All service chiefs should honourably resign — Olisa Agbakoba

Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has asked all service chiefs in the country to honourably resign. He advised the service chiefs, which include the Inspector General of Police, heads of the military apparatus, and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to resign due to poor performance.

His advice comes as he sets the agenda for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking on Arise Television on Wednesday, the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association insisted that replacing the service chiefs was the best way to reorganise the security infrastructure of the country and reposition it to address most of the security challenges that characterised the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

“I will say all service chiefs should honourably resign—all of them—including the IGP of police. They have not done well. President Tinubu cannot carry on with these service chiefs.

“We need to create a new security infrastructure.  We must change the security infrastructure, we must change the military doctrine, and we now need to consider the theory of irregular warfare,” Agbakoba said.

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He also identified fractured national unity as a challenge that the president must work hard and intelligently to address.

“The country is so divided that nothing can happen without President Tinubu making an attempt to unite Nigerians. And I would suggest that he call a meeting of the subnationalities of Nigeria, the Afeniferes’ and the Ohanezes’, because these guys have a very strong hold on their ethnic subnationalities,” Agbakoba said. “If that happens and it is successful, that now pushes the way forward for him to unleash a couple of big programmes.”

He advised the president to use a different approach to fight the insurgency and secessionist agitations from proscribed groups such as bandits in the North West, IPOB, and others in the country.

He said, “Another issue will be the one concerning the economy. There is no money. The debt-to-revenue ratio is horrible; we earn N100 and spend that amount to pay debt. So there is nothing he can do. So quickly he must look for how to generate revenue.”

He made reference to the Apapa port, which, according to him, generates about N20 billion every day, yet the place is abandoned.

“I will like to see the president send to the Senate an emergency regeneration bill for Apapa,” he said. “It may cost N10 billion to N15 billion, but it will be worth it because we get a lot of money from Apapa.”

He also added that legislation has to be in place to ensure the “speedy completion of many unbroken projects” so that they can start to bring in money for the country.

He urged the president to make the maritime economy a key part of his agenda and to appoint a minister for maritime affairs.

He lampooned the country for neglecting the maritime industry, saying that outside the oil and gas sector, the maritime industry is the second-largest industry in the country. A situation that calls for special attention with the appointment of a minister for the maritime.

He also complained about the size of the government. He insisted that the anti-corruption process in the country should be revisited since, according to him, it has become a behemoth of corruption. He urged the president to relieve the EFCC chairman of his job.

“What he is doing is not attracting people’s confidence; he needs to go,” he said.

He also added that “all the guys who took part in the previous government should step down.”

He also suggested that Babatunde Raji Fashola, the former minister of works and housing, be made the new Attorney General of Nigeria, as he possesses the intellectual capacity to handle the complexities of that office.

He advised that the president should get the best hands to help him actualize his vision for the country.