The president of Nigeria names new heads of intelligence and security

A week after their predecessors abruptly resigned, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu appointed new chiefs of homeland security and foreign intelligence on Monday. The nation, which is the most populous in Africa, is currently grappling with a northeastern insurgency and widespread kidnappings.

National Intelligence Agency will be led by Mohammed Mohammed, who previously served as the chief of Nigeria’s mission to Libya. Department of State Security will be led by Adeola Ajayi.

Ex-President Muhammadu Buhari appointed the previous agency directors in 2018. They did not provide any explanation for their resignations.

Confidence MacHarry, lead security analyst at consultancy SBM Intelligence, suggested that they could have either been expelled along with government personnel from the north to be replaced with Tinubu’s own Yoruba ethnic stock, or they could have been held accountable for the country’s subpar security performance.

In order to address the widespread kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs and a more than decade-old insurgency in the northeast, Tinubu is increasing intelligence gathering in response to the incessant attacks by armed groups.