For at least one year, Nigerians have over and over again voiced the need for decisive action from the government on the spate of insecurity in the nation.

Social media campaigns had been initiated and directed at President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding an overhaul of the National security architecture and an end to the massive killings in the North. In recent months also, insurgent group, Boko Haram and armed bandits are consistently reported to have massacred hundreds of people in the Northern states.

Nigerians have been clearly agitated and are eagerly watching to see if the President would make proactive decisions in response to the attacks.  This explains why when it became public knowledge that President Buhari held a closed-door meeting with service chiefs at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, more agitated opinions arose.

There are reports that the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces expressed strong disappointment with the handling of the situation, which was just enough for majority of the public to reignite the campaign for the officials to be sacked rather than be reprimanded verbally.

Buhari to Service Chiefs: Your best not good enoughhttps://t.co/KlF874djz7

— Daily Trust (@daily_trust) June 18, 2020

Sack service chiefs now.

— Concerned Nigerians (@ConcernedNIG) June 11, 2020

 

The  Chief of Defence Staff is expected to formulate and execute policies, strategies that ensure the highest attainment of National Security and operational competence of the Armed Forces namely; the Army, Navy and Air Force. He is also assisted by the other Service Chiefs. 

Appointed on July 13, 2015, by President Buhari, the Service Chiefs include the Chief of Defence Staff, Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, and Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar. According to the Armed Forces Terms and Conditions of Service, the tenure of the Service Chiefs expired on July 13, 2017, and the fact that they are still in power is another reason for the public outcry against them. 

Alongside this complaint, Nigerians are stressing that they have not shown competence. They also pushed that in light of the overwhelming and increasing insecurity in the land, the only expectation is to sack these service chiefs. They highlighted that these officials had clearly failed at their jobs and new service chiefs should be appointed who can produce results. 

Buhari is too incompetent. He needs to apologize to GEJ for asking him to resign over insecurity issues. He can’t even sack clueless service chiefs. What can Buhari really do?

— Comrade Deji Adeyanju (@adeyanjudeji) June 18, 2020

Millions would rather die, than for Buhari to sack these service chiefs.

Two things will force an employer to retain an incompetent employee: It's either the employee is a family member or there is a secret / oath btw them.#SackServiceChiefs pic.twitter.com/nBVxLmds85

— Ayemojubar ? (@ayemojubar) June 18, 2020

The ongoing meeting between Buhari and his failed service chiefs should have only one outcome.And that's their summary https://t.co/6QTVGTxzjE can't be doing something the same way and expect a different result!

— Udoh#UnitedAgainstRacism# (@Udocas2017) June 18, 2020

Sack the Service chiefs. But our prezy won't do that.

Boko Haram today
Bandits tomorrow.

A bad time to be a Nigerian. https://t.co/kbAQNksJfo

— Dayò (@TheDayoShow) June 10, 2020

 

To buttress their points, many stressed that if the President could sack security officials over a shooting incident at the Presidential Villa, he should not hesitate to sack Service Chiefs that have allowed for an escalation of the insecurity crisis in the nation.

Something is wrong somewhere.Does their life matters more than ours☝️because of one gunshot in the villa, you ordered for the change of all the securities in the villa, But thousands of gunshots in the country yet you still maintain the service chiefs #NorthernLivesMatter

— ??HUDA ??? (@XulayhatI) June 17, 2020

The president @MBuhari is quick to sack the security details over the incident that occurred in the villa, But Nigerians have been dying over the failure of the service chiefs and the president refused to sack them @SaharaReporters. pic.twitter.com/GAAJeQ3o6J

— horlamy (@olamilekanessy) June 18, 2020

 

Still, there were those that countered this perspective, accusing people of trying to “cover-up” for the President. They labelled him as the source of Nigeria’s issues and claim that no amount of sack would ever make up for his inefficiency in office. 

Stop making excuses for Buhari.

Service Chiefs ain’t the problem.

Saraki wasn’t the problem, because things are worse now.

Abba Kyari was not the problem either.

Buhari just sacked 40 of his Villa security aides. What does this tell you??

“BUHARI IS THE PROBLEM OF NIGRIA!!!”

— NEFERTITI (@firstladyship) June 18, 2020