TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI; JULIET OYOYO

LAGOS / KADUNA
Despite public outcry for their replacement, the current service chiefs may remain in office till the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in May 2023, Daily Independent has gathered.

The service chiefs, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS); Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff (COAS); Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff (CAS), and Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, Chief of Naval Staff, are all overdue for retire­ment.

They were appointed by President Buhari in 2015 upon assumption of office in May 2015. Under military regulations, their terms of service expired in 2017.

Despite calls for the re­moval by the National As­sembly, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), and other concerned Nigerians, the president has continued to keep them.

Again, the Senate on Tuesday reiterated its posi­tion that President Buhari should, as a matter of ur­gency, remove the service chiefs and replace them with people with fresh ideas and solutions follow­ing the massacre of over 43 rice farmers in Borno State on Saturday.

They also asked the president to restructure and remodel the entire security architecture and investigate allegations of widespread corruption and leakages within the securi­ty architecture.

Speaking on the issue, the Senior Special Assis­tant to the President on Me­dia and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the clamour for the sack of service chiefs as “out of place”.

Shehu, who said this during an interview with Arise TV, noted that service chiefs were appointed and replaced at the pleasure of the president, adding that they would remain as long as Buhari deems fit.

“I am not aware that the tenure of service chiefs is subjected to any law or regulation that is clearly stated.They serve at the plea­sure of the president and (if) the president is sat­isfied with their perfor­mance, he keeps them.The buck stops at his table — with due respect to the feelings of Nigerians.

“The clamour for the sack is out of place consid­ering that the president is not subject to the opinion of the opposition political party, which has clam­oured for this all the time.”

However, a presidency source who spoke with our correspondent on con­dition of anonymity, said the president was not in a hurry to replace the ser­vice chiefs now.

He said though he was unhappy over the current security challenges in the country, the president had “implicit faith in the ser­vice chiefs and they may work with him till the end of his tenure in 2023”.

He added: “People are just blaming the service chiefs because they are just looking at the surface. Like Garba Shehu said, the buck stops on the table of the president.He appointed them and only he can explain why he is still retaining them despite the fact that he receives the blame for security challenges as the commander-in-chief.

“The fact is, the pres­ident knows what many of us don’t know. He has access to many privileged information, especially on security matters. The Minister of Infor­mation has said foreign nations have refused to sell vital weapons to us. How do you expect the service chiefs to prosecute the war without weapons?

“If the president sacks them and replaces them with new ones, which weapons will the new ones prosecute the war with? Maybe these are factors the president is considering which influence his de­cision not to replace them.But I can tell you that the president has no plans to replace them. He has im­plicit trust in them.”

Also speaking with our correspondent, Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), a prominent member of the defunct National Democratic Co­alition (NADECO), said President Buhari had consistently breached the Armed Forces Act, and that he ought to have changed the current service chiefs long ago.

Nyiam, a delegate to the 2014 National Confer­ence, also said he heard that the president’s fear in retaining the current ser­vice chiefs was because he didn’t want new people he was not familiar with.

He added that the con­tinued stay of the current service chiefs was killing morale in the military as many promising officers with ideas were not allowed to rise to the zenith of their career.

He said: “It is very sad. Over two years now, I have been calling for the service chiefs to be replaced.If you have a service chief who is not perform­ing, the usual thing is to change them. Also, by keeping them, the career of many officers is being ruined because if the service chiefs had left almost three years ago, they would have had three sets of chief of staff.

“So, they are depriving many officers of promo­tion and ability to rise to higher ranks in their pro­fession.This is causing low morale in the army. What I also hear, which is sad, is that the president is afraid that if he changes them, he may find himself with new service chiefs he is not fa­miliar with.

“All I can say is that it is very sad for us as a nation, especially with what has happened in Borno. In any country, the service chiefs, the army in particular, would have gone. The irony of it is that the chief of army staff is from that part of the coun­try. The National Security Adviser is also from that area, yet their people are being killed. I would say it is shameless. The chief of army staff should have resigned.”

