President Muhammadu Buhari has named Major-General Farouk Yahaya as the new chief of army staff.
Yahaya will replace the deceased Attahiru Ibrahim with immediate effect.
Prior to his appointment, Yahaya was the General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army and the theatre commander of a military counter-terrorism unit in the North East.
His appointment comes six days after his predecessor Lt General Ibrahim Attahiru and ten other military personnel died in an air crash while on an official trip to Kaduna State.
Buhari appointed Attahiru in January 2021 as part of a shakeup in the country’s security architecture.
Mourning Attahiru, Buhari said the crash “was one mortal blow to our underbelly, at a time our armed forces are poised to end the security challenges facing the country.”
Attahiru, Acting Chief of Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Abdulkadir Kuliya; Chief of Staff to the late COAS, Brigadier General Mohammed Idris Abdulkadir; Brigadier General Olatunji Lukman Olayinka, Aide-De-Camp to the COAS, Major Lawal Aliyu Hayat, and Major Nura Hamza have been buried last Saturday.
Others were the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Taiwo Olufemi Asaniyi, Flight Lieutenant Alfred Ayodeji Olufade, Sergeant Opeyemi Isaiah Adesina, Sergeant Umar Saidu and Aircraftman (ACM) Olamide Matthew Oyedepo.
Yahaya was the incumbent Theatre Commander of the Counter-Terrorism/Counter-Insurgency military outfit in the North East, code-named Operation Hadin Kai.
He took over from Major General Olusegun Adeniyi as Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole on March 31 2020, before it was renamed Operation Hadin Kai by late Ibrahim Attahiru last Month, April 2021.
He was General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna before his deployment to Operation Hadin Kai.
At several times, he was the Military Secretary, (MS) Army at Army headquarters and Brigade Commander, 4 Brigade, Benin as a Brigadier General.
Major General Farouk Yahaya of Regular Course 37 is from Zamfara State.
Instructively, his appointment from the position of Brigade Commander up to the position of Theatre Commander, Operation Hadin Kai were all done by former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai (rtd).
With the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor being a Regular Course 34 Intake, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao both being Regular Course 35 intakes, Major General Yahaya becomes the most junior service chief as Course 37.
The implication is that about 20 Major Generals and Brigadier Generals made up of 5 remaining Regular Course 35 intakes and 15 Regular Course 36 intakes would have to proceed to give way (proceed on retirement) as they cannot be saluting their junior going by military tradition.
Already, the Senate has received Buhari’s request to confirm appointment of new CDS and Service Chiefs.
The appointment of Yahaya as Attahiru’s successor according to sources had been delayed due to the search for a competent officer with tribe and religion playing a critical factor.
A lot of the Generals in Regular Courses 35 and 36 were found to be from the same tribe or same state with other security chiefs of the Ministry of Defence, National Security Adviser’s office, the Navy and the Air Force.
For instance, one of the Major Generals, Jamil Sarham, of Regular Course 36, former Commandant Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), is from Kano, where the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (rtd) and the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, hail from.
The Chief of Policy and Plan (COPP), Major General Benjamin Ahanotu of Regular Course 35 is from Anambra state which shares a border with Delta state and it is considered that appointment of General Lucky Irabor as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has taken care of the South East and South-South.
Army Chief of Operation, Major General Ibrahim Manu Yusuf is from Yobe, the state of the Acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba.
According to his profile, the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major General Faruk Yahaya was born on 5 January 1966 in Sifawa, Bodinga Local Government Area of Sokoto state.
He started his cadet training at NDA on 27 September 1985 and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army Infantry Corps on 22 September 1990.
He has held several appointments including Staff, Instructional and Command.
Notable among the appointments held by the new COAS is Garrison Commander Headquarters Guards Brigade, Directing Staff at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Deputy Director Army Headquarters Department of Military Secretary, Deputy Director Army Research and Development and the Chief of Staff, Headquarters Joint Task Force Operation Pulo Shield.
He also served as the Principal General Staff Officer (PGSO) to the Minister of Defence, the Commander, Headquarters 4 Brigade and 29 Task Force Brigade (Operation Zaman Lafiya). He was also Director Manpower at the Army Headquarters, Military Secretary, Army Headquarters and General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army.
The new COAS is a proud holder of several honours and awards, some of which include, Forces Service Star, Meritorious Service Star, Distinguished Service Star, Grand Service Star, Passed staff course (Dagger), National Defence Course (Chile), Economic Community of West Africa State Monitoring Group Medal, Command Medal, Field Command Medal, General Operations Medal, Silver Jubilee Medal and Golden Jubilee Medal. He is happily married and blessed with children.
The Guardian/Vanguard
