The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and key federal agencies have endorsed President Bola Tinubu’s framework to reposition the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) as an independent, multimodal accident investigation agency reporting directly to the Presidency.
The backing came at a high-level stakeholder meeting convened at the Joint Intelligence Board Hall of ONSA in Abuja. Under the new arrangement, approved by the President in March 2026, NSIB moves from the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to report to the Presidency through ONSA.
National Security Adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu chaired the meeting while Hadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination and Head of the Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit, served as co-chair.
Representatives from 20 agencies attended, including the Federal Ministries of Justice, Finance and Aviation; the Central Bank of Nigeria; FRSC, FERMA, NRC, NIWA, NPA, NNPC Ltd., NCAA, FAAN, NAMA, NEMA, the Nigeria Police Force and the Armed Forces.
Officials said the reform addresses the growing overlap between transport accidents and national security issues such as infrastructure protection, emergency response and intelligence management.
Ribadu said the Presidency approved the change to remove bureaucratic bottlenecks, strengthen investigative neutrality and create a more coordinated national transport safety framework.
“An independent reporting structure is necessary to preserve public trust, neutrality and professional transparency,” he said. ONSA will provide coordination and oversight, particularly where investigations involve systemic failures within sectoral agencies.
The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation has been tasked with setting up a technical drafting committee to amend the NSIB Establishment Act 2022 to reflect the new governance structure.
NSIB Director General Capt. Alex Badeh Jr. described the transition as a major institutional development that would improve investigative transparency, operational independence and inter-agency collaboration.
“Our responsibility remains preventive, not punitive. The Bureau determines probable causes, identifies systemic safety gaps, and issues recommendations to prevent recurrence. We do not regulate, prosecute, or apportion blame,” Badeh said.
He noted that the new framework would shorten occurrence notification timelines, improve evidence preservation and enable coordinated response in cases involving multiple authorities or incidents with national security implications. He cited delays in data access and jurisdictional overlaps during investigations in late 2025 and early 2026 as problems the reform should resolve.
Hadiza Bala Usman said the decision aligns Nigeria’s transport safety architecture with international models, including the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Canada’s Transportation Safety Board and France’s BEA.
Stakeholders agreed to three immediate actions: develop inter-agency standard operating procedures within 30 days; sign memoranda of understanding with relevant agencies within 60 days; and advance the legislative amendments needed for full implementation.
The meeting ended with unanimous support for the reform and a commitment to deepen operational collaboration through structured inter-agency frameworks and coordinated response protocols.
For Nigeria, where transport-related accidents continue to expose gaps in emergency response and safety enforcement, officials said the framework is intended to strengthen accident investigation as a preventive national safety mechanism tied to resilience, accountability and public trust.
