NICL Urges Military to Shun Distraction

New Initiative for Credible Leadership (NICL) has urged the military to shun distractions and focus on tackling existential threats to the country like the task of ridding country of Boko Haram insurgency and containing militants that are attacking economic infrastructure.

A statement by NICL’s National Coordinator, Rev Samson Onwu on Sunday in Abuja noted that it was apparent that the kind of allegations about the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai owning property in Dubai would stop and that the military must now learn to operate in the midst of such political distractions.

The statement explained that such allegation only goes to show that the crisis entrepreneurs that are being affected by the successes of the military are desperate to again return the nation to a time when jobbers covertly supported the Boko Haram insurgency in order to increase security spending and have more money to steal from.

It stressed that “The security circle does not need these kind of distraction since this is a crucial time when they should be reviewing strategies for when the fight against the insurgents enters another phase. The numerous distractions by unscrupulous elements in the last few weeks are targeted at derailing a Nigerian military whose ranking has grown astronomically in the last one year. 

“The sad reality however is that those whose source of ill-gotten wealth has been cut off both by the exploits made by the military on the battle field and the fact that greater accountability has been introduced into the services are desperate to distract the military hierarchy to allow extremists regroup.

“They also want to ensure that the military is in some form of disarray to create the impression that Nigeria does not have the forces to confront the militants they have armed to destroy oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta,” it stated.

Reacting to the latest allegation, NICL lamented the tendency for issues to be blown out of proportion for propaganda value by those that want to settle scores for their syndicates.

It argued that “It is not true that all Nigerian public officers rely on their salary or steal from public funds to afford basic necessities of life. It is now a known fact that Buratai is a good farmer and has made so much from farming. If all public servants were to engage themselves in such venture and ignore 10 per cent contract cut, then the fight against corruption would have been fought in one way down the line now.”

The group urged President Buhari to be on the lookout since some of those behind this campaign of calumny that was designed to also rub off on his government are within his cabinet.