The presidency on Monday explained why President Muhammadu Buhari has refused to sack the country service chiefs despite widespread demand for their removal.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the president, Garba Shehu, cleared the air on the matter when he featured in programme on Television Continental (TVC) in Abuja.
He said President Buhari has refused to sack the service chiefs as demanded by many Nigerians because he “sees what others do not see in them.”
He said: “It is because he is seeing things that critics are not seeing. He is seeing things most people don’t see.
“The engagement of the service chiefs is not a tenured appointment. There is no part of the law that says the chief of army staff must serve for two years. Then, after two years, he must go.
“He serves at the pleasure of the president. Now, the president has said he will make changes. When will he make those changes? It is entirely up to him. I think Nigerians should give him the benefit of the doubt.”
The National Assembly had last year urged the president to sack the service chiefs over their “inability” to tackle the worsening security challenges in the country.
During one of the Senate sittings last year, a lawmaker told his colleagues that the service chiefs had outlived their usefulness and should be replaced with “young and dynamic” military personnel to lead the country’s campaign against the Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, and other criminal elements terrorizing innocent citizens in many parts of the country.
