Nigerians have taken to twitter to criticise President Muhammadu Buhari for naming another northerner as replacement for the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Attahiru Ibrahim who died last Friday.
Many people who reacted to the news of the appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new COAS condemned President Buhari for continuing to demonstrate insensitivity to the yearnings of other ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Some said they were not surprised at the choice of the president having shown clearly since 2015 that he could not trust any other ethnic group with sensitive security positions in the country.
@chosensomto tweeted: “New Chief of Army staff is Major General Farouk Yahaya. Apparently nobody from the South has qualified for the COAS position in the past 6 years.
Tomorrow APC will pretend like they don’t know how they divided Nigeria and put us on a war path.”
@FS_Yusuf_said: “BREAKING: President Muhammadu Buhari has just appointed Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff. I too like Buhari. He doesn’t disguise on the fact there are appointments he’d never give a southern Christian or even a Northern Christian.”
@ayemojubar said: “BREAKING: Buhari appoints Major-General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff. Once again, it goes to the North.”
@iamjohnreuben: “Buhari has appointed Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS), making him the 3rd consecutive northerner he has appointed since 2015.
“There is a reason why chemistry practicals are mostly done 3X and Buhari just confirmed that.
“TRIBAL AND RELIGIOUS BIGOT”
@JeffOkoroafor: “There is palpable tension in the land. Several pockets of agitations and call for secession. But as usual, Buhari will always worsen the situation. This fella will destroy Nigeria with his lopsided appointment.
“Congratulations Major General Farouk Yahaya
“#RedefineNigeria”
However, a few saw it differently.
@bulamabukarti tweeted: “President Buhari has appointed Major General Farouk Yahaya, the incumbent Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, as Chief of Army Staff. Operation Hadin Kai is the army unit fighting Boko Haram. This is perhaps an indication of Buhari’s prioritization of the Boko Haram crisis.”
The debate goes on online with Major General Farouk Yahaya trending for hours among top 10 topics, with over 8000 tweets at the time of filing this report.