Meanwhile, Arewa Stakeholders Consultative Forum has said the inces­sant killings, attacks, and kidnappings in the North had adversely affected most inhabitants of the area.

Rising from an emer­gency meeting in Kaduna, the Arewa Stakeholders Consultative Forum, while reviewing the state of se­curity in the North follow­ing the gruesome murder of 43 farmers, according to the Nigerian government figure, declared: “We say emphatically that enough is enough of these sense­less killing of innocent and unarmed civilians in Borno State and across the northern part of Nigeria.

“The escalation of these killings almost on a daily basis, in our view, is a tes­timony that our troops sta­tioned across the troubled areas are overwhelmed and the strategies currently in operation are not adequate.

“We categorically join millions of voices to call on President Muhamma­du Buhari to, without further delay, relieve the nation’s service chiefs of their posts as they have ex­hausted all strategies with­in their capacity to stop the avoidable killing that has made millions homeless in their own country as they have failed to save Nigeri­ans this tragically-embar­rassing experiences that have continued to make us a laughing stock in the comity of nations with dire consequences for our im­age abroad.”

The group emphasised the urgent need not just for operational strategy of the troops in Borno State but also for a total overhauling of the nation’s security ar­chitecture.

“We advocate robust intelligence gathering as a component of the war against insecurity,” they said.

According to them, “We are convinced that for our troops to succeed in their assignment to bring back law and order in areas currently faced with chal­lenges of insecurity, active collaboration with commu­nities is key as we equally recognise the importance of inter-agencies collabo­ration. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.”
https://www.independent.ng/despite-clamour-service-chiefs-may-remain-till-2023/

Same service chiefs since 2015. No cabinet reshuffle since 2015. Are you guys sure Buhari is okay?

When a child is bitten by a snake , even a thread will scare the child next time. With what the president passed through as a military Head of State in the hands of the supposedly confidants that overthrew him, he won't joke with his trusted hands this time around even though there's security challenge. The solution to the crisis in the North East is to engage mercenaries as advised by Prof Zulum from neighbouring countries such as Chad to ruthlessly uproot the insurgents as Nigerian soldiers seem to be sentimental in their approach.

nairavsdollars:
TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI; JULIET OYOYO

LAGOS / KADUNA
Despite public outcry for their replacement, the current service chiefs may remain in office till the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in May 2023, Daily Independent has gathered.

The service chiefs, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS); Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff (COAS); Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff (CAS), and Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, Chief of Naval Staff, are all overdue for retire­ment.

They were appointed by President Buhari in 2015 upon assumption of office in May 2015. Under military regulations, their terms of service expired in 2017.

Despite calls for the re­moval by the National As­sembly, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), and other concerned Nigerians, the president has continued to keep them.

Again, the Senate on Tuesday reiterated its posi­tion that President Buhari should, as a matter of ur­gency, remove the service chiefs and replace them with people with fresh ideas and solutions follow­ing the massacre of over 43 rice farmers in Borno State on Saturday.

They also asked the president to restructure and remodel the entire security architecture and investigate allegations of widespread corruption and leakages within the securi­ty architecture.

Speaking on the issue, the Senior Special Assis­tant to the President on Me­dia and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the clamour for the sack of service chiefs as “out of place”.

Shehu, who said this during an interview with Arise TV, noted that service chiefs were appointed and replaced at the pleasure of the president, adding that they would remain as long as Buhari deems fit.

“I am not aware that the tenure of service chiefs is subjected to any law or regulation that is clearly stated.They serve at the plea­sure of the president and (if) the president is sat­isfied with their perfor­mance, he keeps them.The buck stops at his table — with due respect to the feelings of Nigerians.

“The clamour for the sack is out of place consid­ering that the president is not subject to the opinion of the opposition political party, which has clam­oured for this all the time.”

However, a presidency source who spoke with our correspondent on con­dition of anonymity, said the president was not in a hurry to replace the ser­vice chiefs now.

He said though he was unhappy over the current security challenges in the country, the president had “implicit faith in the ser­vice chiefs and they may work with him till the end of his tenure in 2023”.

