The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be honest with Nigerians about why the leadership of the Nigerian military changed so suddenly and without warning.
The party said in a statement signed by National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi, “While we acknowledge that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, reserves the power to make such changes as he may deem fit, we are somewhat concerned that this change is coming in the wake of widespread rumors of an attempted coup.”
“We stand by what we said before: the government’s responses to the harmful rumor have ranged from intentional obfuscation to outright confusion when what was needed was clear communication.
“We note that almost all of the Service Chiefs who have been fired were only hired 28 months ago. The current Chief of Defence Staff was just hired a year ago as Chief of Army Staff.
“We further notice that this kind of decision has substantial and far-reaching effects on stability among the ranks, therefore it couldn’t have been made without good reason.
“Our opinion is still that the federal government owes Nigerians a clear explanation of what really happened.
“As an opposition party, our main concern is the stability of our country and our democracy.” We are quite worried about what is happening in our neighborhood of Chad and the Sahel States.
“Regardless of what may have happened in the last few weeks, it’s clear that the Tinubu administration is not focused.” In some regions of the country, terrorist groups are making a resurgence, and in other parts, robbers are in charge.
“But this is not why the administration is changing the Service Chiefs. Instead, it seems like the government’s main priority is on regime politics instead of keeping Nigerians safe.
“This move to change almost all of the country’s military leaders will only make rumors and conspiracy theories stronger.”
“We want to say again that the federal government needs to deal with this issue openly and reassure Nigerians that our democracy is not in danger.”
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