Mar. 17, 2014
Wale Odunsi
The Nigeria Security Watch Forum, at the weekend, called on the Minister of Defense, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, to resign his appointment.
The forum said the retired General should go, “if he feels bigger than the president and the laws of the land.”
In a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting in Abuja, NSWF said its members had been watching, with keen interest, media reports on the purported resignation of Gusau.
It said such stories could only have been ‘obviously planted’, particularly the one that stated that President Goodluck Jonathan ‘begged’ him (Gusau) to withdraw his letter of resignation.
The communiqué, signed by the forum’s president, Abubakar Danbaki, further said that, based on the information at members’ disposal, it was clear that the story of the purported resignation was planted in the media by aides of Gen. Gusau to achieve set interest.
“Without mincing words, the purpose of the sponsored story was to influence and possibly force the President into making a decision between Gusau, the Chief of Defense Staff and the three Service Chiefs,” the group noted.
“This, in our view, was a cheap blackmail that obviously back fired and fell flat on its surface owing to the fact that, as watchers and keen observers of the security sector, we know as a matter of fact that General Gusau wants the CDS and the Service Chiefs to report directly to him.
“Gusau wants to control the security apparatus, including the office of the National Security Adviser without an enabling legislation. The question is to what level of control does he want, and to what extent? Is it to award contracts or to determine military postings?
“We know as a fact that when General Abdulrahman Danbazzau was the Chief of Army Staff, nobody asked to vet his appointments. Why then must General Gusau want to vet the appointments made by the Chief of Army Staff, when he has been fair and just in his appointments?”
The forum also said that it was clear that Gusau came to the Ministry of Defense with a biased, preconceived and premeditated mind, adding that it was the real reason he wants to control the army at all cost.