A coalition of rights groups, including the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), the Association of African Writers on Human and Peoples Right (AFRIRIGHTS) and 36 other registered affiliates have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for nominating the immediate past Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Tukur Buratai as well as his other retired counterparts as ambassadorial designates.

HURIWA said it has resolved to send a letter to the Senate to expedite action in the anticipated parliamentary approval mechanisms so the newly appointed ambassadors can be assigned to their respective posts to serve the overall interests of Nigeria.

The rights groups said the ambassador nominees who had served the country with pride for over 40 years of their productive lives, gave their all to advance public good just as it dismissed criticisms of the appointments saying those who criticise these appointments are free to say what they want in the spirit of constitutional democracy and fundamental freedoms as guaranteed to the citizens but that if the truth be told, General Buratai and the other Service Chiefs who just voluntarily retired are much more qualified to represent Nigeria in a non-career level because they are all round professionals who will not betray the country given that they displayed uncommon loyalty to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to Mr. President.

HURIWA and other civil rights advocacy groups that met in Abuja endorsed the appointments and dismissed the criticisms against the appointments as misplaced and baseless given that there is no empirical evidence to show that these erstwhile Service Chiefs have any problems with both local and international human rights and humanitarian laws.

The rights advocacy groups said as far as legal records are concerned, the erstwhile Service Chiefs have no pending invitations at the International Criminal court in The Hague Netherlands and wondered why a section of the media are spreading misinformation and fake news.

“We are happy with Mr. President for exercising authority in a much more decisive manner by poaching these retired officers to immediately commence diplomatic services to Nigeria. We are one hundred percent sure that these professional military Generals will stand their own in international diplomacy and will represent all of us the good citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria creditably and will inevitably make us proud in foreign jurisdictions after serving us locally in a comprehensively meritorious and patriotic manner.

“We recognise that in a democracy different people will have their different opinions so those kicking against these appointments can continue but all that We are asking them to do is to base their criticisms on verifiable and concrete facts and not on prejudices and unfounded speculation and rumours peddled about in beer parlour situations and elevated to the public scale by gossip blogs and naysayers. To us, these appointments are well placed, rational, logical, decisive and was made in the overall best interests of Nigeria and Africa. These men are amongst our first eleven so they are qualified to be so appointed and as far as section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is concerned, the ex-Service chiefs should be granted fair hearing by those who do not like their faces.”

The rights groups said the President Buhari should immediately appoint a fresh and substantive Inspector General of Police to step into the office adding that by law, the current IGP ought to have vacated after statutory and the non-reversible retirement of IGP Mohammed Adamu.

HURIWA said it was illegal to retain a retired police chief in clear disregard to a law signed by the President, saying that unlike the military chiefs whose tenures are not spelt out in the Constitution nor statutes, the office of IGP has a clear and an unambiguous tenure that cannot be extended without violating extant laws including the supreme law of the land.

HURIWA said just like many legal scholars had validly argued, the Nigerian President cannot violate the clear provisions of the Constitution and the amended Police Act 2020 stating that under section 215 (1)(a) of 1999 Constitution, the extension of the tenure of the clearly retired IGP, Mohammed Adamu is null, void.

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