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The Presidency has given further insight into the reason for the sacking and replacement of service chiefs in the country. While denying that the military shake-up was connected to a rumored coup plot, the Presidency said it was a move to “inject new direction” into the armed forces. The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed that Tinubu acted within his authority to make leadership changes in the military. “Service chiefs can be hired and fired by the President. He is the Commander-in-Chief. He has the power to hire and fire,” Onanuga said. Earlier on Friday, the President had announced sweeping changes in the military hierarchy. A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, named General Olufemi Oluyede as the new Chief of Defence Staff, replacing General Christopher Musa. It added, “The new Chief of Army Staff is Major-General W. Shaibu; Air Vice Marshall S.K. Aneke is Chief of Air Staff; while Rear Admiral I. Abbas is the new Chief of Naval Staff. Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye, retains his position.” Tinubu charged the new service chiefs to justify the confidence reposed in them by enhancing the professionalism, vigilance, and comradeship that define Nigeria’s Armed Forces. The appointments, Dare said, took immediate effect. The development came barely a week after an online media platform, Sahara Reporters, published a story alleging that some military officers plotted to remove President Tinubu. The report, which went viral on October 19, linked the detention of 16 military officers to the purported coup and claimed that the cancellation of the Independence Day military parade was part of efforts to suppress internal unrest in the military. However, the Defence Headquarters denied the story. In a statement signed by the Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Tukur Gusau, the military dismissed the report as “false and intended to cause unnecessary tension and distrust among the populace.” Gusau said the cancellation of the Independence Day parade was “purely administrative” and that the detained officers were being investigated for “issues of indiscipline.” He maintained that the armed forces remained loyal to the Constitution and to the President. Still, the timing of the service chiefs’ removal — barely days after the coup report — has continued to fuel public suspicion. Reacting to the speculation, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, explained that the move followed two years of sustained operations under the previous chiefs. He noted that the move reflected the President’s desire “to inject new direction, vision, vigour and energy” into the military. “This is not a reaction to any rumour of coups. He is exercising his powers. The service chiefs have done two years,” Ajayi said. “We are fighting security issues — Boko Haram in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, IPOB and ESN in the South-East, kidnapping in the South-West, and other crises in the North-Central,” he added. Ajayi emphasised that the President’s action was lawful. He further noted that the country’s heavy security spending in recent years had drained funds from other key sectors. “In the last 15 years, look at our national budget — security taking the largest chunk. The President wants to deal with this matter once and for all, so that the money going into defence expenditure will be better deployed to fund critical infrastructure like power, roads, broadband, education, and healthcare,” he said. Ajayi added that the President’s decision was consistent with the constitutional provision that all appointees serve at the President’s pleasure. “Every appointee of government, whether you are minister, head of agency, or service chief, serves at the pleasure of the President. Nobody has a secure tenure. The only two people in the Federal Government who have a guarantee of tenure are the President and the Vice President,” he explained. Meanwhile, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has urged President Tinubu to explain the replacement of the nation’s military leadership. In a statement issued on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said, “We note that nearly all the service chiefs that have been removed were appointed only 28 months ago, with the current Chief of Defence Staff himself appointed just a year ago as Chief of Army Staff. “We also note that this kind of decision has serious and far-reaching implications for stability within the ranks and therefore could not have been taken without strong reasons. Our position remains, therefore, that the Federal Government owes Nigerians a categorical explanation about what truly happened. “As an opposition political party, our interest remains the stability of our country and our democracy. In the light of developments in our neighbourhood of Chad and the Sahel States, we are gravely concerned.” The ADC observed that the near-total overhaul of the nation’s military leadership was more likely to fuel rumours and conspiracy theories rather than dispel them.
