File photo: Nigerian soldiers
Abiodun
Ladepo reacts to the invasion of the South East by Nigerian soldiers
who are bent on embarking on the 'Operation Python Dance'.
If we talk now, dem go brand us “Enemy of the State” and start
chasing us upandan with police, DSS, Customs, Immigrations and even
vigilantes. But how do you criticize the deployment of soldiers to the
private residence of a man without incurring the wrath of the
presidency?
I have an idea: blame it on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur
Buratai; blame it on Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin –
for those two must be in the know before troops are deployed within and
outside Nigeria. We can take the blame for this aberration a little
higher. How about laying it at the doorstep of President Buhari’s Chief
of Staff, Abba Kyari? Wouldn’t he have been the last person to know
before the president himself knew? Buratai would have communicated his
plans to Olonisakin, who would, in turn, have asked Abba Kyari for a
meeting with the President so he could brief him. Abba Kyari would
likely have just given the go-ahead in the name of the president because
Mr. President was indisposed, or just didn’t have the time to see
everybody and every file all of the time. Right?
Wrong. In this day and age, nations don’t send soldiers chasing
after their own civilian citizens. Responsible nations spend too much
money on the training and welfare of their soldiers for them to be
deployed on such trite mission as “show of force” on the street of a
rabble-rouser. That is so Hitlerian; so tyrannical and so out-of-date.
The blame lies squarely at the doorstep of President Buhari. And as the
saying goes, the buck stops at his desk.
I understand that section 217(2) of our Constitution authorizes the
president to deploy troops to any part of the country to support the
efforts of other law enforcement agencies in order to help suppress
“insurrection.” This is akin to what the U.S. National Guard, which is
under the command of individual state governors, does in the U.S. But
where is the insurrection in Abia State?
One definition of insurrection is: “an act or an instance of rising
in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil or an established
government.” Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of
Biafra (IPOB), who, obviously, was the target of the military
deployment, had threatened all of the key elements that define
insurrection; “threatened”… but not yet carried them out. He has
promised to burn down Nigeria more than once. He has promised to prevent
elections from taking place in Anambra more than once. He has promised
to carve out Biafra from Nigeria more than once. But he has yet to
actualize any of those threats.
What he has done is flagrantly violate some of the conditions for
his bail. In April of this year, when virtually all the elders from the
east pleaded for his release from detention, ostensibly because his
health was failing and he was at the point of death, Justice Binta Nyako
offered Kanu 12 conditions for his release, and the continued enjoyment
of the temporary freedom. Those conditions included, but were not
limited to, the following: he must not be in a crowd of more than 10; he
must not hold rallies; and he must not grant interviews. But what did
he do as soon as he was released? He not only got in a crowd of more
than 10, he held rallies. Apparently, his health got better as soon as
he exited the court premises in Abuja. He not only granted interviews;
he threatened to burn down Nigeria. For those alone, all that
government needed was a court order to re-arrest him. And because of his
notoriety - the touts and the hoodlums with whom he has surrounded
himself and the nature of his threats against Nigeria, the government
probably needed a hefty dose of a combined police/DSS operation. No
reasonable person would have argued against that because it would have
been lawful. That would have been an appropriate show of force.
So, why send a platoon, company or battalion of soldiers to
intimidate him? The answer is simple. The Buhari government, like all
the ones before it, and like most African governments, is afraid of
empowering the police like it is done in the western world. The ideal
thing would have been to allow the states to have their own police.
Those who argue against that cite the potential for abuse by some of our
vindictive and petulant governors, and the general “immaturity of our
democracy.” If we are leaving the police as it is under the federal
government, it needs to be numerically strengthened to accurately cover
the whole country (stop assigning police officers to all manners of
political office holders); improve their general welfare – salary,
training, weapons – and truly empower them to carry out law enforcement
duties across the whole country.
It is an onerous, almost revolutionary task that requires
laser-focus attention from the president. But it is wishful thinking on
my behalf. Knowing the bushman, brute force mentality of our military, I
can’t imagine a police officer enforcing the law on a military officer.
A good example of the subordination of the military to civil rule is
the U.S. military, which boasts of some of the most lethal men and women
in its forces. Yet, those highly trained members of the military are
some of the most humble, most deferential and most respectful
individuals when you see them about town. Other than members of the
National Guard whom you’d see in town with arms during natural
disasters, I have never, in 30 years, seen armed American regular
soldiers in town. Even when going from their bases to training grounds,
they move about in such a way as to not draw attention to themselves,
using civilian license plates on their plain-colored vehicles. Even
wearing the camouflage uniforms in town is often discouraged. The idea
is to protect the crown jewel of the American power – the soldier.
Would you be surprised to see an American police officer arrest an
American soldier? It happens all the time. Such a thing can happen in a
society where the military is completely subordinated to the civilian
leadership. Can that happen in Nigeria? No. Our military is still
tethered to its inglorious past of dehumanizing jungle-justice treatment
of the so-called bloody civilians.
In its characteristic lethargic attitude to important matters, this
government dilly-dallied on this Kanu matter until the fellow became a
martyr for the Biafra cause. Kanu was charged to court for some of the
most egregious offenses you could commit against your country; one of
which was treason. The man was seen and heard all over the world on
video and radio openly soliciting contributions for the acquisition of
arms to wage war against Nigeria. With two passports at his disposal –
Nigerian and British – the man entered Nigeria illegally without a
British visa on his British passport and without an entry stamp on his
Nigerian passport. Now, why did someone like that get put in detention
for over a year without his trial moving an inch? Where is Attorney
General Abubakar Malami on this issue? Isn’t the APC government the
government of “Change” the one that promised an overhaul of the
judiciary?
So, why send the army to harass Nnamdi Kanu? Could it be that our
soldiers don’t have much to do anymore? Is Boko Haram now completely
crushed? Have we traversed the entire Sambisa forest and mapped out
every inch of it? If not, shouldn’t those soldiers riding around in
Umuahia be deployed to Maiduguri?
Who does not know that the Nigerian Army is by far the superior bet
in a showdown with IPOB and Biafra? It has to be the suicidal goons
following Kanu around. And I think there is something in the water or
food they are consuming over there that makes them think they can stand
toe-to-toe with the Nigerian Army. I saw some of them on video armed
with cutlasses, machetes and bottles, throwing stones at the military
convoy. I heard warning shots being fired by the soldiers and saw the
idiots still moving in the direction of fire. If you look in the
dictionary for the definition of stupidity, it would be illustrated with
the picture of a mob armed with sticks, cutlasses and bottles attacking
a military element protected with body armor and armed with
semi-automatic weapons, fully-automatic weapons and grenade launchers.
Don’t come crying to me when you are blown to smithereens.
I have never been a fan of armed soldiers dressed in combat
uniforms dealing with civilians in town. I have so much respect for the
military that any misuse of them, any scorn and derision thrown their
way makes my blood boil. Even the “ineffectual buffoon” and “bloody
civilian” had enough sense to declare a state of emergency in the
northeast before sending soldiers there. I expect our sage and former
general to know better…unless his sentience is in question.
***
Abiodun Ladepo writes from Ibadan, Nigeria. You can reach him at oluyole2@yahoo.com.
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