By David Woyengiemi<\/p>\n
davidwoyengiemi@gmail.com<\/p>\n
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In June 2010, America\u2019s President Barack Hussein Obama sacked a senior military commander named General Stanley McChrystal. At the time, General McChrystal was the commander of American and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
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What was the respected military officer\u2019s offence? Well, General McChrystal and some of his associates made insulting remarks about President Obama, America\u2019s Vice President Joseph Biden and other White House officials in an interview conducted by the Rolling Stone magazine.<\/p>\n
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Thereafter, President Obama appointed General McChrystal\u2019s boss, General David Petraeus to succeed his junior. Prior to the new posting, General Petraeus was the chief of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM).<\/p>\n
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As head of USCENTCOM, General Petraeus was in charge of America\u2019s military operations in 20 nations, covering the Arabian Gulf region all the way to Central Asia. So for General Petraeus, Mr. Obama\u2019s redeployment order was practically a demotion.<\/p>\n
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Recently, in Nigeria, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan summarily dismissed Mr. Suleiman Abba as Inspector General of Police (IGP), apparently also on grounds of insubordination.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, suggesting that Mr. Abba was somehow being punished for not lending his good offices towards the rigging of the recently concluded general elections, several commentators have derided President Jonathan\u2019s decision as being petty and vindictive.<\/p>\n
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In fact, the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Mr. Ibrahim Coomassie, a former Inspector General of Police (who should know better) tried to play the ethnic card in favour of Mr. Abba, a fellow northern Nigerian.<\/p>\n
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Some Islamic rights activists also sought to turn a routine administrative matter into a religious sacrilege, wondering why such a high-ranking Muslim public servant should be humiliated from office.<\/p>\n
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These commentators have conveniently forgotten that the Inspector General of Police and all other commanders serve at the pleasure of the Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, once any commander has lost the confidence of his boss, that commander\u2019s continued service is doubtful.<\/p>\n
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For instance, not only was President Jonathan\u2019s firing of the former IGP Suleiman Abba questioned, even the nomination of Mr. Solomon Arase as the new IGP is being contested. On April 23, 2015, The Vanguard<\/strong>, a major Nigerian newspaper, reported that three Deputy Inspectors General of Police (DIGs) had resolved to protest the new IGP\u2019s appointment on the grounds that they and Mr. Arase (the erstwhile former Deputy General Inspector General, Force Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) were all promoted on the same day, i.e. on February 20, 2014.<\/p>\n \n The three DIGs were not protesting Mr. Arase\u2019s lack of the requisite qualifications for the job. Rather they are apparently upset that President Jonathan did not appoint all four of them Inspector General of Police. Is that not the height of absurdity?<\/p>\n \n These three officers who must all have spent several decades in the Nigeria Police Force obviously do not appreciate that the Commander-in-Chief is not obliged to consult his officers before giving a command.<\/p>\n \n Whenever it is convenient, we Nigerians like to imitate the Americans but frequently fall short whenever circumstances require us to adopt their professional standards.<\/p>\n \n Earlier, I recounted how America\u2019s Commander-in-Chief, President Obama practically demoted General Petraeus, one of his most highly decorated soldiers, from commanding operations in over 20 nations to overseeing activities in 1 theatre.<\/p>\n \n This week, Nigeria\u2019s own Commander-in-Chief, President Goodluck Jonathan promoted (to IGP) one out of four DIGs who were all reportedly elevated on the same day; and the other three are protesting. Is this not the classical definition of insubordination?<\/p>\n \n One just hopes The Vanguard <\/strong>report is not accurate. If it is and the Commander-in-Chief, President Jonathan, moves to enforce disciplinary measures against the three insubordinate DIGs, one can be sure their respective ethnic, religious and cultural supporters, etc will rise up to their defence, conveniently ignoring the direct trigger for the referred administrative action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By David Woyengiemi davidwoyengiemi@gmail.com In June 2010, America\u2019s President Barack Hussein Obama sacked a senior military commander named General Stanley McChrystal. At the time, General McChrystal was the commander of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n