The appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff has vindicated a tweet by the Executive Director of Human Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, suggesting that President Muhammadu Buhari will not appoint a non-Hausa-Fulani General as Chief of Army Staff.
He had tweeted on May 24 that: “If President Muhammadu Buhari appoints an Igbo man as his CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF, I will go on exile to Porto Rico. Quote me.!”
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The tweet was in line with the general belief among southerners that President Buhari is uncomfortable with non-Hausa-Fulani as Army Chief.
For instance, the Ohanaeze had previously criticized Buhari for not appointing an Igbo person among the service chiefs.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization had on December 25, 2020, said that, “Ohanaeze frowns at this propensity of ensuring that Igbo land is constantly under siege by having security heads from zones other than the Southeast in charge of security in the zone.”
THE WHISTLER earlier reported that late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru and other military officers died on Friday after a military aircraft which carried them crashed near the Kaduna International Airport.
PR Nigeria reported that, “Some retired senior security officers who are politicians are also putting pressure on the presidency to consider seniority, competence, merit and war experience and jettison ethnic and sectional sentiments in picking the next COAS.”
The crucial security position which has been vacant for days has now been filled following President Buhari’s latest appointment of Major General Yahaya.
The presidency had made it clear to Nigerians and in particular, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, that as for the country’s insecurity challenges, the federal government was taking steps “to reignite response to the situation, which he (Buhari) said included the appointment of the new Service Chiefs.”