It has to be restated that the military as an institution is neither as inept in the discharge of its duties nor is it being misused for political ends in the manner the retired General Obasanjo … has probably been made to believe
From statement from Defence Headquarters, Monday, February 16, 2015
From statement from Defence Headquarters, Monday, February 16, 2015
Dear General Olukolade:
On one level, General, you have my sympathy. As the General in charge of information at Defence Headquarters in Abuja, your job at the present time is not an easy one, no, not by a long stretch! The reputation of the Nigerian armed forces or more specifically, the collective reputation of the top brass, the Service Chiefs, is in tatters. The claim of our armed forces to professionalism of the highest order and to integrity and impartiality in the electoral process has been severely, some would say shamelesslycompromised. This is why I start this open letter to you, General, with an expression of sympathy: yours is not an easy task, this task of retrieving the army’s honour, respect and integrity in the face of the near universal contempt of Nigerians and the international community for recent widely publicized unprofessional, corrupt and dishonourable actions of top members of the armed forces.
To those reading this piece who might think that I am being sarcastic in expressing sympathy for your onerous task, General, I wish to draw the attention of such readers to the Statement that you personally made about two weeks ago on behalf of our country’s armed forces. I have that Statement in front of me as I write this open letter to you, General. It is a dignified and well composed Statement. In it you unequivocally affirmed that the armed forces of our country will remain, in your own words, professional, apolitical and non-partisan in the present electoral cycle. You stated that there were no ulterior motives in the Service Chiefs’ letter to the INEC Chairman that caused the postponement of the elections from February 14 to March 28. In fact, in the Statement you made the following ringing assertion that I wish both to endorse and to bring to your attention and the attention of all Nigerians: “No excuse will be acceptable for any act of commission or omission that tends to compromise the law or the electoral process as well as decent conduct or judgment on the part of any service personnel while discharging duties related to elections in any part of the country”.
I have said that this Statement of yours, General, is dignified and well composed, adding that it makes affirmations of dedication to professionalism, integrity and decency which every patriotic Nigerian should endorse. However, this is only if your Statement is read in a de-contextualized act that ignores things that are happening in our country at the present time that make your assertions almost meaningless if not even hypocritical, General. In support of this strong observation, I will advert to two incidents both of which cast grave doubts on the sincerity of the assertions that you make in this dignified and well composed Statement of yours. Since the first incident is the milder of the two examples that I wish to discuss, I will deal with it first before coming to the second and far more damaging incident.
First then, is the incident at the National Peace Committee Meeting in Abuja on February 2, 2015, when the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh, stated for the whole country and the world to hear that the armed forces were in a state of complete readiness for the elections on February 14. Indeed, in order to underscore his point, Air Marshall Badeh stated further that though the armed forces were engaged in counter-insurgency campaigns against Boko Haram, they had capabilities to ensure security for the whole country. Moreover, one by one, the other Service Chiefs present at the occasion echoed Air Marshall Badeh’s assertions: Army Chief of Staff, General Kenneth Minimah and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Adesola Amosun.
Here, it is necessary to state that the Service Chiefs made these assertions in order to quell rumours that were already circulating that the elections were going to be postponed, rumours that were so rife that the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, came to Nigeria with the sole purpose of dissuading the Jonathan administration from postponing the elections. At any rate, on February 2 the Service Chiefs gave assurance that they were ready for the February 14 date for the elections. However, three days later, on February 5, these same Service Chiefs wrote the infamous letter to the INEC Chairman completely reversing themselves.
Up till now, none of these Service Chiefs has thought it fit and proper to explain to Nigerians why they reversed themselves, why within the space of 72 hours they moved from readiness for and commitment to elections on February 14 to a need for six weeks to quell the Boko Haram insurgency before they could be sure that they had the capability to assure security throughout the country. General Olukolade, you too have not thought it fit to give Nigerians the reason(s) for this volte face of the Service Chiefs between February 2 and 5. As a matter of fact, you have acted as if this about-turn did not happen and as if Nigerians do not remember that it happened. Believe, me Nigerians do remember it; moreover, they will recollect it if another about-face makes the Service Chiefs ask for another postponement of the elections beyond March 28.
