Tension: Panic Rocks Military, Over Clash Between Defense Ministers And Service Chiefs
According to an investigation by This Day, there is apprehension in the Nigerian Military, over alleged ego-trips between the new Minister of Defence, Brig-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd) and the current service chiefs.
There are rumours that a rift exists between Nigeria’s service chiefs and the new defence minister.
Some personnel in the nation’s armed forces are apprehensive of a likely friction between the defence minister and the army chiefs, based on chain of command and military hierarchy.
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It is feared that this alleged rift in their working relationship will become inevitable if Dan-Ali attempt to assert his authority over the service chiefs.
The report by This Day suggests that the issue has already been tabled in military circles over the seeming confrontational and controversial manner with which the defence minister resumed office.
It would be recalled that Dan-Ali last week reopened the old wounds when he openly castigated the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah (rtd) and the Nigerian Army for the manner they handled President Muhammadu Buhari’s West African Examinations Certificate, WAEC, scandal.
“Where is your integrity when your own Chief of Army Staff (Minimah) stood up and say his Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (Buhari) has no WAEC. How? Please let us be sincere with ourselves. Because you should have stood up and said no, because you are there you cannot. If you leave the job, is it the end of your life. If you leave the job there are other ways, better ways God can bless your life”
According to This Day, an inside sources who reacted to Dan-Ali’s statement, said: “the statement smacks of braggadocio, it is the first time a minister of defence with military background would have to issue (administrative) directives and orders to his superiors.”
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The source stressed that Dan-Ali, who retired two years ago, was a short course service- an equivalent to the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) regular course 31.
On the other-hand, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai (COAS), who is the youngest among the service chiefs is from the regular course 29.
More deatils from this investigation can be read here.
Meanwhile, Mansur Dan-Ali has been given an ultimatum of 7days to provide answers to the saga of President Muhammadu Buhari’s missing SSCE certificate.
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