Details of Why GEJ Sacked Gen. Agwai; Plus OBJ Connection

The word CHANGE is one that President Goodluck Jonathan doesn't like hearing. And he just confirmed that with his hasty action against a respected retired General, Martin Luther Agwai.

Jonathan on Tuesday sacked General Agwai as chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).  his sack is connected to the lecture he delivered last week in Abeokuta during the birthday ceremony of former President Olusegun Obasanjo where he declared that “change is inevitable”.

Speaking at OBJ's birthday, Agwai noted that change in leadership was inevitable, even as he stressed the need for reforms in the security sector, without which, he said, the country might be doomed.

In his words: “In life, you find out that everything needs change; if that is what the community wants, what the people want, you must give it to them and, as such, it becomes inevitable.

“You can have everything nice, but if you don’t have the right leadership to propel it, it cannot go anywhere. Integrity matters – doing what is good for the larger society and not just what you want to do for a narrow society to please yourself.”

Jonathan has immediately appointed former chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Mr Ishaya Dare Akau, as the new chairman of SURE-P.

Presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, noted in a statement that the change in SURE-P leadership was in furtherance of President Jonathan’s “efforts to continuously re-energize and reposition agencies of the federal government for optimal service delivery.”

During Agwai’s speech at the birthday ceremony, he had also warned that should the military abandon its primary responsibility and get involved in politics, the country would be doomed for it.

“The military has to be transformed and this becomes necessary from the point of recruitment, training and assuming leadership role. Our forces that are trained, equipped to defend us are now in a strange field (politics)."