By Attah Sunday
Those who whipped up ethno-religious sentiments in the run up to the 2015
general elections certainly knew what they were doing. Far from the wider
misconception of seeing those unguarded hate comments as desperation of
some people to see their candidate win the presidential election, the
reduction of national issues to jingoistic street level jibes was
deliberate. I recall that the doomsday scenario painted should a particular
candidate lose the vote was backed by the “America’s” prediction that
Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015.
We are now halfway into 2016 and I am still a citizen of a one indivisible
Nigerian, even though there are current security breaches that must be
tactfully handled to thwart the contrived crises that are aimed at
achieving what the election tension could not achieve. Terrorists and
militants have formed groups that are threatening the socio-political,
economic and territorial stability of the country if only to make a show
that their election period threats were not mere posturing. But this too
has failed in its objective and purpose because it took only a short while
for the militants to realize that blowing up oil installations is nothing
short of the Niger-Delta region and its allied South-East region committing
suicide by installment.
The strategy has now shifted to new grounds with a routine retirement of
senior officers in the Nigerian Army being twisted out of context to revive
the persecution syndrome that the same forces behind the aforementioned
breaches want to ride on for achieving personal ambitions. The military
authorities adequately explained that the retirements were the result of
service exigencies – there were investigations that indicted these men of
being partisan in the 2015 General Elections while others were indicted for
stealing public funds through defence contracts. Had a rating or junior
officer committed any of these infractions in violation of the relevant
oath same would have been fired and jailed without any media organization
wasting as many as two sentences to report it. But then that is the danger
of pursuing political balance because had the authorities court martialed
and jailed these men we won’t be having this conversation.
The conversation is an ugly one. The first reaction to the retirement was
that loyalists of former President Goodluck Jonathan have been sacked from
the Army without going into the details of their misdeeds. Perhaps, the
realization that a military officer whose sworn allegiance is to the
Federal Republic of Nigeria shouldn’t be a GEJ loyalist forced a change in
tactics. The sacked officers became “mostly” from the South South, South
East and a few from the North Central but this too was soon discarded,
possibly because while the claim is not true it would have also confirmed
that the fired officers played the ethnic card instead of working for
Nigeria.
People who wanted to discredit a national institution were thus in a
quandary. The disaffection being whipped up in some quarters must be
sustained and the sack of rouge officers is the only cannon fodder
available. Under 72 hours, the narrative of the forced retirement was to
change again. The last round of change was that they were loyalists of late
President Umaru Yar’Adua, former President Jonathan and his National
Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki. Like the previous
interpretations of the sacks, this one too fell flat because the former
military men signed up to serve their country and not politicians.
There are also the simple questions that are not being asked. What did
these people do while in office? For instance, if the aides of Dasuki took
part in the criminal theft of money meant for buying arms to fight
terrorists should he be excused simply because he hails from a particular
part of the country? If a military officer on national assignment on a
president’s staff were to supervise the distribution of bribes to rig
elections, should he be left off the hook simply because his them principal
is of a certain ethnic stock? We must also be brave enough to interrogate
our system and agree whether or not commanding officers should abuse the
support the military provide during elections should be converted to a
rigging spree and intimidation of the opposition? Should the sacked
officers have been rewarded with promotion when the theft of defence
contract money meant that other gallant soldiers and officers died for lack
of equipment? If the military becomes populated by career thieves and
ethnic apologists can we still boast that we have a military? Why would any
group or persons want Nigeria to have a compromised military? We cannot in
good conscience answer in favour of any of these questions because that
would portray us as dysfunctional society that has no hope of growing out
of it.
We therefore summon the courage to find out what we stand to gain by
politicizing the military to the extent that some people now want the very
process used for ensuring ethical standards and professionalism to become
the subject of external inference. To say such mindset is irresponsible
would be an understatement. The military must not for any reason be
politicized. Those who think politicizing events in the Nigerian Army could
be exploited for their sinister motives of building support for
secessionist groups should have a rethink as this is an institution whose
function is too crucial to be jeopardized by ethnic thinking.
As they did with beating drums of war in the name of electioneering, as
they did in propping up terrorists, as they did in attempting to sabotage
the economy, the detractors of Nigeria got it wrong again by trying to
bring ethnic politics into the sack of compromised officers. Instead of
sounding like the whimpers of a victimized underdog they actually ended up
snarling ferociously, a declaration of war on peace loving Nigerians.
Declaring war on the state whether directly or through proxies is not known
to be acceptable in any state so a day of reckoning will arrive for those
beating the drums of division and war. When that day comes, those waging
this low intensity insurrection against the Nigerian state owe the rest of
us valid explanation. They should therefore save the energy being
dissipated on demonizing the military and channel same to articulating
their reasons for troubling the nation.
Attah is Secretary General, Stand Up Nigeria and contributed this piece
from St. Don Bosco, Beirut, Lebanon.