Jonathan promoted former air force chief Air Marshal Oluseyi
Peterin to Chief of Defense Staff and named new heads of the air force, army
and navy. He also removed the Inspector General of Police and head of the State
Security Service.
"The president thanked them for their dedication to the
service of the nation and wished them well in their future endeavours,"
presidency spokesman Ima Niboro told reporters in the presidential villa in
Abuja.
He said the tenures of the outgoing service chiefs had
expired at the end of August and that the new appointments would take immediate
effect, but gave no further details.
Jonathan has not yet said whether he will stand in the
January polls but recent announcements, including a major blueprint to end
chronic power shortages, have looked more like campaign promises and most
Nigerians expect he will.
Nigeria emerged from decades of coups and military rule 11
years ago but the military remains a potent background force, with retired
generals reinventing themselves as politicians and businessmen, and still
pulling the strings of power.
The last military shake-up in Nigeria was just over two
years ago, when then President Umaru Yar'Adua named new service chiefs in a bid
to assert his authority and shake off the influence of his predecessor Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Similarly, the latest reshuffle suggests Jonathan is
asserting his authority four months after Yar'Adua died in office, and ensuring
he is in control of the military in the run-up to the presidential,
parliamentary and state polls.
"Goodluck Jonathan is roaring like a lion," said
one security analyst in Nigeria, asking not to be named.
Nigeria is roughly equally divided between Christians and
Muslims and spread across more than 200 ethnic groups.
An election bid by Jonathan, who is from the southern Niger
Delta, could be divisive due to a ruling party pact that power rotates between
the Muslim north and Christian south every two terms, meaning the next
president should be a northerner.
Sensitivities about the distribution of senior military and
civilian positions run deep in Africa's top energy producer.
Jonathan named Maj. Gen. O.A. Ihejirika as his new chief of
army staff, the first time since Nigeria's 1967-70 civil war that anyone from
the southeastern Igbo ethnic group has held the top post in the most powerful
branch of the armed forces.
"The appointment of an Igbo as army chief is of
symbolic value and a gesture toward those in the east who complain of marginalization,"
said Antony Goldman, London-based head of PM Consulting and a Nigeria expert.
"In the short term, attention is more likely to focus
on the new police chief, who will play a significant role in shaping the
security environment during the forthcoming elections." Jonathan named
northerner Uba Ringim as acting Inspector General of Police, but has yet to
name a permanent chief.
Previous elections in Nigeria have been marred by widespread
voter intimidation, ballot-stuffing and outbreaks of violence in flashpoints
including the oil-producing Niger Delta and the Middle Belt between the Muslim
north and Christian south.
Hundreds of people died earlier this year in clashes around
the central city of Jos, violence which was ostensibly religious and ethnic but
had roots in economic and political rivalry.
There have been isolated acts of election-related violence
in some northern states including Bauchi, where several people have been killed
in disputes over the display of campaign posters, local politicians have said.
There are fears the radical Islamic Boko Haram sect, which
wants Shariah (Islamic law) more widely imposed across the country, is trying
to stage a comeback after gunmen freed as many as 800 prisoners including some
sect members from a jail in the city of Bauchi late on Tuesday.
