President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the effort of the service chiefs is not good enough although his instructions to them are very clear.
Buhari expressed the view during an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on the release of the abducted students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, on Thursday.
The “Armed forces know their job. I meet them, we have security meetings from time to time. They must be very clear of my instructions. Their effort is not good enough for me,” he said.
Despite his repeated grumblings over the inability of the service chiefs to secure the country, the president has refused to sack them.
The immediate past governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, said recently that the service chiefs gave their best when they were first appointed but that their best was no longer needed at the moment.
There have been several calls by the Senate and other Nigerians for the sack of the military chiefs since January but the presidency has refused to heed the calls.
On Monday, the Coalition of Northern Elders also urged the president to sack the military chiefs while expressing concerns on the worsening security situation in the region.
The coalition in a statement said, “Our president was elected by Nigerians and the same Nigerians have spoken through their representatives in the National Assembly.
“Our president should listen to them by dropping the service chiefs, who have since reached retirement age in the military, and appoint new ones with fresh ideas to do the job for which we elected him to do.”
The service chiefs were appointed by Buhari in 2015 after he was elected for his first presidential term.
Their terms of service expired in 2017 according to military regulations, but the president has kept them for a reason not very clear to the public.
They are Defense Chief Abayomi Olonisakin, Army Chief Tukur Buratai, Navy Chief Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, and Air Chief Sadique Abubakar.
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