By Williams Anuku Abuja
A peace advocacy group has criticized the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu over recent comments credited to him to the effect that service chiefs would remain in office as long as the President is satisfied with them.
The group, under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society for Peace and Good Governance in Africa, (COSPAGA), described such comment as not only reckless but unprofessional coming from a journalist with high repute.
It claimed that Mr Shehu was always in the habit of portraying the President and his administration in a bad light with his unprofessional handling of issues associated with his office, stressing that it would not be out of place for the President to sack him.
In a statement made available to the media in Abuja, on Wednesday, by its National Coordinator, Dr Christopher Yakubu, National Secretary, Barr. Ibrahim Funtua and Director of the programme, Barr. (Mrs) Lola Babalola, respectively, noted that contrary to Shehu’s ignorance, the service chiefs were not employees of the President but Nigerians whose taxes, it said, were being used to pay them.
The group said the President was elected by the people and if the same people that gave him the mandate to pilot the affairs of the country strongly feel about certain things going wrong in his administration, he must purse and listen to them.
“We received with rude and outright shock the irresponsible statement credited to Mallam Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman on Arise TV on Monday, where he stated that the service Chiefs will remain in office as long as Buhari is satisfied with them.
“Nothing can be more irresponsible, reckless, insensitive, unprofessional as such a statement.
“We wonder if Garba Shehu ever went to any image managing school in his life. For us, we think Garba Shehu is a liability to Buhari’s government and is largely responsible for putting this government in a bad light,” it said.
The group said, “We appeal to Mr President to sack and replace him with a more competent and experienced Nigerian.”
“Ordinarily, he ought to know that the Nigerian people are the employers of the president and the service chiefs with him inclusive, hence it’s not in the place of the president to be satisfied with the performance of the service chiefs but the Nigerian people who have since taken a sound and loud position that the service chiefs must be sacked immediately going by current developments in the country,” the group said.
According to the group, “The president and the service chiefs are paid and funded from Nigerian task payers’ money and must respect the wishes of Nigeria.”
“As it stands in Nigeria today, the call is loud and clear that the service chiefs be sacked and we urge the president to as matter the national emergency, respect the wishes of Nigerian people by sacking the service chiefs,” it insisted.
The coalition said, “While we appreciate the fact that sacking the service chiefs may not automatically end the war against insurgence and insecurity in Nigeria, we strongly believe that appointment of new service chiefs that reflects federal character will usher in hope to the nation and will set in template total turnaround for our national security.”
It noted that “The new officers will be coming in with new zeal, and ideas that may change the game, Nigeria will work closely through information sharing with them.
“This is why Nigerians are saying among so many other recommendations to end insurgence and insecurity, that the president must start first with the sack of service chiefs to restore confidence in the people.”