For the second time, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to replace the current service chiefs.
It will be recalled that in July, the Red Chamber had asked the service chiefs to resign their appointments.
In a motion by Senator Kashim Shettima (APC, Borno) on the killings of 43 farmers in the state, the Senate also called on the president to take immediate steps to restructure and remodel the country’s security architecture.
They also asked Buhari to provide enough state-of-the-art weapons and equipment to effectively combat the insurgents as well as probing the widespread allegations of corruption and leakages within the security structure and put mechanism in place to foster transparency and ensure all resources deployed for security are spent on the needs on ground.
In addition the motion asked the Federal Government to explore multi lateral partnerships with Nigeria’s neighbours to find a lasting solution to the insurgency.
It also called for the recruitment of 10,000 civilian JTF and massive recruitment in the military and the police.
Speaking while leading debate, Shettima said the Nigerian army, in conjunction with other security agencies, up till today have not been able to quell the insurgency affecting the north east region in spite the slogan by government officials that the insurgents have been technically defeated.
His motion was supported by many of the lawmakers, who said the service chiefs had outlived their usefulness and should be relieved of their appointments.
They noted that by the continued retention of the service chiefs the president has breached section 14(1b) of the constitution which says the primary purpose of government is to provide security for the people.
In his own contribution, Senator Ahmad Baba Kaita (APC, Katsina) said the leadership of National Assembly sit with the military and reassess their performance.
He said the statement credited to Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, that the slain farmers had no clearance to go to farm was irresponsible at a time many Nigerians were mourning the killings in the state.