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Not that it is taboo for ex-military men to hold civilian diplomatic roles but it has never happened that 5 ex-service chiefs would be reappointed as envoys immediately after their roles in an unpopular administration. President Muhammadu Buhari had on February 4 angered a section of Nigerians even further when he nominated the immediate past service chiefs of the nation as non-career ambassadors-designate just a week after their replacement. The record of the service chief which was riddled with incessant security challenges was so unpopular that it was regarded as the worst in Nigerian history. It was for the same reason that ordinary Nigerians called for the resignation of these military chiefs before they were eventually sacked. The Foreign Affairs Senate Committee led by Senator Mohammed Bulkachuwa and other members at the screening held in a closed-session finally succeeded in rubber-stamping what Nigerians had feared would happen if enough noise was not made about the issue. The former Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, who was the first to be screened, emptied rhetoric about research which he conducted shows that Nigeria’s over 1,000 forest reserves urgently need to be manned or else they will become hideouts for criminals. Can we submit that the former Defence Chief’s mandate was not successful in the 6 years plus that he sat over the nation’s security?
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For the Former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, his self-defeating statement at the screening lamented about the security crisis in the country and gave reasons why terrorists have permeated the society and won the communities to their side. If terrorists have been able to win over communities of people to their side in a nation where the 3 arms of government are supposedly functional and the military is well funded, why is Buratai still excusing his inadequacies as to the former Army Chief? The former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, and the former Chief of Defence Intelligence, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Usman were also given a nod to further represent the nation in ambassadorial positions. But for the Senate, which once joined Nigerians in the heightened calls for the service Chiefs to resign, to now make a u-turn and appoint them into exemplary ambassadorial roles is a slap on the principles of meritocracy. This also means that the Senate, which was supposed to be the direct voice of Nigerians, has now joined the executive arm of government in the charade and stepped on its own tail. In an emotion-laden tirade on Twitter, the executive governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, seem to be the only voice of reason at the particular time calling out the bigotry of the politicians involved in that endorsement of incompetence. He condemned the assault on democratic ideals and mad his own attempt to shame the complicit Senators. While voting on the ex-service Chiefs nomination on the floor of the Senate, Minority Leader Enyinaya Abaribe, seized the opportunity to publicly question the nomination and confirmation of the ex-service chiefs and referencing why the Senate had on three different occasions called for their sack. In a lone opposition to the matter, Senator Abaribe also questioned why the petitions against the former service chiefs were dismissed without explanations. Meanwhile, Senate President Ahmad Lawan dismissed Senator Abaribe’s concerns and ruled that further opposition to the service Chiefs would not be allowed. The suspicion is that a bargain may have been gotten from the government that the ex-service chiefs be protected from litigation on war crimes which may surface later based on their controversial roles in some national matters. Recall that, apart from the conflicting role of the military cadre in complicating the war against insurgency in recent years, men of the military opened fire on unarmed civilians on October 20, 2020, what is today the Lekki Massacre. For this alone, the International Court of Justice is currently pursuing an inquiry and investigation into the complicity of these ex-service Chiefs in the genocidal act. And this might just be all the evidence Nigerians need that the Senate does not represent their best interest and may have only been positioning for their selfish motives in power. Source: Channels TV Featured Image Source:
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