President Muhammadu Buhari has given reasons why he has not changed the service chiefs. Buhari in an interview on Arise TV Monday night said that “the head [him] has to be very careful on the removal of the service chiefs because you don’t know [the] ambition of the ones coming up.”

My understanding of security is that, when you have a case of emergency, you have to be careful, with tampering with the head of services. This is again one of my personal experiences. I have been a governor, I have been a minister, I have been a head of state, I came back, I tried to come back to this office three times but lucky on the fourth time,” Buhari said.

“I am measuring the options critically, when you have a case of emergency, if you don’t wait for an appropriate time to do it, then you create competition within the service, there are so many ambitious people waiting, only one man can be chief of army staff in the army, only one man can be the inspector-general of police. Don’t forget that it was this administration that appointed all the three.”

“I didn’t know them on [a] personal basis, I followed records and thought I picked the best then, of course, their performance may be disappointing but I accept responsibility for not changing them. My reason is based on my own experience.”

Speaking on Inspector-General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, who was expected to have retire on January 3 said “I don’t think I’m afraid of him (Ibrahim Idris). I will take action.”

•Excerpted from a Vanguard report

•Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin (l) with other Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police among the guests during the Special National Honours Investiture to commemorate the new Democracy Day at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

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