According to him, the service chiefs should strive to justify their selection in ongoing efforts to safeguard the country, especially as farmers are preparing for the rainy season.
President Muhammadu Buhari has challenged the service chiefs to secure Nigeria within a few weeks, before the start of this year’s rainy season.
Buhari spoke on Friday shortly after decorating the new service chiefs with their new ranks at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, the service chiefs should strive to justify their selection in ongoing efforts to safeguard the country, especially as farmers are preparing for the rainy season.
The president said achieving the target has become imperative to enable farmers who had fled their farms in different parts of the country to garner the needed confidence to return to their farms.
He said: “During our four-hour security meeting, I have taken the responsibility as the Commander-in-Chief for you to go out into the field and secure the country.
“I have accepted responsibility for your action on the field. It is up to you to identify your competent officers irrespective of seniority and paper qualification and deploy them to make sure that we secure this country.
“You have got a few weeks to do that because, by the rainy season, we expect people to develop confidence and go back to the land so that we don’t get into trouble by being away from the field and therefore unable to produce enough food for the nation.”
Those decorated with their new ranks include the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Attahiru; Chief of Naval Staff; Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amoo.