Insecurity: ADP raises the alarm over morale of military

The national working committee of the Action Democracy Party (ADP), on Wednesday, raised the alarm over the low morale of officers of the armed forces.

It, therefore, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve the Service Chiefs of their appointment.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, national chairman of the party, Engineer Yabagi Sani said, such a decisive action would go a long way to boost the morale of the officers fighting insurgency and banditry in the North east and North west of the country.

He noted that the morale of personnel in the military is currently low as a result of lack of promotion which he said serves as incentives for personnel to carry out their duties.

He said: “We believe insecurity is at the core of all the problem in this country. Nigerians should find a way to convince Buhari to review the security architecture and appoint new service chiefs because it will energise the rank and file and there will be commitment to fighting this war.

“There is no way you can sacrifice incentives and expect people to take the risk. In service, incentive is very important, promotion is very important. ADP is calling on the President to revisit the issue of insecurity. That means that we want new service chiefs.”

On the state of the economy the party cautioned the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefele to insulate himself from politics which he noted was inimical to his assignment as chief executive of the nation’s apex bank.

Engineer Yagbagi asked the CBN governor to restrict himself to monetary policies of government and leave pronouncement on fiscal policies to those holding cabinet positions in government.

“We have also observed that the CBN governor seems to be dabbling into political issues. Central Banks all over the world are insulated from the politics of the day and they don’t allow themselves to be involved in political issues. Fiscal policies are policies of government while monetary policies re those that the CBN are supposed to involve themselves on.

“They are to concern themselves on the monetary policies and how the economy should be governed. The way we are going will create confusion in the administration of the country.

“If the CBN governor is talking of how textiles should be revived and giving history or telling us what item should be taken away from the import list, or how palm oil should be produced, they are dabbling into the field of Ministry of trade and Investment.

“He should be telling us how we are going to have a single exchange rate and how he will make the naira strong and how he is managing our foreign reserve. He should also tell us how to control inflation not about fiscal policies. We call on the government to bring the CBN governor back to his assigned duties as spelt out in the act of the CBN.”

The party also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to take over the responsibilities of conducting local councils elections, accusing state governors of manipulating the process to favour their cronies.

“A number of issues came up from our deliberation with INEC which we felt that we need to state our position. There is the need for INEC to have a comprehensive IT environment to deliver on the mandate given to them by the constitution.

“They need to also put pressure on the President to sign into law the amended electoral act so that going forward, Nigerians will have the opportunity of having a credible, free and fair election, an election that we can also have verifiable, incontrovertible and reliable date on for any engagement with the political parties.

“We also believe that INEC should remain intact because, in our opinion what is lacking is the IT for them to discharge their duty. We are also of the view very strongly that the local government elections which is being handled by state electoral commission should be transferred to INEC.

“Elections at local government levels today are mockery of democracy. It has become another parastatal of the government where you appoint somebody to preside over. The third tier of government which is the local government is very important and germane to the growth of democracy in this country.

“So, we believe that the national Assembly should amend the relevant laws so that the local government elections should be handled by INEC.”