On Thursday, 4th, February, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari stunned most Nigerians. He nominated his immediate past Service Chiefs as non- career Ambassadors. Mr President had removed them a few days earlier, appointed their replacements, on the grounds that he needed fresh hands with fresh ideas, to fight the worsening insecurity in the country.
Ordinarily, what the President did was his simple constitutional duty. But these appointments are neither simple nor ordinary. Most Nigerians are agreed that as far as controversial appointments go, the President has broken his own record in the instant case.. Uproar and Outrage, at once, reign.
You already know the beneficiaries from this stunning appointments. But for the purpose of this write-up, a short brief is necessary.
So, stand up for the President’s ambassadorial handshake, General Abayomi Olonisakin, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, the immediate past Chief of Army Staff; Vice Admiral Ibok -Ete Ibas, the immediate past Chief of Naval Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar, the immediate past Chief of the Air Staff and, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Usman, of the Military Intelligence. All, now, retired Military officers.
The guys are lucky. In the history of Nigeria, they take the cake as the longest serving Service Chiefs. Appointed by President Buhari soon after he was sworn into office in 2015, he allowed them to serve, and serve and serve.
Years after they ought to have retired from service, Mr President kept extending their tenures in office. He turned a deaf ear to all entreaties to let them go. Almost every stakeholder asked the President to remove them from office.
The reason was glaring.
The state of insecurity was worsening everyday. But the President thought otherwise. He did not only ignore entreaties from “ordinary people”, and some retired military officers, but he also ignored the National Assembly.
On about three occasions, the National Assembly – both the Senate and the House of Representatives, had asked Mr President to remove them from office. He played deaf.They passed a resolution to that effect. Mr President did not as much as acknowledged the resolution.
Presidential aides defended what one angry Cleric, I forget his name now, described as “the President’s abnormal stubbornness.” But Aides said nobody could stampede the President into changing his Service Chiefs. They said they were serving at the pleasure of the President. But of course.
Public officers in Nigeria serve at their own pleasure, or that of their bosses. They never serve at the pleasure of the public, or the good of the country.
Mr President’s Aides reminded us that nobody changes a winning team. Nigerians disagreed on the use of the word, “winning.” Their assessment was depressingly different. They said insecurity is worse than ever. It spread from the North to the South, no longer restricted to a particular zone. Nigeria became one of the world’s most dangerous countries to live in, or visit.
The activities of Boko Haram increased. The number of Internally Displaced People, IDP, tripled. Boko Haram got younger brothers to help in the blood letting. Bandits. Rogue Fulani herdsmen. Kidnappers. Cultists. All baying for our blood. All slaughtering innocent Nigerians.
Our gallant military officers and men, and other security personnel, were being killed and, atimes, over-ran and overwhelmed. Nigeria became one huge slaughter field under the watch of the Ex- Service Chiefs.
But the Presidency said we had a winning team.
We are better off than when the Buhari Government arrived, they sang everyday. They cite two examples.
“There was a time bombs were going off in Abuja”. No longer, they told us. “When we came in, Boko Haram was in control of 18 Local Government Areas in Borno State.” True?
Of all the claims of successes, that of Borno is the most confounding.
Here is why.
Elections were held in the State during the 2015 General elections. From records, the All Progressives Congress, APC, won in all the LGAs. Meaning that elections were held in all the LGAs.
Questions then: If Boko Haram was in charge of 18 LGAs, how did APC win in all the LGAs in Borno State? Who conducted the Elections? How did the then Prof Attahiru Jega’s INEC, do it? Did Boko Haram conduct the elections on INEC’s behalf, and submitted the results, thereafter? Or did some people sit down somewhere, as we see now and then, to fabricate the results and submitted to INEC?
Truth, however, till date, is: Borno state has never been free of Boko Haram since the Buhari Government. The claim, everytime, by the immediate past Army Chief, Buratai, and some elements in Government that Boko Haram has been cleared, or to use their word, decimated, in the state, and all that area, is false. The claim that no LGA in the state is occupied by the insurgents is false. A number of LGAs in the State are under the sect.
Recently, the Speaker of the Borno Stare House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, put a lie to that claim. He said his LGA is fully occupied by Boko Haram. He has not been able to go home in the past two years, he revealed.
He is not the only one.
Many Borno indigenes have not been able to go home in years. And it is not only Bornu. Yobe, Adamawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, and even President Buhari’s Katsina State, have not fared any better either. There are, also, Benue and Taraba states. And, this insecurity is spreading from State to State. From region to region.
From North to South. Nowhere is safe.
Insecurity, especially terrorism, is not a thing to celebrate. Or to throw blames around. It is just that before the Buhari administration, the then opposition party, APC, made it look as if it will be as easy as ABC to wipe terrorism off Nigeria once they came in. It was made to look like “Once we come in, it is over.” But like they say, talk is cheap. They have been in power since 2015, and the story is worse.
It is because the security situation was worse than ever that most Nigerians kept asking the President to change his Service Chiefs. It got so bad it became the subject of sermons in Mosques and Churches. But the President ignored the calls, and resisted every pressure to do that.