He added: “People are just blaming the service chiefs because they are just looking at the surface. Like Garba Shehu said, the buck stops on the table of the president.He appointed them and only he can explain why he is still retaining them despite the fact that he receives the blame for security challenges as the commander-in-chief.

“The fact is, the pres­ident knows what many of us don’t know. He has access to many privileged information, especially on security matters. The Minister of Infor­mation has said foreign nations have refused to sell vital weapons to us. How do you expect the service chiefs to prosecute the war without weapons?

“If the president sacks them and replaces them with new ones, which weapons will the new ones prosecute the war with? Maybe these are factors the president is considering which influence his de­cision not to replace them.But I can tell you that the president has no plans to replace them. He has im­plicit trust in them.”

Also speaking with our correspondent, Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), a prominent member of the defunct National Democratic Co­alition (NADECO), said President Buhari had consistently breached the Armed Forces Act, and that he ought to have changed the current service chiefs long ago.

Nyiam, a delegate to the 2014 National Confer­ence, also said he heard that the president’s fear in retaining the current ser­vice chiefs was because he didn’t want new people he was not familiar with.

He added that the con­tinued stay of the current service chiefs was killing morale in the military as many promising officers with ideas were not allowed to rise to the zenith of their career.

He said: “It is very sad. Over two years now, I have been calling for the service chiefs to be replaced.If you have a service chief who is not perform­ing, the usual thing is to change them. Also, by keeping them, the career of many officers is being ruined because if the service chiefs had left almost three years ago, they would have had three sets of chief of staff.

“So, they are depriving many officers of promo­tion and ability to rise to higher ranks in their pro­fession.This is causing low morale in the army. What I also hear, which is sad, is that the president is afraid that if he changes them, he may find himself with new service chiefs he is not fa­miliar with.

“All I can say is that it is very sad for us as a nation, especially with what has happened in Borno. In any country, the service chiefs, the army in particular, would have gone. The irony of it is that the chief of army staff is from that part of the coun­try. The National Security Adviser is also from that area, yet their people are being killed. I would say it is shameless. The chief of army staff should have resigned.”

Meanwhile, Arewa Stakeholders Consultative Forum has said the inces­sant killings, attacks, and kidnappings in the North had adversely affected most inhabitants of the area.

Rising from an emer­gency meeting in Kaduna, the Arewa Stakeholders Consultative Forum, while reviewing the state of se­curity in the North follow­ing the gruesome murder of 43 farmers, according to the Nigerian government figure, declared: “We say emphatically that enough is enough of these sense­less killing of innocent and unarmed civilians in Borno State and across the northern part of Nigeria.

“The escalation of these killings almost on a daily basis, in our view, is a tes­timony that our troops sta­tioned across the troubled areas are overwhelmed and the strategies currently in operation are not adequate.

“We categorically join millions of voices to call on President Muhamma­du Buhari to, without further delay, relieve the nation’s service chiefs of their posts as they have ex­hausted all strategies with­in their capacity to stop the avoidable killing that has made millions homeless in their own country as they have failed to save Nigeri­ans this tragically-embar­rassing experiences that have continued to make us a laughing stock in the comity of nations with dire consequences for our im­age abroad.”

The group emphasised the urgent need not just for operational strategy of the troops in Borno State but also for a total overhauling of the nation’s security ar­chitecture.

“We advocate robust intelligence gathering as a component of the war against insecurity,” they said.

According to them, “We are convinced that for our troops to succeed in their assignment to bring back law and order in areas currently faced with chal­lenges of insecurity, active collaboration with commu­nities is key as we equally recognise the importance of inter-agencies collabo­ration. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.”
https://www.independent.ng/despite-clamour-service-chiefs-may-remain-till-2023/

Better still, they can follow their Mr lifeless to his grave.

Their brother placed them there to occupy that space not to work.

