The Senator representing Abia North, Orji Uzor Kalu, has cautioned against the practice of overlocking senior military officers and picking their juniors in the appointment of service chiefs.
Kalu, who spoke on Thursday while contributing to a debate on “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Armed Forces Act and to Re-enact a modern, constitutionally compliant and operationally responsive legal framework for the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and for related matters, 2025,” directed his comments to the President and Commander-in-Chief.
Naijaonpoint reports that President Bola Tinubu currently occupies the position in Nigeria and recently oversaw the sack and appointment of new service chiefs in the country.
In his submission, Kalu observed that appointing juniors as military chiefs over seniors in service, not only dampens the morale of the senior officers, but also results in the wastage of human and material resources which had been invested in the training of these senior officers, who are inadvertently forced to retire.
Specifically, the Abia senator faulted the recent trend in the appointments of the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff.
Kalu said, “Presidents should stop appointing officers for these top military positions above their seniors who are still in service.
“For instance, you appoint a Course 41 officer as Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, or Chief of the Air Staff, while some of their senior officers in Course 39 and Course 40 are still in service.
“When you make such appointments from below the ranks, all the senior officers who are still in service are forced to resign prematurely.
“This situation has affected hundreds of senior officers over the years. Unfortunately, nobody is paying attention to the huge financial resources involved in the training of these officers.
“So I want to draw attention to this development and to plead with the President, who is the Commander-in-Chief, to…”
However, his words were interrupted by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who presided over Thursday’s plenary.
Jibrin submitted that the issue is a sensitive matter and Senators should speak cautiously.
He said, “We should be careful in this matter because it’s strictly a matter of military tradition that we do not fully understand.”
The bill, which sparked the debate, was sponsored by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Abdulaziz Yar’Adua.
Despite truncating the debate by the lawmakers, the bill was passed for second reading and subsequently referred to the Senate committees on Defence, Army, Navy and the Air Force, for further legislative actions.
The committees were required to submit their reports within four weeks.
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