Service Chiefs: Ndume slams northern forum over sack calls

From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja

Former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to disregard mounting calls for the sack of service chiefs, warning that such agitation was ill-motivated and harmful to ongoing counter-insurgency operations.

Ndume, who once chaired the Senate Committee on Army, gave the advice in a statement yesterday, following pressure from the Northern Ethnic National Forum which demanded the dismissal of the military heads.

Convener of the Forum, Dominic Alancha, had, in a statement on Tuesday, accused the service chiefs of lacking professional capacity to prosecute the war against insurgency and banditry. According to him, despite huge security spending, the nation’s defence architecture had failed to deliver.

“We angrily and unequivocally demand the immediate dismissal and replacement of all Service Chiefs. The President must appoint fresh and innovative military leaders with a clear mandate and timeline for results,” the group declared.

But Ndume countered that what the Armed Forces required was not a change of leadership but sustained investment in weapons, welfare and training. “Those pushing for the sack of the present crop of Service Chiefs have ulterior motives and they do not mean well for the present administration and Nigerians,” he said.

The Borno South lawmaker restated his call for a Training, Equipment, Ammunitions and Motivation (TEAM) approach as the pathway to effectively counter terrorism, banditry and insurgency.

“It is outlandish and uncharitable for any group of individuals to accuse the present Service Chiefs of professional incompetence. All of them have the requisite training and experience in theatre operations. All they need is adequate ammunition and motivation.”

Ndume, who lamented the poor remuneration of soldiers, revealed that the salary of a private in the Nigerian Army is about N100,000 per month, while their daily operational allowance remains a paltry N5,000.

“Their daily allowance (N5,000.00) is unconscionable and nothing to write home about. People should desist from pronouncements that could dampen the morale of our soldiers and officers on the field of operation,” he cautioned.

The senator further commended President Tinubu for what he described as the sense of ethno-religious balancing reflected in the current security architecture, noting that it was an improvement on the recent past.