There was a gale of the sack in the nation’s security architecture, and ministries and parastatals, yesterday. There was a clean sweep as President Bola Tinubu retired all the service chiefs, advisers, and the Comptroller-General of Customs, and dissolved boards of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs and parastatal.
The president also replaced some top military commanders in a move that shook the security firmament of the country.
President Tinubu, who recently ordered the security chiefs to synergise and crush oil thieves and criminals, ordered the changes shortly before jetting out to France, on his first foreign trip as elected head of state.
According to a statement on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, by Mr. Willie Bassey, Director of Information, Tinubu “approved the immediate retirement of all service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Advisers, Comptroller-General of Customs from service as well as their replacements with immediate effect.”
Those retired, yesterday, included Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao; and Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.
New service chiefs
The newly appointed service chiefs are:
lMallam Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser
lMaj. Gen. C.G Musa, Chief of Defence Staff
lMaj. Gen. T. A Lagbaja, Chief of Army Staff
lRear Admiral E. A Ogalla, Chief of Naval Staff
lAVM H.B Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff
lDIG Kayode Egbetokun, Acting Inspector-General of Police
lMaj. Gen. EPA Undiandeye, Chief of Defence Intelligence
lAdeniyi Bashir Adewale, Ag. Comptroller-General of Customs.
Other top appointments include:
lCol. Adebisi Onasanya, Brigade of Guards Commander
lLt. Col. Moshood Abiodun Yusuf, 7 Guards Battalion, Asokoro, Abuja
lLt. Col. Auwalu Baba Inuwa, 177 Guards Battalion, Keffi, Nasarawa State
lLt. Col. Mohammed J. Abdulkarim, 102 Guards Battalion, Suleja, Niger
lLt. Col. Olumide A. Akingbesote, 176 Guards Battalion, Gwagwalada, Abuja
Similarly, the President approved the appointments of other military officers in the Presidential Villa as follows:
Maj. Isa Farouk Audu, (N/14695) Commanding Officer State House Artillery
lCapt. Kazeem Olalekan Sunmonu (N/16183), Second-in-Command, State House Artillery
lMaj. Kamaru Koyejo Hamzat (N/14656), Commanding Officer, State House Military Intelligence
lMaj. TS Adeola (N/12860), Commanding Officer, State House Armament
lLt. A. Aminu (N/18578) Second-in-Command, State House Armament.
Also, President Tinubu approved the appointments of two additional special advisers and two senior assistants. They are:
lHadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser, Policy Coordination
lHannatu Musa Musawa, Special Adviser, Culture and Entertainment Economy
lSenator Abdullahi Abubakar Gumel, Senior Special Assistant, National Assembly Matters (Senate)
lMr. Olarewaju Kunle Ibrahim, Senior Special Assistant, National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives)
“The appointed service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police and the Comptroller-General of Customs are to act in their positions, pending their confirmation in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the statement added.
Why Tinubu took drastic action
Security sources said yesterday that President Tinubu is disturbed by the raging wave of insecurity in the country and wants to halt the trend to pave the way for programmes to yield dividends.
In his inauguration speech, the president said he would make security top priority because development cannot take place without it.
“Security shall be the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity nor justice can prevail amidst insecurity and violence. To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security doctrine and its architecture.
“We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide better training, equipment, pay and firepower,” he said.
He had on June 1, two days after he assumed power, at a meeting with Security and intelligence heads led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. ordered service chiefs and heads of security and intelligence agencies to crush criminals and anyone involved in oil theft, saying that his administration will not tolerate criminality.
Among those at that meeting were then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao; and Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba; Director-General of the Department of State Service, DSS, Yusuf Bichi; and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
In spite of the order, the killing spree continued in the country as no fewer than 325 persons were killed and 150 kidnapped between May 29 and June 8, according to Vanguard’s checks and reported cases.
Before Tinubu took over, insecurity claimed 98,083 lives in 12 years;
27,311 persons in immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term; and 35,800 persons between 2019 and May 16, 2023.
According to data obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, NST, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, the deaths arose from terrorism, banditry, herders/farmers clashes, communal crises, cult clashes, and extra-judicial killings among others.
To reverse this trend, Tinubu said he is going to embark on a lot of reforms in terms of our security architecture, and mandated the security agencies to come up with a blueprint, and redouble their efforts because “as far as he is concerned this country should not be on its knees struggling while other countries are working and achieving greater heights.”
As it is, the efforts of the former service chiefs might not have met the expectations of President Tinubu.
Tinubu dissolves Boards of FG Parastatals, Agencies, institutions, companies
President Tinubu has dissolved the Governing Boards of all Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-Owned Companies.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Senator George Akume who disclosed this in a late Monday statement said the action was in exercise of the president’s “Constitutional Powers and in the Public interest”.
He said the dissolution does not, however, affect Boards, Commissions and Councils listed in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
“In view of this development and until such a time new boards are constituted, the Chief Executive Officers of the Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-Owned Companies are directed to refer matters requiring the attention of their Boards to the President, through the Permanent Secretaries of their respective supervisory Ministries and Offices.
“Permanent Secretaries are directed, also, to route such correspondences to Mr President through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Consequently, all Ministries, Departments and Agencies are to ensure compliance to the provision of this directive which took effect from Friday 16th June, 2023.
“Permanent Secretaries are particularly directed to inform the Chief Executive Officers of the affected Agencies under the supervision of their respective Ministries/Offices for immediate compliance”, Akume stated.
