Following the appointment of new service chiefs on Monday by President Muhammadu Buhari, about 25 Major Generals may proceed on retirement when the Senate confirms the new appointments.
Indications also emerged, yesterday, in Abuja that President Buhari’s forthcoming trip to the United States of America this month for extensive bilateral, economic and financial discussions with US President Barrack Obama, the need to engage his hosts about the terrorism challenges as well as Nigeria’s military capability to tackle the menace conclusively, necessitated the sack of the service chiefs last Monday.
It was reliably gathered that the appointments of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and that of the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI) is the exclusive preserve of the President, while only the CDS and the other service chiefs are the ones subject to Senate clearance.
In fact, it was learnt that former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd) had three weeks ago informed the new Chief of Defence Intelligence, Air Vice Marshal Monday Riku Morgan to proceed on retirement leave. However, luck smiled on him when the President on Monday announced him as the new CDI, taking over from Rear Admiral Gabriel Okoi.
Why service chiefs were sacked
On what informed the sack of the service chiefs on Monday, very reliable security sources told Vanguard that “America might wish to know why the military commanders (sacked service chiefs) were still in place, when after several months of being in control and getting huge financial support from the Jonathan administration, Boko Haram is still biting hard.
He said Nigerians expect the new leadership of the armed forces to add value to what their predecessors had put on ground.
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