A Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development have expressed disappointment in the New Year message of President Muhammadu Buhari. The group believes the message does not tackle the immediate problems of the country.
One of the problems the group highlighted is, Buhari not sacking the security chiefs despite their underwhelming performances.
The Northern elders in a statement signed by its national coordinator Zana Goni, said they needed a New Year gift from the presidency which should come in the form of the sacking of service chiefs, as that would convince them of the president’s resolve to tackle the isecurity issues.
The statement partly reads: “We listened to the New Year speech of Mr President to Nigerians with rapt attention believing that he was going to give us a New Year gift in new service chiefs but the president to our disappointment, was silent on this key issue in the lip of every Nigerian.”
“At the moment, the most important thing to every Nigerian is security. They want their lives to be protected first. The National Assembly has since understood this and that is why as representatives of the people, they have since been calling for a more robust,efficient and effective security management for the country,” the statement continued.
“The recognized that this cannot be achieved without emplacing a complete new security architecture in place. That is why the two chambers of the legislature came up with resolutions seeking replacement of service chiefs but after many months of this genuine and patriotic call by the people’s representatives, President Buhari is yet to accede to their request. This is unfair to Nigerians whose lives are being cut down on daily basis.
“We still stand by the position of the National Assembly where members unanimously resolved that you relieve the security chiefs of their positions to pave way for not only fresh hands but also fresh ideas in our security management strategies.”
“Sacking the current chiefs and subsequently replacing them with new ones will automatically change the game of insecurity as the morale of fighting officers will be boosted, new strategies will be launched besides the flow of intelligence information among the security agencies,” the group said.
