Nigeria is at war. So why are so many generals potentially heading for retirement?
By
Akin Irede
Reserved for subscribers
Posted on
June 18, 2021 17:50
Nigeria is currently facing an asymmetrical war. There are battles against Islamist terrorists, bandits, militants, pirates and separatists, a situation which has placed the most populous African country as number three on the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index. But policy and personnel changes mean that a large number of senior officials could be forced into retirement. With activists and analysts already sounding the alarm about the rise in insecurity, will those personnel changes have a major impact on how the country responds to these threats?
About 80 major generals and their equivalents – air vice marshals in the air force and rear admirals in the navy – could be be systematically eased out of the military.
Why would this happen?
In January, military authorities introduced a new policy that states that no serving military official – who is not a service chief – should be senior to any of the service chiefs. Also in January, President