Public affairs analyst Mahdi Shehu has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of reshuffling Nigeria’s service chiefs out of fear and self-preservation rather than addressing the worsening insecurity in the country.
In a statement shared on his official 𝕏 handle on Saturday, Shehu described the President’s recent move as “swift and panicky,” alleging it was prompted by fears of a coup rather than genuine concern for national security.
Shehu, citing James 3:16, wrote, “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice,” asserting that Tinubu’s actions exemplified man’s innate selfishness and political survival instincts. He argued that the President ignored countless security crises that should have warranted decisive action long ago but only acted when his political stability appeared threatened.
According to him, the ongoing killings across the country, including in Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Yobe, and Borno States, had not moved the President to make changes to the nation’s security architecture. He further listed the persistent kidnappings for ransom, massacres in rural communities, and violence in Benue, Taraba, Kogi, and Nasarawa as situations that failed to compel Tinubu to act until rumors of a coup surfaced.
Shehu stated, “Tinubu has just displayed man’s selfishness and survival instincts in the panicky sacking of service chiefs. The ongoing wanton killings nationwide did not prick Tinubu’s conscience to rejig his security architecture. The daily sacking and killings of hundreds of villages and villagers were not enough reason for him to have the courage to sack the service chiefs. But Tinubu was swift and acted panicky when his brand of democracy came under an officially denied coup, yet an officially confirmed coup.”
He further criticized what he termed “a coup shrouded in darkness and hide and seek,” suggesting the situation was left to public speculation. Shehu lamented that despite the widespread economic hardship, with “139 million Nigerians facing abject poverty and hunger,” Tinubu had yet to dismiss what he described as his “wizardly economic team.”
Concluding his remarks, Shehu maintained that the President’s reaction underscored the selfishness of political leaders, asserting that “man is indeed selfish even on the face of glaring failures until such a time when he is subsumed by the mother earth.”
