President Muhammadu Buhari says he has not changed the service
chiefs in order to avoid “competition within the service.”
Buhari said this in a recorded interview that was aired by Arise
TV Monday night.
Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, chief of defence staff; Tukur Yusufu
Buratai, chief of army staff, Ibok-EteIkwe Ibas, chief of naval
staff; and Sadique Baba Abubakar, chief of air staff, have had
their tenures extended twice.
Also, Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police (IGP), who was
expected to retire on January 3 after completing a mandatory 35
years in service is still at his job.
The president said, “the head [him] has to be very careful
because you don’t know [the] ambition of the ones coming up.”
He said the performance of the service chiefs may be
disappointing but he takes responsibility for not changing
them.
“My understanding of security is that, when you have a case of
emergency, you have to be careful, with tampering with the head of
services. This is again one of my personal experiences. I have been
a governor, I have been a minister, I have been a head of state, I
came back, I tried to come back to this office three times but
lucky on the fourth time,” Buhari said.
“I am measuring the options critically, when you have a case of
emergency, if you don’t wait for an appropriate time to do it, then
you create competition within the service, there are so many
ambitious people waiting, only one man can be chief of army staff
in the army, only one man can be the inspector-general of police.
Don’t forget that it was this administration that appointed all the
three.”
SERVICE CHIEFS DISAPPOINTING PERFORMANCE
“I didn’t know them on [a] personal basis, I followed records and
thought I picked the best then, of course, their performance may be
disappointing but I accept responsibility for not changing them. My
reason is based on my own experience.”
When asked specifically about the IGP, the president said: “I
don’t think I’m afraid of him. I will take action.”
Buhari also accused the governments of Benue and Taraba of
giving the killings in their states religious and ethnic
undertones.
“You talked of Zamfara and Benue and Plateau, You haven’t
mentioned Taraba. The problem which I think are you, the press,
television, radio and so on is stabilise the country and ask for
responsible reportage and leadership,” the president said.
“The number of people killed in Taraba and Benue is not up to
the number killed in Zamfara state. But then what the leadership of
Benue and Taraba was reporting – I may not be reading every article
– they were giving it religious and ethnic [undertone] which is
very unfair to Nigeria.”