President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday sacked Tukur Buratai as the new Chief of Army Staff.

Mr. Buratai was promptly replaced with Ibrahim Attahiru, a major-general, as the new Army chief to face the daunting task of managing Nigeria’s deepening insecurity.

Although Mr. Buhari did not immediately say he sacked Mr. Buratai and other service chiefs showed the door for their incompetence, it was long clear to Nigerians that the chiefs had lost the plot and had no capacity to stem the raging tide of insecurity in Nigeria.

Hundreds of thousands of Nigeerian lives have been lost to deadly attacks by either Boko Haram, killer herdsmen, armed bandits or militants since Mr. Buratai and his counterparts in the Nigerian Air Force, Sadique Abubakar; Nigerian Navy, Ibok Ekwe Ibas and Defence Headquarters, Abayomi Olonisakin, were appointed in 2015.

With their outster on Tuesday came fresh hopes amongst Nigerians that acute insecurity might be checked with fresh personalities and fresh perspectives. 

But Mr. Buhari’s decision to replace Mr. Buratai with Mr. Attahiru might not be the best decision, considering that Mr. Attahiru was sacked in 2017 from the Boko Haram frontlines for incompetence, said national security analyst Victor Eke.

The BBC also reported at the time that Mr. Attahiru failed to meet repeated targets set for him by Mr. Buratai in the war against ruthless insurgents, who have held the country to a standstill since 2009.

“Buratai sacked Attahiru for incompetence in 2017 when he repeatedly failed to tackle the Boko Haram insurgents,” Mr Eke said. “Pardon me if I am not optimistic by his appointment.”

Mr. Eke said Boko Haram would be the priority focus of Mr. Attahiru, and it was not a good sign that he had been found not to be competent against the insurgents when he was the head of ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’, Nigeria’s flagship counter-terrorism operation based in Maiduguri.

On the contrary, Mr. Eke said Leo Irabor, a major-general who was appointed as Chief of Defence Staff, should have been appointed as the Chief of Army Staff.

“The CDS is a ceremonial role and someone who has a distinguished career as a combatant like Major-General Leo Irabor should have been appointed as the Chief of Army Staff,” the analyst said. “But the president has a way of looking at everything from a sectional perspective.” 

The Chief of Defence Staff leads the Defence Headquarters to coordinate the other arms of the military, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force. But the role is largely seen as ceremonial because it does not include commanding powers over other service chiefs, who report directly to —and take orders directly from — the president.

But Mr. Eke said Mr. Attahiru should not be entirely second-guessed, saying Nigerians should give him a chance to prove his mettle.

“He has at least two more years to go since President Buhari is always reluctant to sack people,” Mr. Eke said. “So we will be watching and providing him all the support he would need to help Nigeria out of the current insecurity crisis.”