Championing the Buhari Doctrine

In a country where men are dominating the political and leadership space, skewing even the most brilliant of women to play second fiddle, while making them submit their ideas to them to drive, it has continuously been the norm even though every political dispensation  always claims to give priority to women.

Despite the fact that this Nigerian ‘culture’ has made most otherwise innovative women to go into their shelf from rendering big ideas and bold visions for the development and betterment of the country, very few women whose love for the Nigerian state is irrepressible have continued to strive to make the dream of every Nigerian come true; with a view to seeing a better country where everything works.

One of such women is, Mrs Ekaette Enitan Sanusi, the Convener of the Support the Uniform Initiative Nigeria (SUN) and the President, Women Pro-Climate Federation for Buhari and Osinbajo Presidency 2015, whose passion for a progressive Nigeria has seen her champion causes for sustainable development anchored on good governance in the country.

With the Support the Uniform Initiative Nigeria, she has decided to champion the cause for stronger alignment of defence, security and development in the country’s foreign policy as the Buhari Doctrine in consonance with the governance principles of Commander in Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari, whose passion to see a peaceful, stable and prosperous Nigeria has never been hidden.

Under her initiative, SUN, whose main focus is to help in the strengthening of Nigeria’s security and defence system, through robust muscular ties with world powers, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, among others, has been positioned to close the gap of insecurity and motivational downing of the country’s uniform men, including the military, police, custom, civil defence, immigration, among others. This, she said was in alignment with President Buhari’s resolve to tackle insecurity head on and bring the much needed peace to the country.

Sanusi, further, postulated that the prosperity of Nigeria depends on sustainable peace and adequate security system, calling for policy framework and strategic partnership with G7 nations to be able to adequately fight insurgency, insecurity, terrorism, poverty, diseases and underdevelopment in the country.

According to her, the goodwill the present administration of the country is currently enjoying from the United States and other world powers, which were not there during the PDP lead administration, must be taken advantage of, so as to provide composite stabilisation assistance in the conflict areas of the country, especially in the North Eastern region of the country that has seen insurgency and terrorism soared within the last few years.

It would be recalled that during President Buhari’s Inauguration, May 29th, the United States signaled that it was prepared to expand military cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram.

Secretary of State, John Kerry, who led the American delegation at the inauguration, discussed renewed cooperation against Boko Haram in a short meeting with President Buhari during the inauguration.

Also after President Buhari’s inauguration, the G7 invited him and pledged their support for his administration, especially in the area of curbing terrorism and economic development in the country.

This gesture and show of support, observers noticed were lost during the administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. The US’s efforts to expand military cooperation with Nigeria at that time had diminished during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, due to accusation of human right abuses and corruption in Nigeria’s military, which then led to the withdrawal of American drone flights from Nigerian airspace and their insistence to only share intelligence with other neighboring countries, including Niger, Chad and Benin Republic, rather than Nigeria, which was at the centre of the monster.

But now that the United States and other G7 members are at ease with Buhari and ready to lend their support in the fight against insecurity, how will the SUN support President Buhari’s administration in stamping out insurgency and terrorism from the country? Sanusi, said the initiative was first of all calling on the President to sign a security and development treaty with G7 under the leadership of President Barrack Obama so that the governance system of the G7 countries would also be replicated in the country for optimal production.

Sanusi emphasised that SUN will provide the platform to aggregate capacity, with clear policies, procedures and robust systems, using the public-private partnership model and strategy for actualisation of collective defence, security and development pact between Nigeria and the G7 advanced economies that will be further enhanced and transformed to formal cooperation and partnership treaty.

She also explained that the SUN through its well researched and workable strategies would provided institutional framework and platform for reform of culture, doctrine, orientation and policy of military, paramilitary and the intelligence agencies in the country.

According to her, “the initiative will develop actionable documents in partnership with our associates and affiliates for access to programmes that will provide security governance solutions for long term peace and stability. SUN will provide advisory for specific agreement with offer and acceptance conditions for supplies, repairs, maintenance of combat equipment, ammunition, surveillance and attack aircraft, with associated parts, training and logistics,” she added.

The convener of the organisation said in replicating the defence system of the world powers, there was need to operationalise the various execution platforms in the US States, including International Military Education Training (IMET), Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP), Anti terrorism Assistance (ATA), Combating Terrorism Fellowship (CTM), Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Defense Institutional Reform Initiative (DIRI), Security Governance Initiative (SGI), African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership (APRRP), Combating Terrorism Fellowship, and a host of others, so that the country can achieve a better result in terms of security in the country.

Sanusi, believed no matter the amount of work President Buhari put into repairing the mess he met, if he does not stamp out insecurity through all available moral means, that his impact would not be felt by the citizens.

While calling on President Buhari to take advantage of the new found love of world powers to the country, she said it was important the President stamp out and completely overhaul the foreign, defence and economic policy of Nigeria for stronger integration with advanced economics.

“Buhari should join forces with G7 to strengthen security and defence system .The pact will be further transformed into formal cooperation and partnership treaty with the G7 countries to deepen fiscal and monetary integration that may metamorphosize into free trade, currency and economic bloc. SUN will put Nigeria on the path of defence, security and development treaty with G7 countries for shared peace, progress and prosperity,” she added.

Sanusi explained that under her initiative, which has a strategy that covers not only the activities of the soldiers during combat, there would also be healthcare and social welfare programmes to support family and civil society in the military, paramilitary and police, including maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health, among others.

She also called on all well-meaning Nigerians to support the new Buhari Doctrine which aligns security and development as strategic foreign policy tools for peaceful, stable and prosperous Nigeria.