Buhari gives new service chiefs five weeks to end current spate of insecurity ravaging Nigeria

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has given Nigerians new service chiefs five weeks to end the current insecurity ravaging the country and restore tranquillity in the midst of the seemingly endless scourge of violence.

Nigeria is currently wracked by unprecedented violence as kidnappings by bandits, communal attacks by Fulani cattle herdsmen and terrorist strikes by Boko Haram insurgents have made the country practically ungovernable. Early this year, President Buhari changed his military service in the hope that an injection of new blood could turn the situation around.

Yesterday, President Buhari promoted the new chief of defence staff General Lucky Irabor into a four star general from his previous rank of major general and at the decoration ceremony charged him to get to grips with the situation immediately. All the three other service chiefs were made three-star generals at the event where General Irabor promised to overhaul the nation’s security apparatus.

President Buhari said: "I have taken the responsibility as commander-in-chief for you to go out into the field and secure the country. You have got a few weeks to do that because by the rainy season, we expect people to develop confidence and go back to the land, so that we don’t get into trouble by being away from the fields and therefore unable to produce enough food for the nation.

“For those of you that have been confirmed by this ceremony, the decoration, in front of your spouses, is a further confidence loudly expressed on you on behalf of the nation, to respond to the insecurity the country is in and the nation looks up to you for rapid relief. We all look forward to you to perform and I, as the commander-in-chief, am backing you 100% and I expect you to effectively deploy your officers and men to secure the country.”

General Irabor said: “Nigeria will have peace again. Based on the mandate, we will address all issues, working with all other security organisations."