New Year: Buhari Promises To Rejig Security, Mum On Security Chiefs’ Fate

As part of the effort to find a lasting solution to the security challenges bedeviling the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has said he’s going to tinker with Nigeria’s security architecture

The president made the promise in his New Year broadcast on Friday.

In 2020, Nigeria witnessed unprecedented level of insecurity and criminality and widespread killings of citizens in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and kidnappers.

In other to check the troubling trend, the national assembly had on many occasions enjoined the president to sack the service chiefs for poor performance..

But the security chiefs have retained their positions despite their palpable failings in stemming the tide of ravaging insecurity.

The presidency had also said that the service chiefs serve at the pleasure of President Buhari and will remain in office so long he is pleased with their performance.

In the broadcast monitored by Ekohotblog, the president admitted that Nigeria’s security agencies “have to move to a more proactive and preemptive posture” to be able to tackle the country’s security challenges.

The president, however, did not speak on the performance of the service chiefs, neither did he broach the subject of their fates.

He said: “Re-energizing and reorganizing the security apparatus and personnel of the armed forces and the police with a view to enhance their capacity to engage, push back and dismantle the operations of both internal and external extremist and criminal groups waging war against our communities in some parts of the country.

“In line with the current security challenges, we are facing as a Nation, I would like to reiterate the promise I made recently when over 300 of our boys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara were successfully rescued by our security operatives.

He said professionalism displayed by Security Forces and the support from all stakeholders across both State and Federal Governments which led to the successful rescue of the boys was proof that Nigeria has the internal capacity to decisively deal with terror attacks on our citizens.

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The president said while he is “fully aware” of the responsibility to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians, his administration “will not relent in learning and adapting to changing threats to our national security and civic wellbeing”.