Nigeria Content Online

The decision to
replace service chiefs is no light one, even for the most courageous
commander-in-chief. But when a president, who is largely considered
weak or content with the status quo, upsets the apple cart, people
can’t help being jolted.

Since ‘inheriting’
our nation’s topmost job from his former boss, Musa Yar’Adua, who died,
Goodluck Jonathan’s approach to decision making would, at best, be
described as cautious.

Comparing Mr
Jonathan with former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is like comparing
chalk and cheese. The former president was unabashed when making
decisions. In a move akin to what President Jonathan is just doing
after five months in power, it took Mr Obasanjo just days into what
then was still a fragile transition from years of military
dictatorship, to retire all service chiefs. He did not stop there; he
proceeded to root out all military officers that have been “tainted” by
political appointments.

Despite obstacles
placed before him by some prominent members of the Yar’Adua presidency,
it was surprising in the extreme to watch Mr Jonathan pondering matters
before he took the initiative. But with yesterday’s sacking of the
former service chiefs and the appointment of their replacements, Mr
Jonathan is beginning to show that he has what it takes to make the big
decisions.

Show of power or not, opinions are divided as to what might be the significance of this move.

Kayode Soremekun, a
professor of political science at the Covenant University, Ota, said
this might have everything to do with the general elections in January.
He explained that this might be a move by the president to guarantee
his success at the poll next year, saying that in “Third World
post-colonial context, this type of situation is not new”.

Mr Soremekun’s
supposition may not be far-fetched. Could it be that Mr Jonathan has
held on to this very moment before drawing this clever card, to warn
his opponents that he too is astute in this political ping pong? We can
only speculate and wait to see how things unfold.

But one thing is not in doubt. The president is obviously displeased with the deplorable state of security in the country.

Tired of incompetency

The list is
endless. There is the simmering sectarian violence in Jos; and in the
south-east, kidnappers reign supreme. The former Inspector General of
Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo’s incompetence was exposed like an offensive
sore when he could not apprehend the kidnappers of five journalists
snatched along the Aba-Ikot-Epkene Road even after relocating his
office to the state.

The sack of the
service chiefs coming barely 24 hours after a band of extremists
suspected to belong to the infamous Boko Haram sect almost effortlessly
ransacked the Bauchi Central Prison, is an indication that the
president is definitely fed up with incompetence.

The interesting
twist in all this that most people may be missing is Mr Jonathan’s real
strength: making his opponents to perpetually underrate him.