BY REUBEN ABATI
Many Nigerians were understandably shocked, surprised, if not alarmed last week, when they suddenly heard the news that the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari had finally decided to relieve the service chiefs appointed in 2015 of their appointments. The popular response was couched in such phrases as “oh… at last… finally”, “better late than never” – general expressions of relief about a security team that many Nigerians concluded could not deliver on the President’s promise to make Nigeria a safer and better place for all or at best, tackle the menace of insurgency, terrorism and banditry. The Service Chiefs led by General Abayomi Olonisakin (Chief of Defence Staff) – Lt. General Tukur Ibrahim as Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar were generally considered inefficient and incompetent by many Nigerians. This has to be put in context.
Buhari And The New Service Chiefs By Reuben Abati
I hope the first thing that the new Army Chiefs would do is to get rid of the loafers in charge of military communications who have reduced anti-insurgency operations to Twitter tittle-tattle.
by Reuben Abati
Feb 02, 2021
Many Nigerians were understandably shocked, surprised, if not alarmed last week, when they suddenly heard the news that the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari had finally decided to relieve the service chiefs appointed in 2015 of their appointments. The popular response was couched in such phrases as “oh… at last. finally”, “better late than never” – general expressions of relief about a security team that many Nigerians concluded could not deliver on the President’s promise to make Nigeria a safer and better place for all or at best, tackle the menace of insurgency, terrorism and banditry. The Service Chiefs led by General Abayomi Olonisakin (Chief of Defence Staff) – Lt. General Tukur Ibrahi
Vanguard News
Let’s stop ‘smiling & dancing’ military operations
On
By Tonnie Iredia
Loud calls in the last year for a change of military service chiefs in Nigeria appear to have ended with the announcement, a few days ago, of a new team. An aggregation of the numerous reactions to the new team to be led by war veteran, Lucky Irabor shows that the idea of bringing the team on board at this point in time is propitious and well received.
However, a few people including this writer are still apprehensive of the efficacy of Nigeria’s security architecture. To start with, our leaders erroneously imagine that national security begins and ends with defence and military might. While not doubting the reality of civil strife as a daily feature of Nigeria’s heterogeneous and disparate communities, national security must be better understood to include other crucial areas such as job security and indeed food security; otherwise, a national security policy would be of no use to