Reason behind the sack of senior military officers

Nigerians woke up recently to the sudden announcement that about 38 senior army officers have been retired from service.

The retirement sparked off reactions across board, alleging loyalty to the immediate past administration and citing ‘geographical cleansing’ as most of the affected officers were from the Southern part of the country.

Some public commentators accused President Muhammadu Buhari of approving the exercise in order to purge the army of Southerners and replace them with his kinsmen from the North.

But the army, in a swift reaction, decried public sentiments, describing the reports and reactions as ‘unethical’ and ‘unfair’.

The Acting Director, Army Public
Relations, Sani Usman, in a statement, said the retirement was carried out in strict compliance with the country’s extant laws.

The statement reads in part: “The
attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to speculations and rumours regarding the number and names of the senior Army officers affected in the recent retirement exercise. This is worrisome as some individuals and media houses went to the ridiculous extent of publishing outrageous figures and names of serving officers as being retired.

“This is unethical and unfair. We are quite aware that some mischievous elements are trying to whip up sentiments. This is quite unfortunate because all the affected officers were retired based on service exigencies and in line with the Armed Forces Act, CAP A20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.”

However, among the retired senior officers was the Commander, Special Task Force, code named ‘Operation Safe Haven’ in Plateau State,Major General Tagbo Ude, a fine officer who contributed over 50% of the relative peace Plateau State is currently enjoying, especially in the hinterlands.

The inclusion of his name saddened his lieutenants and soldiers who could not understand what his name was doing on the said list.

A Colonel who pleaded anonymity, told The Daily Times, “you can see we are not happy that such a fine officer is leaving us. His name should not be found on that long list of retired senior officers, because he is an upright man.

“I think it is outright injustice for our Commander to be retired just like that, after all his efforts to ensure that Plateau State enjoys relative peace.

“I can’t still understand the rationale behind Ude’s retirement as he was not known to have been involved in election duties nor had he commanded any of the insurgency operations. This is one of the retirements we are not happy about because I know that by the time the election was held in 2015, Gen. Ude was the Director of Engineering Services at the Defence HQ in Abuja and he was not known to have been involved in the insurgency operations,” he said.

Ude, of the 31st Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy, was appointed the Commander of the task force on August 5, last year. He still has about four years to attain the statutory service period of 35 years.

However, General Ude declined comment when our correspondent inquired on what he thought might have warranted the inclusion of his name on the list.

Consequently, The Daily Times investigation revealed that most of the senior officers were affected because of the forthcoming promotional exercise in the Army.

Our correspondent gathered that the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin, will be due to retire before that end of 2016, along with the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas.
If this happens, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen, Yusuf Buratai, might be moved to became the Chief of Defence staff, since President Buhari had earlier said that the Air Force has no business occupying the slot of Chief of Defence staff.

The question now is, who becomes the Chief of Army staff after Buratai is moved to the Defence staff? That is where the compulsory retirement of the officers comes in, because a lower ranked officer cannot be appointed in the midst of the senior ones, since none of the retired senior officers are being tipped as the Chief of staff, should Buratai be moved to head the defence.

Ude, of the 31st Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy, seems to be one of the most senior officers, while the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen, Buratai is of 29 Regular Course.