The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama has announced former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai (retd.) and former Defence Chief, Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin as Ambassadors to Benin Republic and Cameroon respectively.


The Minister’s statement was however silent on the posting of the other former service chiefs – Vice Admiral Ibok- Ette Ibas (retd.); former Chief of Naval Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar (retd.), ex-Chief of Air Staff and and Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Usman (retd.), former Chief of Defence Intelligence.


In an interview with SaharaReporters on Friday, a source said Abubakar was posted to Chad while Ibas was posted to Ghana.


Former CDI, Usman was also deployed by Buhari to Niger Republic.


Buhari had sacked all the former service chiefs on January 26.

The President subsequently announced the nomination of the immediate past service chiefs on February 4 as non-career ambassadors, a decision which was greeted with widespread condemnation.


The decision was condemned by most Nigerians who believed that the former service chiefs should be probed particularly on the controversial $1 billion arms fund released between 2018 and 2019.

Hmmm. This is actually very good. Anything that will help us tame the insecurity requires fresh approach and strategy particularly our security relationship with these our neighbouring countries is welcome.
These countries have grown from sabotaging our economy through the use of their seaports to actually graduate to yielding their base for those who never mean well for our nation. For some like Cameroon, there's a report that a separatist group is providing arms for those killing our patriots in uniform.
We need a synergy of our fight against terrorists with those of these neighbours.