A constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has said the outgoing service chiefs failed massively.
The president on Tuesday appointed new service chiefs.
In a press statement issued yesterday, Ozekhome described the tenure of the former service chiefs as a “massive failure”.
He said the statement that the service chiefs “resigned” from service is a “soft landing window-dressing” done by the presidency.
“In more civilised countries, it would be announced that they had been outrightly sacked. Yes, summarily dismissed, for abysmally failing to live up to expectations,” Ozekhome said.
“Had that been done in Nigeria, they probably would have mobilised their gullible and naive kinsmen, kinswomen and the ubiquitous ready to be hired activists, mercenaries and emergency NGOs of sheer mercantilism, to protest and demonstrate on the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu, Uyo, Kaduna, Yola, Maiduguri, Benin, Asaba, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Oshogbo, Calabar and Owerri, denouncing the injustice and unfairness.
“Many Nigerians now suffer from the “Stockholm Syndrome”- a syndrome where an inexplicable, incongruous and unnatural love bond develops between a captive and a captor, between a victim and a tormentor, between a slave and a slave master.
“But, Buhari’s more shocking aspect of the removal of the service chiefs from office, which has so far shocked Nigerians, is where he said he was congratulating them for their “overwhelming achievements” in our efforts at bringing enduring peace to our dear country.
“Enduring peace? Is this genuine peace, or peace of cemetery or the graveyards? My dictionary tells me that peace means tranquillity, calm, calmness, law and order, harmony, placidity, rest, armistice, friendship, brotherhood, serenity, contentment, amity, reconciliation.
“Can any Nigerian hold the Holy Bible, Holy Quran, or piece of iron (depending on your faith), and swear, that we have any of the above? I think not. I believe not.
“If Mr. president meant “overwhelming achievements” in a massive failure, I would concur. But, if he meant overwhelming achievements in securing our country, I would not only disagree, I would say that is the unkindest oxymoron and irony, of all. I beg to differ, sir, Mr president.
The senior advocate said “the new service chiefs appear younger and lower in rank than their pot-bellied predecessors. That is all we can say for
now”.
“Is this change of baton merely cosmetic? Is it new wine in old calabashes? Has anything suddenly changed in terms of new equipment, surveillance and intelligence capacity and capability?” he said.
