President Muhammadu Buhari has told of an occurrence between him and former chief of Defence staff, General Theophilius Danjuma (rtd) on Thursday while inaugurating National Humanitarian Coordination Committee (NHCC).
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The committee’s mandate is to superintend all humanitarian actions in the country and is chaired by the Minister, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadia Umar while National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen. Babagana Mungonu is co-Chairman.
Buhari however revealed that his original plan was to have Danjuma as head of NHCC but his offer was turned down by the retired military top brass, who cited old age.
“As a digression, I will like to make some comments based on my visit to some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps. The pathetic scenes I saw pushed me to ask one of the most respected generals we had in the military, Gen. T. Y. Danjuma, initially to head this organization. Because, what we receive from NGOs sometimes does not permeate, does not go down to the people there. If you see the children they don’t know their fathers not to talk of where they come from.
“So I had to go and beg Gen. Danjuma to please come and be in charge of that so that our resources are properly utilized, because some Nigerians are really reckless. There don’t care whose money it is they will put it in their own pockets.
“So I had to get Gen. Danjuma but when he told me that age was not on his side, I got documents from intellectuals so that we could set up a ministry so that it will coordinate the activities of NEMA and others. So that the sources can be properly accounted for,” the president narrated.
The relationship between Buhari and Danjuma appears to be adversarial in recent time. The former Chief of Defence Staff has openly been critical of the incumbent government that is not known to gloss over such criticism.
