More over two weeks have passed since the service chiefs’ appointments on June 19, 2023, when the President requested their confirmation in a letter.
The newly nominated service chiefs have been formally requested to be confirmed by the House of Representatives by President Bola Tinubu.
Thursday’s plenary began with the reading of the President’s letter requesting confirmation of the appointments of the heads of security services by the House Speaker, Abass Tajudeen.
Three weeks after his inauguration, on June 19, 2023, Tinubu replaced all of Nigeria’s service chiefs and ordered them to resume their duties right away.
Alkali Usman, the former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Lucky Irabor, the former Chief of Defence Staff, Faruk Yahaya, the former Chief of Army Staff, Awwal Gambo, the former Chief of Naval Staff, and Isiaka Amao, the former Chief of Air Staff, are among those who were impacted by the historic shakeup.
The nation’s new service chiefs were subsequently chosen by the President, who also named Nuhu Ribadu, a former head of the EFCC, as his new national security adviser. Babagana Monguno is replaced as the nation’s NSA by Ribadu.
He named Major General C.G. Musa as the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General T.A. Lagbaja as the Chief of the Army, Rear Admiral E. A. Ogalla as the Chief of the Navy, AVM H.B. Abubakar as the Chief of the Air, IGP Kayode Egbetokun as the Acting Inspector-General of Police, and Major General EPA Undiandeye as the Chief of Defense Intelligence.
Adeniyi Adewale was additionally chosen by Tinubu to serve as acting comptroller general of customs.
Since then, every new appointee has started serving in an acting capacity as they wait for the National Assembly to ratify them.
The President’s action came in response to repeated requests from civil society organizations that the security architecture be changed and new personnel be given control of the country’s security system.
Verifiable evidence revealed that approximately 55,000 Nigerians were killed by terrorists, bandits, and armed gangs between May 2015 and May 2023 while under the presidency of the immediately preceding President Muhammadu Buhari. Many people criticized the former military leader for the shocking murders that occurred in the nation when he was in power.
On May 29, 2023, Tinubu, a fellow party member who succeeded Buhari as president, made a promise during his inauguration speech to “defend the nation from terror and all forms of criminality that threaten the peace and stability of our country,” adding that “to effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security doctrine and its architecture.”
Both Godwin Emefiele and Abdulrasheed Bawa’s positions as EFCC and CBN governors had previously been suspended by Tinubu.
