- We say again: it’s time for the security chiefs to go
THE criminal gangs striking in all parts of the country with ease kept on killing in Borno, Taraba, Zamfara, Benue and Nasarawa states throughout last week. Just recently, they struck in Dapchi, Yobe State, and it took one month to recover more than 100 girls abducted from a girls secondary school in the town. One of the girls is still in captivity. Yet, some of those seized in Chibok in April 2014 are still being held. Armed robbers have also become more daring. In Offa, Kwara State, they invaded the police station in the town and raided four commercial banks. We ask, what is really going on?
It is inconceivable that there are policemen deployed all over the country. To boost the capacity of the police, personnel of the armed forces are engaged in various forms of operations nationwide. This is in addition to the Department of State Services (DSS) statutorily saddled with the task of gathering intelligence for the civil and armed forces’ operations.
Annually, citizens continue to make case for increased funding of the forces, despite the lean resources available for social, economic and political responsibilities of the government. Only recently, the president forwarded a request to the National Assembly for a draw-down of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account for security. The federal and state governments should realise that the primary constitutional responsibility they swore to provide at inauguration was the security of lives and property. Any government that falls short of this requirement has failed the terms of the social contract that brought them to office.
President Muhammadu Buhari should remind himself of his electoral promises during the 2014/2015 general elections. The lives of Nigerians are being regularly devalued as the herdsmen move from one state to the other destroying farmers’ means of livelihood, invading schools and displacing schoolchildren, sending families to internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camps and mowing down policemen sent to keep them at bay with very little resistance. These must stop.
The service chiefs, from the Chief of Defence Staff to the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, as well as the Inspector-General of Police, Director-General of the DSS and the National Security Adviser have failed the nation; they have no right to keep the offices any longer. We find it difficult to understand the rationale behind the extension of the tenures of officers who should have retired a long time ago. Is the President, Commander-in-Chief suggesting that there are no other officers capable of holding the offices?
There are rules guiding appointments and tenures in the public service. By 2019, if General Abayomi Olonishakin, already a full general, continues in office, he would have served the country for 40 years, contrary to the stipulated maximum of 35 years. His tenure has been extended twice. Both Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, the Chief of Air Staff and Vice admiral Ibok Ete Ekwe, Chief of Naval Staff joined the services in 1979, same year as the Chief of Defence Staff, while the army chief, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai, was enrolled in 1981. Only the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, still has a year to go, having enlisted in 1984.
We support the Senate resolution that they all should be allowed to leave. It is shameful that the United States of America had to point out to us last week that there was need for a change of tactics as even the insurgents in the North East have continually changed tactics, thus staying ahead of our security forces. There is the need for reinvigoration of the services, a boost of morale of officers and men and a rekindling of the people’s confidence.
We urge Nigerians and the non- governmental organisations to join this campaign to improve the capacity of our security forces.
