Ahmed Lawan, Senate President
Nigerian Service Chiefs may soon have to say bye to their high paying jobs as the Senate has vowed to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the military chiefs.
The service chiefs have been heavily criticized by Nigerians over the increasing waves of insecurity in the country but the president seems to have turned deaf ears to the people’s cries.
In a recent interview, the Senate spokesperson, Senator Ajibola Basiru, said the red chamber would continue to persuade the President to act on its resolution.
Basiru admitted that the resolution was purely advisory but maintained that it represented the position of Nigerians who elected them into the Senate.
He said: “We, however, still want to persuade the President to consider our resolution. The Presidency has said it is aware of our decision and has pledged to look into it.
“The Presidency said it is not legally bound to carry out (our) resolution because it is the prerogative of the President to remove service chiefs.”
Basiru did not categorically confirm if the Senate resolution was appropriately passed to the Presidency, but said, “Our resolutions are just persuasive authority coming from elective representatives of Nigerians in the National Assembly.”
He said: “It (resolution) is not a law. It is advisory and persuasive. The response of the Presidency is the correct position of law, and I agree.
“Due to the principle of separation of power, we cannot compel the President to sack the service chiefs. We only responded to the feelings of Nigerians by asking the President to reorganize them (service chiefs), but he is not legally bound to do so.”
The Senate spokesman also noted that the Senate was deliberating with the executive on the decentralization of the police and additional recruitment into the Force, adding that the decentralization was already being worked on.
Meanwhile, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, has said he got the information about a state governor from Northern part of the country leading Boko Haram insurgents from Fulani traders in a market.
The ex-CBN Chief said this in an interview with BBC Hausa on Thursday.
Mailafia, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2015 poll, said he received the information from “some Fulani traders” in the market and did not know that his comments would go viral.
Mailafia, who was invited by the Department of State Services over the issues, said he told the Secret Police what he knew about the incident and apologised for any statements he made that offended others.
He said he was a fan of President Muhammadu Buhari “but there are bad people who don’t give him the advice to help him”.
