Nigeria’s immediate past Service Chiefs have appeared for screening as non-career ambassadorial nominees.
They arrived at the National Assembly complex at exactly 11.32 am.
Upon their arrival, they went straight to the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare who immediately led them to the hearing room.
When it was 12 o’clock, the time the screening was to start, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Adamu Muhammad Bulkachuwa ordered an executive session with the members of the committee who were present in their good numbers.
Executive sessions were meant to address and harmonise opinions to avoid issues that are likely to trigger controversies.
Activities of high profile nature like the screening of ex-Service Chiefs are supposed to be covered by the Senate Press Corps, but in this case, the Committee Clerk didn’t request for coverage which may not be unconnected with the controversy that greeted their nomination.
But the screening attracted so much media houses to the NASS on Thursday because of the publicity that their appointment had generated.
The former Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin was the first to be screened. He spoke on insecurity in the country and warned that the next warfare and crisis in the country will be in the forests.
He explained that research which he conducted on forests three years ago shows that Nigeria has over 1,000 forest reserves and there is an urgent need to man and protect the forests which have become hideouts for criminals.
The Former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai during his screening also spoke concerning the security crisis in the country.
He lamented that the terrorists have permeated the society and won the communities to their side.
According to him, the solution to the security crisis in the country is a multi-pronged approach and military warfare alone is not the solution.
He added that there are so many ungovernable spaces in the country with no government presence. The government he says must provide infrastructure in these communities to win the people and it will take another twenty years to resolve this crisis.
The immediate past Service Chiefs were nominated as non-career ambassadors by President Muhammadu Buhari in less than two weeks of their voluntarily retirement from service.
The former Service Chiefs who were appointed ambassador-designates are retired Defense Chief, Abayomi Olonisakin, forme Army Chief Tukur Buratai, former Navy Chief, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas and former Air Chief ,Sadique Abubakar.’