So, Nigerians should be killed because Buhari does not want to be toppled?

kingi777:
When a child is bitten by a snake , even a thread will scare the child next time. With what the president passed through as a military Head of State in the hands of the supposedly confidants that overthrew him, he won't joke with his trusted hands this time around even though there's security challenge. The solution to the crisis in the North East is to engage mercenaries as advised by Prof Zulum from neighbouring countries such as Chad to ruthlessly uproot the insurgents as Nigerian soldiers seem to be sentimental in their approach.

Boko haram has seen 4 presidents and more than 30 service chiefs. Buhari can sack them all he wants but, it might not change anything.



I AM DONE TALKING

North East ain't complaining, they are enjoying them

All those calling for their sack cant be mad..let him replace them

JAMO84:
Boko haram has seen 4 presidents and more than 30 service chiefs. Buhari can sack them all he wants but, it might not change anything.



I AM DONE TALKING

bolaayenimo:
So, Nigerians should be killed because Buhari does not want to be toppled?

My brother, one in power would do anything to remain there. Do you know that #EndSars protests was almost changing the government as it attracted world attention? Those who helped to quell it are appreciated and promoted even though the generality of the people are crying and wailing

They should remain to finish what they started. the worst in history of Nigeria

They said the President has integrity but i am beginning to doubt it. Can't you just listen to Nigerians for once?

You think EndSARS has ended? I heard they did another one in Lagos today

kingi777:

My brother, one in power would do anything to remain there. Do you know that #EndSars protests was almost changing the government as it attracted world attention? Those who helped to quell it are appreciated and promoted even though the generality of the people are crying and wailing

When GEJ gave this reason back in 2015, Buhari and the APC said it was a lie. That incompetence was the reason GEJs govt was struggling with BH. I recall then that the army, buoyed by experienced mercenaries, had BH on retreat. Buhari promised he’ll defeat his brothers, BH, within three months.

6 years and counting, one excuse after the other. Buhari has set this country back in all facet of national life. He is a disgrace to mankind. He should be very ashamed of himself!!

Most of the things they criticize GEJ for, they are doing worse

rontolo:
When GEJ gave this reason back in 2015, Buhari and the APC said it was a lie. That incompetence was the reason GEJs govt was struggling with BH. I recall then that the army, buoyed by experienced mercenaries, had BH on retreat. Buhari promised he’ll defeat his brothers, BH, within three months.

6 years and counting, one excuse after the other. Buhari has set this country back in all facet of national life. He is a disgrace to mankind. He should be very ashamed of himself!!

But the Sultan said the North is the worst place to live in right now

slivertongue:
North East ain't complaining, they are enjoying them

#BORNOKILLINGS: See what 2023 youth aspirant said

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXPlBJYhrto

The buck stops @ the president's office.So the NASS should do the needful but oops! They are also a band of clueless rubberstamp robots.

Personally I think that picture of Garbage Shehu, attempting to hug that woman is more concerning than Boko haram
Kikiki

I'm telling you. Total Rubber stamp. Do you expect this kind of omo Agege to tell Buhari the truth?

Racoon:
The buck stops @ the president's office.So the NASS should do the needful but oops! They are also a band of clueless rubberstamp robots.

Service thiefs

Thieves indeed. They won't want the war to end

helinues:
Service thiefs

The service chiefs know the President won't fire them now. That's why they are relaxed

The President has the power to keep them in office for as long as he pleases. That's why he is the President. He can bend certain laws how he deems fit especially if they are related to national security. Only coup plotters will not be happy with him.

The President is afraid of coup..he won't replace them

kingi777:
When a child is bitten by a snake , even a thread will scare the child next time. With what the president passed through as a military Head of State in the hands of the supposedly confidants that overthrew him, he won't joke with his trusted hands this time around even though there's security challenge. The solution to the crisis in the North East is to engage mercenaries as advised by Prof Zulum from neighbouring countries such as Chad to ruthlessly uproot the insurgents as Nigerian soldiers seem to be sentimental in their approach.

Very shameful post justifying self centeredness

simply say just to avoid coup

Egg-zactly

azawuoba:
simply say just to avoid coup