provide high-quality education across the state. ₦10 billion was pledged, out of which about ₦2 billion was redeemed. He set up the Yobe Education Trust Fund, composed of eminent and trustworthy indigenes, under the chairmanship of Engineer Muhammad Abubakar, a seasoned civil servant who served as a Deputy Chief of Staff in the Presidency, and entrusted the funds to it.
So far, under his watch, new schools have been constructed, and hostels and classrooms in existing schools have been renovated. Laboratories and ICT centres have been built and equipped. His Yobe First promise ensured that, except when only outsiders had the technical expertise to perform a standard job, all contracts were executed by indigenes.
His vision led to the recruitment of over 4,000 education staff and the retraining of almost 30,000.
Dr.Hassan Gimba, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime wrote in from Abuja.