Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshall Alex Badeh
Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh,
spoke about what proceeded the widely publicized move to postpone the
Nigerian general elections.
It should be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) February 7 announced the polls shift by 6 weeks over security issues. Before that, the country’s military chiefs reportedly requested the authorities to do so.
The INEC decision generated serious outrage, especially among the opposition members who alleged several plots by the government and the military to rig the elections in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to Vanguard, March 4, Wednesday, the military debunked controversial rumours regarding the postponement and shed light on the real reasons behind their request.
Badeh insisted there had been no political undertone in the suggestion of the chiefs. He said that they had made a request to enable the army take delivery of the long awaited weapons required to fight Boko Haram insurgency.
The defence official made this known while receiving items donated by the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers of Nigeria (APIN) to assist the army in the counter-terrorism war.
“I do not want to bring politics into it, whoever wants to bring politics into what we are doing, it’s left for him. I want whoever is saying that to know that war machines are not picked up from the shelf, if it were, we would have got them.
“When you make orders, it takes time to produce and it takes time also to train on them. So, we did not place the orders today, we had placed orders before now and when they started coming, we asked for more time to combat the insurgents before the elections. I can guarantee you that there is no politics in the demand for shift in date, it is just because we were receiving the equipment.”
Badeh also urged civilians to support the military doing their best on the battlefield:
“Part of the overall strategy of tackling insecurity is to build synergy with the civil populace, especially for support and vigilance in reporting the activities of suspicious elements and the movements of insurgents.
“This is borne out of our strong conviction that the war against insurgents is not a war for the armed forces alone. As I have always said, when the military is at war, it is not the military alone that is at war, rather it is the entire nation.
“Accordingly, all instrument of national power, ranging from diplomatic, informational, military to economic are employed to ensure that threats to national security are contained and defeated.”
The defence chief praised the APIN for the donation which showed their support and commitment to the goal of defeating Boko Haram insurgency.
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