• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Buhari meets Service Chiefs, gives reasons for their continued retention

Buhari

…says security chiefs can’t be changed during emergency

…blames Nigerians for shielding criminals

Ahead of the May 29th inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met with the nation’s Security Chiefs, and said he retained them to avoid disrupting the military operations as the nation battled its security challenges.

The meeting, BusinessDay gathered, was part of the regular briefing the President receives from the security chiefs who brief him regularly on the security situation in the country.

The President has continued to retain the Security Chiefs whom he appointed in 2015, despite clamours for their replacement and the need to rejig the nation’s security architecture to make it more responsive to increasingly insecurity in the country.

But the President while speaking in an interview as part of events preparatory to his inauguration, aired by the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, on Tuesday, declared that it would be counterproductive to change the Security Chiefs when the country is having emergency.

“When we have cases of emergency, l don’t think it is the time to start organizing or disorganizing the Military. You have to take your time to do it because, these are institutions that know that every Nigerian depends on a strong centre.”

The President also berated Nigerians for shielding criminal elements, while expecting government to ensure adequate security

“The abductors and the 419ners live with us in our neighbourhood. People know who they are. They cannot continue to accommodate these criminals and blame government for not attracting investments into the country,” he said.

“What the ordinary Nigerians should do is to expose the criminal elements amongst us, including the kidnappers and the thieves.”

“We are making noise that people should bring their money to invest in our economy. Who will bring his or her hard-earned money to invest when his General Manager, or top officials will be abducted.

“My message to Nigerians is they should please, expose the criminals in their neighbourhood to help the government clear the country and attract foreign entrepreneurs to come and invest in the country, to create factories and employ people, to produce goods and services. This is what will move Nigeria forward. We cannot accommodate criminals in our neighbourhood and start to blame government blindly, accusing government that nothing is being done,” the president said.

He noted that the Security Chiefs are fully aware of the security situation in the country, including the fact that “there is no State Police, Army, Air-force or Navy. So, those people know more than ordinary Nigerians that the center has to hold for them to have security, both materials and physical Security.

“If they should allow the center to collapse, automatically, they are the ones leaving.”

The President, who stated he had spent all of life in security service, disclosed that he was experienced enough to know when to change his security Chiefs.

“I did virtually all the Staff and Command duties from Platoon of 36 or 40 people , to Divisions. I was the only officer in the Nigerian Army that commanded three out of the four Divisions then. These were the First Division in Lagos, the Second Division in Ibadan and the Third Division in Jos.

“I cannot say what happened to the security of the county after l left the Military, the way l left. But definitely, l did not know person to person amongst all the Service Chiefs, but l think l defended our records very well,” he said.

Asked if he was satisfied with the performances of his security chiefs despite the current challenges, Buhari declared that he had always been used to the highest standards.

“I am used to very high standards. I told you I did all the Commands and so on, from 2nd Lieutenant to General.

He however blamed the previous administration adding that lack of accountability and transparency brought the military low.

“I am thinking of what happened between 1999 and 2014. I suspected a lot of things went wrong, including accountability and efficiency in all the enforcement agencies.