General Ayoola: It's not true that service chiefs are incompetent

Former Commander (Special Task Force), Operation Safe Haven in Jos, Major General Henry Ayoola (Rtd) has faulted many Nigerians insinuating that the nation’s service chiefs were incompetent.

He said that it was wrong to accuse the service chiefs of incompetence without knowledge of the “national security directive” the president gave to them.

The retired general noted that insecurity in Nigeria should not be blamed on them but rather on long years of neglect of the nation’s security apparatus.

Ayoola spoke in an interview published by Daily Sun on Thursday.

“When people ask me about the Service chiefs, my first grouse is that they always ask it on the wrong premise or they insinuate that the Service chiefs are incompetent, which is far from the truth.

“I know these service chiefs personally and I know they are better than this; the armed forces are better than this and our armed forces are better than this.

“We should be asking the right questions. We should look at the whole issue top to bottom and see where the blame should be apportioned; there are lots of connivances around the whole thing that you don’t even know what to believe,” Ayoola said.

Explaining why Nigerians should not blame the service chiefs, Ayoola stated, “The president appointed them and he also has the power to sack them, is that not so?

“Is any of us privy to the national security directive the president gave to the service chiefs relating to the operation; are we aware of the content, what did he tell them to do?

“These are the questions we should be asking, not whether they failed or not. The president is the one that knows their directive, he has their scorecard and will know whether they have failed or not.”