In New Year speech, Buhari promises to reorganise security — but silent on service chiefs

President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to reorganise Nigeria’s security architecture to help address the incessant killings in various attacks across the country.

The president was, however, silent on the performance of the service chiefs when he made the promise in his New Year broadcast on Friday.

In 2020, Nigeria witnessed the wanton killing of citizens with Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and kidnappers launching frequent attacks on citizens.

To address the situation, the national assembly on at least four occasions asked the president to sack the service chiefs for poor performance.

Other stakeholders such as the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) also said the military is overwhelmed and needs fresh ideas to stop the killings.

But the presidency has instead insisted that the service chiefs will remain in office for as long as Buhari is satisfied with their performance.

In the broadcast monitored by TheCable, the president admitted that Nigeria’s security agencies “have to move to a more proactive and preemptive posture” to be able to address the country’s security challenges.

He, however, kept mum on the performance of the service chiefs, much less on the calls to relieve them of their position

He said: “Re-energizing and reorganizing the security apparatus and personnel of the armed forces and the police with a view to enhance their capacity to engage, push back and dismantle the operations of both internal and external extremist and criminal groups waging war against our communities in some parts of the country.

“In line with the current security challenges, we are facing as a Nation, I would like to reiterate the promise I made recently when over 300 of our boys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara were successfully rescued by our security operatives.

“The professionalism shown by our Security Forces and the collaboration from all stakeholders across both State and Federal Governments that led to the successful rescue of the boys is proof that Nigeria has the internal capacity to decisively deal with terror attacks on our citizens.

“However, we recognize that we rapidly have to move to a more proactive and preemptive posture to ensure that these sorts of traumatic incidents do not become a norm.”

The president said while he is “fully aware” of the responsibility to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians, his administration “will not relent in learning and adapting to changing threats to our national security and civic wellbeing”.