By Attah Ede
President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday transmitted letter to the Senate requesting for the confirmation of the newly appointed service chiefs.
In the correspondence, President Tinubu urged the Senate to give expeditious consideration to the appointments.
The request had been referred to the committee of the whole for screening and confirmation of the nominees, next week.
A few days ago, Tinubu reshuffled the military hierarchy. Tinubu removed General Christopher Musa, with Oluyede (a former Chief of Army Staff) replacing him as the Chief of Defence Staff.
He, however, retained Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye as the Chief of Defence Intelligence.
The rejigging, according to presidential aide Sunday Dare, was due to “the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to strengthen the national security architecture”.
“All appointments take immediate effect,” he wrote.
The request, which covers the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Waheedi Shaibu; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Idi Abbas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Kennedy Aneke, and Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General Emmanuel Undiendeye, was announced by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during a plenary session, Tuesday.
But critics have faulted the rejig of the military hierarchy, with the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) asking President Tinubu to come out clean on the reason for the move.
“Our position remains, therefore, that the Federal Government owes Nigerians a categorical explanation about what truly happened,” the ADC wrote in a statement by its spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi.
“As an opposition political party, our interest remains the stability of our country and our democracy. In the light of developments in our neighbourhood of Chad and the Sahel States, we are gravely concerned.”
