Revealed: President Buhari Set to Disappoint Critics on Appointments of New Service Chiefs

Posted by Odinaka on Tue 12th Dec, 2017 - tori.ng

President Muhammadu Buhari is set to disappoint his critics over appointments of new service chiefs as investigation revealed that the president may consider geographical spread in the new appointment.

Minister for Defence, Alhaji Dan Ali (r); the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin (2r) and

other Service Chiefs during a brief colourful Special 74th Birthday Parade to honour the President

at the forecourts of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

As President Muhammadu Buhari prepares to name a new Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, and the Service Chiefs any moment soon,there are indications that he would prove his critics wrong in the spread of the appointments of the nation’s security heads, Vanguard reports.

The president it was gathered, would pick the new military chiefs based on geographical spread of the country unlike the existing ones where such issue was not considered.

The decision of the president to shift ground, according to our source, is because he has already achieved his target of technically and considerably degrading the military capabilities of the Boko Haram terrorists as had promised in his 2015 campaign promise.

Again, it was gathered that the fallback of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP on the president’s alleged insensibility in his mode of appointments especially in security circle to woo certain parts of the country ahead of the 2019 general election, was not being taken for granted by the president.

Our source said the president had not taken the issue of geographical spread into consideration much when picking the current security chiefs because he wanted immediate and promptly results in the fight against Boko Haram, which had ceased significant number of council areas in the North Eastern state of Borno when he took over the reign of the nation’s affairs.

He said having achieved the aim of defeating Boko Haram terrorists which informed his choice of concentrating the heads of security in a particular geographical zones, the president would shift ground in the expected appointments to reflect the country’s geographical spread.

“President Mohammedu may disappoint those who think he’s an ethnic and religious bigot as he set to appoint service chiefs with a balance spreads across religion and zones, unlike the present service chiefs where we have both the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of Air Staff coming from the same geopolitical zone.

“This is so, because he has considerably achieved his aim in defeating the Boko Haram terrorists as he had promised the country,“ the source who is deeply vested in security matters told Vanguard.

The president as gathered, would any moment from now, name the new security heads to man the nation’s security sector given that the tenures of the current Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs have expired.

It was reliable gathered that a serving minister who’s close to the president is trying to down play merit and unblemished records in favour of his godson, a Major General,to succeed Lt General Buratai, who is said to be highly favoured for Chief of Defence Staff,CDS’ job.

But the president is said to be insisting on clean service records, local and international operational experience, geopolitical zone spread, religious sensitivity and multiple lingual ability to guarantee regional cooperation that can bring about the total and quick defeat of Boko Haram.