I now come to the second and far more damaging occurrence that makes your Statement almost meaningless, to the point of hypocrisy and bad faith, General. I refer here to what is now known as “Ekiti-Gate”. Since I am sure that you do know what this alludes to, I will explain it very briefly here, principally for the benefit of those readers of this piece who may not have come across it on the Internet. Thus, “Ekiti-Gate” refers to an audio clip that has gone viral on the YouTube. In the clip, a currently serving Brigadier General in the Nigerian Army, Aliyu Momoh, is distinctly heard receiving instructions from Ayo Fayose and other chieftains of the PDP on how to play his own part as a representative of the Nigerian Army in rigging the Ekiti State gubernatorial elections for Fayose. It is bad enough that General Momoh features prominently in this damaging and treasonous conspiracy; what is even more incredible is the amount of disrespect and condescension that Momoh receives from politicians who are little more than glorified thugs. General Olukolade, do you think that the Nigerian Army can clean itself of the shame, the odium that General Momoh has brought to the armed forces if you do nothing about the incident?
For your information, General, though President Jonathan denounced this audio clip as a fabrication without having ordered any investigation to ascertain its authenticity, one of the principal figures in the clip, Ayo Fayose himself, has confirmed its veracity. In a statement issued this past Wednesday that was signed by Governor Fayose’s Special Assistant for Public Communications and New Media, one Lere Olayinka, Fayose admitted that it was indeed his voice that is heard in the clip and that he was merely rebuking Brigadier General Momoh for being partial to the APC. Moreover, we now know that the person who secretly recorded the clip and forwarded it to the Internet so that the country and the whole world can get to see the collusion of high placed elements within the Army with the PDP in the present electoral cycle is one Sagir Koli, a Captain in the Nigerian Army who has since gone AWOL and fled into exile in fear for his life. My question to you, General, is why are you silent about this audio clip? You are the Director of Information at Defence Headquarters: why are you silent on this scandal that has more or less made nonsense of the claims of professionalism, decency and impartiality in your Statement of two weeks ago?
In case you do not perceive the intent of these questions, General, let me point it out to you: if you remain silent on this Captain Sagir Koli affair, it means you are in collusion with what General Momoh did in the “Ekiti-Gate” outrage, you and the Service Chiefs and the military top brass. This past Monday a Statement came from Defence Headquarters that bitterly condemned General Obasanjo for daring to assert in public denunciations that the Service Chiefs were used by Jonathan to plot tenure extension for himself and, more generally, that the military has been politicized in the present electoral cycle. I do not know if you had a hand in that Statement, General Olukolade. I say this because that Statement was also silent on General Momoh and Captain Koli. In other words, a statement is made by Defence Headquarters savaging Obasanjo, a retired General for dragging the name of the army into mud; meanwhile, the same statement completely leaves unmentioned the name of a serving General who has actually rubbished the reputation of the army top brass by the way in which he was treated by political thugs like an errand boy for whom no amount of condescension was too much. Thus, it is the height of mendacity for the statement issued by Defence Headquarters this past Monday to have asserted the words that serve as the epigraph for this piece: “It has to be restated that the military as an institution is neither as inept in the discharge of its duties nor is it being misused for political ends in the manner the retired General Obasanjo… has probably been made to believe”.
Some final, open-ended questions for you, General. I pose them not to receive any responses from you as such but as teasers to the invisible or hidden state of politics within the armed forces of the country as we lurch to another round of fateful elections. How many Generals of the like of Aliyu Momoh are in the armed forces? Are they few or are the top echelons of the military brimful with officers that cannot stand up to corrupt, power-drunk, neo-fascist political thugs? Are the junior officers and other ranks full of the likes of Captain Sagir Koli? And is this why you are silent about “Ekiti-Gate”? Are political sentiments across the spectrum of officers and non-officers in the armed forces reflective of, on the one hand, the deep yearnings for justice, peace, security of life and possessions and above all else, better conditions of life for the majority of our peoples and, on the other hand, the forces that wish to keep us in darkness, injustice and stagnation? General, can you give assurance that the army will conduct an investigation into Brigadier General Aliyu Momoh’s role in “Ekiti-Gate”?
Biodun Jeyifo
bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu
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