Northern elders make case for inclusion of South-East among service chiefs

Northern elders under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development (CONEPD), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to review his recent appointment of service chiefs for the country to include the South-East geopolitical zone.

The group made the call in a statement on Thursday by its National Coordinator, Zana Goni.

While appealing for calm, the group said they would mount pressure on the President to include an Igbo person in the security architecture.

The statement reads in part: “We completely throw our weight behind Ohanaeze Ndigbo on their position over the appointments of the new service chiefs.

“We vehemently appeal to Mr President for a review of the appointments to accommodate our Igbo brothers from the South East region in line with the federal character principle of the country.

“We are absolutely sure that taking this action will make the designers of our country happy where they are watching.

“We received with great excitement the news about the sacking of the former service chiefs of the country by Mr President. It is quite commendable that the President finally listened to the clarion call by Nigerians to that effect.

“However, the composition of the service chiefs greeted us with mixed feelings and sincere concerns. We strongly believe that the list does not meet a fair list as it is lacking in fairness, justice, and equity to the south easterners.

Read also: Northern Elders Forum describes Akeredolu’s ultimatum to herdsmen as provocative

“We thought some lessons would have been learnt by the Presidency by now that the Igbos too, are also Nigerians and deserve to be fairly and godly treated.

“How can there be an appointment of two sets of service chiefs without any Igbo person among them? Is this fair? What exactly have the Igbo people done to deserve this kind of unfair treatment?”

The Northern elders also noted that it found that Igbo has senior and very qualified military officers in the Navy, Army, and Air force who are serving faithfully in their various capacities!

“What is their sin? We have seen how the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and several Igbo groups are fighting the criminal son, Nnamdi Kanu and his group, the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on a daily basis because they believe and act one Nigeria.

“We appeal to Mr President to have retrospection over this his latest appointments and do the needful”, the group said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now