By Muhammad Mamman
Former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has called on President Bola Tinubu to disregard mounting demands for the removal of Nigeria’s Service Chiefs, insisting they possess the training and battlefield experience to steer ongoing security operations.
Rather than a change of guard, Ndume advocated a proactive “TEAM approach”—Training, Equipment, Ammunition and Motivation—as the most effective strategy to combat terrorism, banditry and insurgency across the country.
His intervention follows criticism from the Northern Ethnic National Forum, led by Dominic Alancha, which accused the Service Chiefs of incompetence despite huge budgetary allocations. Ndume dismissed the allegations as baseless and politically motivated.
The senator voiced concern over the poor morale of troops, noting that a private in the Nigerian Army earns roughly ₦100,000 per month, with a meagre ₦5,000 daily allowance. He described the pay as “unconscionable” and urged the Federal Government to prioritise soldiers’ welfare if it hopes to achieve lasting gains in the war against insecurity.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, Ndume declared:
“Those agitating for the sack of the Service Chiefs have ulterior motives. What the Armed Forces need is not new leadership but proper Training, Equipment, Ammunition and Motivation. These measures are vital to defeating terrorism and banditry. It is unfair and dangerous to question the competence of the Service Chiefs—they are well-trained and vastly experienced in theatre operations. What they lack is adequate support.”
Ndume further praised the Tinubu administration for ensuring ethno-religious balance in the composition of the nation’s security architecture, contrasting it with what he described as the “skewed arrangements” under the previous government.
