President Umar Yar’Adua appoints new service chiefs and retires some
By Oluokun Ayorinde
In a second surprise move within one week, President Umar Yar’Adua Wednesday last week announced a major shake-up in the leadership of Nigerian armed forces. A similar shake-up which led to the scrapping of the offices of Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Presidency had been carried out two days earlier.
The difference between the two events was that while speculations about the impending re-jigging of Aso Rock Villa’s administrative structure had been on for some weeks, this magazine gathered that neither the media nor the military chiefs themselves anticipated the change in the top hierarchy of the armed forces. Indeed, the service chiefs’ had planned a retreat for Kaduna Thursday last week which had to be postponed indefinitely after announcement of the new appointments.
As announced by Segun Adeniyi, spokesperson for President Yar’Adua, Air Marshal Paul Dike was promoted from his former position of Chief of Air Staff to replace General Andrew Owoye Azazi as Chief of Defence Staff. General Azazi is retiring from service. Dike thus becomes the second non-army officer to become CDS.
The new CDS hails from Issele-Uku in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State. He was commissioned into the Nigeria Air Force as Pilot Officer, on 21 June, 1975, and holds a Masters degree in Strategic Studies, from the University of Ibadan. Appointments he has held include the Commander, Presidential Air Fleet and Director of Operations, NAF Headquarters. He was appointed Chief of Air Staff in May, 2006, and promoted to the rank of Air Marshal same day.
Major-General A.B. Dambazau was also announced as the new Chief of Army Staff. He takes over from Lt.-General Luka Yusuf, while Rear Admiral Isaiah Iko Ibrahim replaces Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye as the Chief of Naval Staff. Also approved was the appointment of Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin as Chief of Air Staff.
Until this appointment, Air Marshal Petinrin was the Air Officer Commanding, Nigerian Air Force Training Command, Kaduna. All, but one of the retired service chiefs were appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was expected that President Yar’Adua would have changed the military chiefs on assumption office on 29 May, 2007, but he did not. It was, however, gathered that the President, who left the country for the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, decided to replace the military chiefs who were due for retirement anyway, partly as a result of the assertion of General Azazi before the National Assembly some weeks ago that former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not inform the military before signing the Green Tree Agreement through which the Bakkasi Peninsula was ceded to the Cameroun Republic about two weeks ago.
Under Luka Yusuf, there were protests by soldiers on issues of welfare like salary delay and non-payment of allowances to soldiers who went on peace missions abroad. The former CDS and COAS are also said to be sworn enemies who hardly agreed on any issue. On the other hand, the tenure of Adeleye as Chief of Naval Staff has also been characterised by frequent complaints of ship missing in custody and allegations of involvement of naval personnel in crude oil bunkering. “The first two qualifications the President was looking for were professionalism and integrity. These four service chiefs meet them,” a military source said about the new appointees last week. Time will tell if they will make any difference.
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