Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has carpeted the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Tinubu, for permitting the promotion of over 100 full military Generals at a time terrorists were riding roughshod across the country.
The civil rights advocacy group said the promotion of the military officers to Generals, even when the military and police seemed to be either compromised, colluding with terrorists for pecuniary benefits with the prolongation of coordinated terrorist attacks, showed that Nigeria has degraded and devalued the esteem and prestige attached to such illustrious rank in the military around the world in the 21st century.
According to the rights group, it is frightening that Nigeria has more military Generals than even first World nations like the United States of America (U.S.A.), Canada, Australia among others. It wondered on what criteria the soldiers, who could not defeat ragtag terrorists for a dozen years, were being promoted yearly.
There is every likelihood, the group alleged, that certain topflight Generals are colluding with terrorists and kidnappers, which is why the war on terror lingered for too long and kidnappers are successfully negotiating and receiving millions of dollars in ransom without being detected, even when they make use of telephone for their negotiations.
In a New Year message, National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated that only a failed state would the military and police, who have failed woefully to combat and defeat terrorists, including kidnappers that successfully negotiate and receive ransom payments without being detected or arrested by security agents, would the same government continue to reward soldiers and police with rapid promotions, which are totally unmeritorious and ridiculous.
He said the recent decoration of nearly 100 Generals in the Nigerian Army, Airforce and Navy amid the devastation unleashed by armed non-state actors due to massive failures of security intelligence, is a manifestation of a failed state.
Besides, HURIWA addressed several other critical issues derailing the economic wellbeing of citizens, just as the organisation suggested that one of the compulsive measures to bring out the best from the officers and members of the armed forces and police was to suspend, immediately, any kind of promotion, especially the practice of churning out hundreds of Generals with zero battlefield experience.
