Updated: March 7, 2021
Any attempt to stampede President Muhammadu Buhari into changing his Service Chiefs is bound to fail.
This is because President Buhari is a master tactician and has his prudent and firm reasons for keeping the Service Chiefs, according to the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO).
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In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, the group noted that the President, a retired General in the Nigerian Army, with true credentials of war tactics, has in his wisdom kept the Service Chiefs and must not be harassed to do otherwise.
“The mischief of constantly pummelling the media space – whether social media or sponsored columns and news reports – with calls for the sack of the Service Chiefs are ridiculous and ill-informed.
“We have observed a growing pattern mostly from uninformed critics making absurd and ignorant calls for the removal of the Service Chiefs; it is important that we caution these persons not to fall prey into seeking political quick-wins for serious business in the war front.
“There is no doubt that Nigeria faces security challenges which President Buhari has shown the capacity to address, and is addressing. These challenges must be understood from their right dimensions and strategy for tackling them: whether they are internal security matters or those of national defence.
“Internal security matters are dealt with by the Police Force and other internal civil security outfits, while matters of security bordering on the defense of Nigeria’s territory and its sovereignty rest in the mandate of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force who are only called in to internal security matters where the civil security institutions are overwhelmed.”
BMO noted that those making the calls for the sack of the Service Chiefs were not grading them on the performance of their primary assignments, but feeding into a forced narrative of an overwhelming insecurity in the country.
“If we must judge the Service Chiefs by how far they have fared in dealing with both their primary and secondary mandate, we cannot but commend their dedication to duty and the successes they have attained in the last 5 years. As far as tackling the issue of national defense is concerned, the Service Chiefs have fared very well.
“The President’s decision to keep the Service Chiefs through these years is not just a matter of his discretion, but in the application of time-earned wisdom in the warfront.
“We note that the President is a master tactician in matters of war. He has been privileged to play roles in fighting unconventional insurgents like the Maitatsine group, which he dealt with and quelled.”
BMO noted further that the terrorist group today has become too weakened to hold territory and hence focuses on creating fear and anger against the administration through attacks on soft targets.
“The Book Haram insurgents who today make employ of weak guerrilla warfare and fear-mongering attacks on soft-targets cannot boast of any territory they control in Nigeria. They hide and run from one place to another in the vast Sambisa Forest, knowing full well that they are overwhelmed.”
BMO called on Nigerians not to give in to the antics of politicians and those who have selfish interests in the removal of the Service Chiefs but to take a much broader look on the matter of the retention of the Service Chiefs by the President.
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