Public affairs analyst Mahdi Shehu has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of carrying out the recent reshuffle of Nigeria’s service chiefs to serve his own political interests.
In a post shared on his official X handle on Saturday, Shehu said the President’s decision was not motivated by the worsening insecurity across the country, but by fear and personal survival instincts following reports of a possible coup.
Quoting the Bible to support his position, Shehu wrote: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” – James 3:16.
According to him, the scripture clearly captures man’s natural tendency for greed and selfishness, which he believes has been visibly demonstrated by Tinubu through his actions.
“The scriptural references to man’s selfishness are well narrated and documented with visible confirmation by man himself,” Shehu stated.
“Man’s greed and insatiable economic desires give further credence to his infinite capacity for selfishness.”
He accused the President of ignoring several tragic events across the country while maintaining the same security chiefs. “The ongoing wanton killings nationwide did not prick Tinubu’s conscience to rejig his security architecture,” he wrote.
Shehu listed several instances where he said the President failed to act, including the daily sacking of villages and killings of hundreds in Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Yobe, and Borno states, as well as mass killings in Benue, Taraba, Kogi, and Nasarawa.
“These were not enough reasons for Tinubu to summon the courage to sack the service chiefs,” he lamented.
“But the moment his brand of democracy came under what was officially denied yet unofficially confirmed as a coup, he acted swiftly and panicky.”
Shehu described the move as a coup shrouded in darkness and left to everybody’s imagination, alleging that the President only became decisive when his own political survival was at stake.
He further criticized Tinubu’s handling of Nigeria’s economic crisis, accusing him of retaining what he called a wizardly economic team despite worsening poverty and hunger.
“With 139 million Nigerians facing abject poverty and hunger, and other gory economic failures, Tinubu is yet to sack his economic team,” Shehu wrote.
He concluded by saying that the President’s actions once again confirm man’s selfish nature, even on the face of glaring failures, until such a time when he is finally subsumed by the earth.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday, in a major shake-up in the country’s security leadership, sacked some service chiefs and approving the appointment of their replacements.
According to a statement issued by his media aide, Sunday Dare, Olufemi Oluyede was named the new Chief of Defence Staff, replacing General Christopher Musa.
