Jump to navigation

Nigeria

After mounting security pressure, President sacks service chiefs

Sacking of the high command is part of a wider security reorganisation

Security experts in Abuja estimate that Nigeria's military, being deployed in over 30 of the country's 36 states, is under more pressure today than at any time since the civil war. That is driving President Muhammadu Buhari's belated rethink of the government's security strategy and his sacking the four service chiefs on 26 January.

For over a year the chiefs – General Abayomi Olonisakin (Defence), Lieutenant Gen Tukur Buratai (Army). Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas (Naval), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (Air) – had fought back against a campaign for their dismissal, including resolutions by both houses in the National Assembly and indirect pressure from western states offering Abuja more military cooperation to fight the insurgents and criminal gangs sweeping across the north of the country if the chiefs were sacked.

Buhari has not yet explained his reasons for the sacking but it seems to be part of a wider shake-up in the security system which started earlier this month with the redeployment of over 1,500 officers, including 210 generals. The new high command is: Chief of Defence Staff – Major General Leo Eluonye Onyenuchia Irabor (from Delta State); Chief of Army Staff – Maj Gen Attahiru Ibrahim (Kaduna State); Chief of Air Staff – Air Vice Marshal Isiaka Oladayo Amao (Osun State); and Chief of Naval Staff – Rear Admiral Awwal Zubaru (Kano State) (AC Vol 62 No 1, Ready to rumble & Vol 61 No 4, Protest, what protest?). 



Related Articles

Ready to rumble

As President Buhari looks to his legacy, the jostling for succession will begin in earnest

In May, President Muhammadu Buhari will reach the halfway point of his second and final four-year term. It is that point in Nigeria's political calendar, when the main...

READ FOR FREE

Protest, what protest?

Official denials over the Lekki shootings fail to stand up against the mounting evidence, while activists are targeted in a clampdown

Nigerian government officials continue to downplay the army shootings at youth-led protests against the rogue Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit in October, and are doubling down on...


Virtual voters

Election monitors coined a phrase for General Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidential victory on 27 February: the result was not ‘free and fair’ but ‘generally reflects the will of the...


The great militant chase

Whether or not he ends up in a Lagos court, Tompolo and his supporters can cause havoc by relaunching the militant campaign in the Delta 

The search is on for the militant kingpin High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, who has disappeared since a court warrant was issued last month for his arrest...

READ FOR FREE

Ekiti, the shape of things to come

After a year on the defensive, the governing PDP has launched a determined fightback against opposition strongholds in the south-west

The victory of Ayo Fayose, candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), in the governorship elections in Ekiti State on 21 June held some harsh lessons for modernising...

READ FOR FREE