After more than five years, President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked his widely criticised military chiefs. Replaced are Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and Chief of. Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas.
On January 26, he named Major General Lucky Irabor as Chief of Defence Staff, Major General I. 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. These nominations are coming long after several calls for the sack or resignation of the immediate past military service chiefs, who were appointed in 2015, as they were long overdue to retire. With heightened insecurity in the country and no effective strategy in sight to arrest the situation, legislators, organisations and Nigerians from all quarters had urged President Buhari to sack the leadership of the military and replace them. Rather than do so, the Presidency continued to claim that Nigeria was winning the war against insurgency. Under the former service chiefs, criminality rose to an all-time high, with multiple reports of banditry, kidnapping, murder and all kinds of heinous crimes, including the killing of farmers in Zambari, Zamfara State and the abduction of schoolboys in Kankara, Katsina State, occurring weeks apart towards the end of 2020. Despite Nigerians’ criticism of the conduct of the military and worsening insecurity, President Buhari did not heed the calls to rejig the leadership of the military until now.
The nominees were decorated by their predecessors and subsequently assumed office on Friday, January 29, following handover ceremonies conducted by the various military services. The Senate is expected to consider President Buhari’s correspondence, seeking confirmation of the nominees as military service chiefs, upon the National Assembly’s resumption on February 9.
While several observers see this as a welcome development, others perceive the move as lacking momentum, as it is coming after the country has suffered severe damages from criminal elements, with many lives lost and others maimed and traumatised. Nonetheless, Nigerians can only remain hopeful that the new leadership of the Armed Forces will make positive impact.