The Northern Elders Forum says the appointment of new
service chiefs is not enough to bring the needed change Nigerians expect to see
in the country’s war against insurgency and sundry security challenges, adding
that the President, Muhammadu Buhari, must exercise
leadership as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces.
“The key is the president, he has to change his attitude to
the defence and security of this country. You cannot run this country with all
these security challenges and maintain the distance that he maintains with what
is going on. You listen to the president and his spokespeople are telling you
the situation is better than it was in 2015. It is a very disturbing thing when
you hear this.
“There are no suicide bombings now but the population of
Nigerians living under Boo Haram is large, huge and unacceptable,” NEF
Spokesman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said on Wednesday while featuring on Channels
Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
After much pressure from Nigerians for the President to
bring in fresh hands to pilot the country’s anti-terrorism war especially
against Boko Haram in the North-East, Buhari announced the appointment of four
new service chiefs on Tuesday.
The new service chiefs are Major-General Leo Irabor as Chief
of Defence Staff; Major-General Ibrahim Attahiru as Chief of Army Staff; Rear
Admiral A.Z Gambo as Chief of Naval Staff; and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao as
Chief of Air Staff.
But the northern elders said the replacement might not be
effective if the president lead the new crop of service chiefs the same way he
led the former commanders.
The group, speaking through its spokesman, Baba-Ahmed, said,
“At last, it appeared that the President has considered that it is time for him
to appoint new service chiefs.
“Our hope is that he is not just responding to public
opinion but he himself acknowledges the fact that all service chiefs have ran
out of steam. Their leadership did not produce the results it was intended to
produce.
“But we don’t the nation to be carried away. It is important
that the Armed Forces have a new leadership but they have a huge task and it
has to start from the president.
“We have a Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. The
president has responsibility to lead the new service chief in a better way than
he did in the past. He needs to recognise the fact that he has a role.
“He (Buhari) needs to have a closer eye on what is going on
and hold the new service chiefs accountable to make sure that the changes are
brought into the military in terms of conduct, professionalism, integrity,
morale of the fighting forces and change in tactics.
“If these new service chiefs are led in the same manner the
president exercised the distance between him and the conflict that the military
is fighting, we are going to have the same problem.”
Baba-Ahmed also said Nigerians would know if the president
made the right choices in his appointment of the new service chiefs in the next
seven months.
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