Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed new military, intelligence and police chiefs, his office said on Wednesday, ahead of January elections in the oil-rich country.
Jonathan, who took over after the death of president Umaru Yar'Adua in May, did not provide specific details on the reason for the moves announced a day after the country set 22 January as the date for its presidential election.
The president has not yet declared whether he will run in the election, but he is widely expected to do so despite deep disagreement within his ruling Peoples Democratic Party over whether he should be its candidate.
Some in the party say the PDP should abandon Jonathan, a southern Christian, in favour of a candidate from the country's mainly Muslim north.
Two northern candidates, including a former military ruler, are seeking the ruling party's nomination.
One political insider who declined to be named said the moves signalled a "need to have effective control of the armed forces before elections".
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"The context is very much influenced by political tectonics and the commander-in-chief is trying to respond to that," he said.
The four replaced military chiefs had been appointed by the late president Yar'Adua in August 2008.
"The president thanked the outgoing service chiefs whose tenure expired in August for loyalty and dedication to service," the statement said.
New heads of intelligence and police were also named, it said.
Some observers said the replacements had been overdue, especially in the wake of the transition from the Yar'Adua era and because of oil sabotage and theft that has continued to plague the Niger Delta region.
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The Nation should be shocked that a group of militants marched into a Bauchi prison and released every criminal. Where is the outrage. You cannot have security in the country with this kind of nonsense going on. We need this radical change now. Cheers to the President. Hopefully the new team will be alert in providing security in the country and for goodness sake secure the prisons!!! Mr. Onovo has done some good work, and should be proud of himself and retire in peace.
" .. We need this radical change now. .."
Get serious, child.
1) Why do you think that this change is needed NOW - and how will it solve the problem?
2) There have been changes before. Did they help? Obviously not. Why not?
The president of Nigeria has exercised his constitutional right to recall chiefs of forces and he must have good reasons to do that. It is now few days that armed gangs reportedly stormed the police station and released islamic criminals. This is unacceptable. In the past year marauding islamic gangs would kill christains and african believers in terretorial avenge attacks and one wonders what forces chiefs did to forsee and prevent these securitry risks. If security heads has no intellegence to prevent mass attacks it means the nigerian govenment itself is in danger of coup de tat. The rule of law must be respected everywhere in africa. Whatever lawlessnes happens in Sudan and Somalia cannot be allowed to spread in our mother lands and terror must be stopped by whatever means necessary and let our people experience security, peace and riches. Viva Jonathan Viva! Irresponsible and aging security officers, including corrupt politicians, must vacate public office and have ordinary live normal life.
Those who were shocked that Mr. President did is job should go for shock treatment at the nearest first aid center. Why the shock? Is anybody indispensible? Do we lack personnel to man the positions? So why the shock?
The reporters spoke to a few politicians and wanted us to believe that the nation was shocked. I was not shocked. The politicians were shocked because of their personal interest not the national interest.
Those who were replaced, we have not been told, did not express the kind of shock we are being presented. They know that as public servants they can leave the offices anytime the nation asks them to leave. They came in because those before them left. It is normal with life. I hate lack of maturity and mere sentimentality in news and response to press questions. We know it is the stock in trade of politicians who feather their nests but our reporters should be able to watch out for such gimmicks.
For those who think the officers should have been foretold about their removal, I imagine they have all the inside information of what happened. I think the Presidency knows more than mere pushing people aside. They would have considered the complexity of the changes in such positions before carrying out the exercise. Let it be so for now.