Obviously, the President was seeing something most Nigerians were not seeing. He was seeing something, not even the Leadership of the National Assembly and other members were not seeing. Which is not impossible. As the President and Commander-in-Chief, he is in a position to get privileged security briefings not available to others.
Which must be why he ignored the negative perception the public had of his immediate past Service Chiefs.
Where the people saw incompetence, Buhari saw competence. Where they saw inefficiency, he saw efficiency. Where they saw tiredness, he saw the strength of an angry lion. Where Nigerians scored their performances an “F”, the Commander-in-Chief scored them an “A.”
No doubt, the immediate past Service Chiefs did their best. But their best was not enough, given the scary insecurity situation in the country which has, gradually, but steadily, produced warlords in the country. It has forced different ethnic regions in the country to form their own security outfits. They go by all kinds of names, and have different designations.
In the South-west, there is the red-attired Amotekun. And of course, there is the newest rave, quickly dubbed freedom fighter, Sunday Igboho.
In most parts of the North, there is the CJTF. In Kano state, there is the Government-backed Shariah Police, Hisbah, an outfit, which has garnered such powers, that a couple of days ago, its members arrested a police officer, for daring to drink alcohol. See!
Aside from this illegal arrest, both the Federal and Kano state Governments turn a blind eye to the destruction of people’s businesses worth hundreds of millions of Naira, because “they are selling alcohol.” Yet, the Kano State Government, shamelessly, partakes in the sharing of VAT derivable from alcoholic products.
In the South-South, individual states have set up different Security outfits. Delta state launched its own recently, and so has Cross River State.
And, in the South-east, after waiting, on end, for the Governors to do something about the worsening insecurity in the region, particularly, the atrocities by rogue herdsmen, Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB took the initiative to set-up its own Security outfit, the black-uniformed Eastern Security Network, ESN.
For good measure, Kanu warned the Governors that IPOB would not allow any other security outfit set up by them to operate anywhere in the region.
This is total madness. There is total confusion in the land. If anybody was in doubt of how explosive these outfits and individuals have become, what went on in Oyo and Ogun States where Sunday Igboho held sway for days, or where Amotekun had killed a couple of people, including a policeman, or the mayhem in Orlu, Imo State, where the ESN squared-off with Soldiers and Policemen, should give an inkling to what the future holds.
In deed, the President, himself had, at least, on one occasion told the ex- Military Chiefs that their best was not enough.
The question, not a few people are asking, is:
On which basis then did the President nominate the Ex-Service Chiefs as Nigeria’s Ambassadors?
That is what the uproar is about.
For the records, the President has the right to appoint anybody he pleases to any office of his choice. His aides have so emphasised. But what is that saying about the voice of the people being the voice of God?
In the opinion of the people, these appointments do not gell. They see them as inappropriate. They see them as hasty. They see them as insensitive. They see them, according to the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, as rewards for poor performance.
The most provocative, many point out, are the nominations of Olonisakin and Buratai, the Chiefs of Defence Staff and Army, respectively.
The Army, under them, has been accused of many human rights abuses. Many petitions have been written to the effect, especially, since the sad, and yet to be resolved, incident at the Lekki Toll Gate during the #EndSARS protest by angry youths. The role, allegedly played by soldiers under Buratai is still being looked into by a Panel set up by the Government.
There are documented petitions against Buratai lodged with the International Criminal Court, ICC. Fatou Bensouda, ICC Prosecutor, has since acknowledged it, and said “Buratai is under investigation.”
So, the question: what was the hurry in nominating them Ambassadors? They have just retired, Having worked so hard, they have not even had the time to rest and bond again with their wives and children, land they are being saddled with another responsibility, as if Nigeria is barren of qualified men and women.
It is the haste associated with their nominations that Nigerians find uncomfortable and obscene. It is why Dr Junaid Mohammed has described the nominations as an insult on Nigerians.
Others rightly say it is an affront on the National Assembly, especially, the Senate, which had noted they were incapable of securing Nigeria and, on more than one occasion asked for their sack.
It is why not a few people think something is fishy, and meant to cover-up something. It is why a few Nigerians think that appointing them Ambassadors is meant to confer on them diplomatic immunity from any arrest and prosecution by the ICC, if any merit is found in the petitions before the body.
However, all hope is not lost.
Having sent their names to the Senate for “urgent confirmation”, all eyes are now focused on the Senate.
Will the Senate confirm men they had dismissed as tired and incapable of securing the country as Ambassadors.? Will they confirm, as Ambassadors, men they had asked the President to sack as Service Chiefs? If they were not able here, how able will they be outside the country? Will the Senate go back to its vomit. Will the Senators shun partisanship, and focus on Nigeria’s pride and integrity? Or, will Mr President have a rethink, and withdraw their names from the Senate as has been suggested in some quarters?
The chorus out there is: That will be the day. As you know, the Nigerian big man and woman hardly accept mistakes. They carry on without a second thought!
*Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com. Email: comfortobisource@gmail.com, comfort@thesourceng.com
