Dave Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State, has counselled President Muhammadu Buhari not to sack and replace service chiefs despite rising insecurity nationwide.
There have been calls from some Nigerians, including the National Assembly, that the president should relieve and replace top security chiefs in the country, saying the present occupants of the military hierarchy are out of ideas on how to tackle the disturbing trend of crime.
On his part, Mr Buhari has paid deaf ears to the demand and has continued to retain the top officers, charging them to do more to nip insecurity in the bud.
At the ground breaking ceremony of the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital today, the Ebonyi governor backed the president in retaining the service chiefs. He said replacing them will derail the nation backward in tackling crime as their successors will have to study the situation before deciding on how best to solve it.
The governor also said the service chiefs need cooperation, intelligence gathering and adequate funding to discharge their duty.
“I want to disagree with the National Assembly in my own views about the change of service chiefs. One thing I have realised is that we like change too much in this country,” Umahi said.
“We want everybody to taste every seat. That is not what we need at this critical time of our security challenges. What we need is cooperation with the security agencies.
“Without undermining the former inspectors-general, this Inspector General (of Police) is a very different human being. He is a very stubborn man, but stubborn to the policies and law of the land. And that is the person this country needs.
“The Chief of Army staff is also a very committed person; very friendly to the civil society.
“So what these people need is cooperation, information. It is difficult for people to do anything without information. This is very important.
“And at this stage, even when you change, whoever you bring is going to learn the ropes. And I believe that whatever decisions the service chiefs are taking are not taken by them alone; they are taken by also the senior officers.
“So I will be suggesting to Mr President in support of his retaining the service chiefs that we should increase their funding of the armed forces. We should increase their logistics. We should increase the programme that will bring information to the security agencies.
“So I support Mr President that instead of changing the service chiefs, to rather increase their funding and increase the frequency of his meetings with them, and also encourage the civil society to come up with information that will assist the security agencies,” he added while condemning a recent terrorist attack on the convoy of Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum.
