you shouldn’t be too surprised that there are probably disgruntled retired military officers all over the country, from the North and South, Christian or Muslim, or any of the socio-economic classes of Nigeria.
An accidental encounter with a former Nigerian civil war hero, who yielded his command of the amphibious division of the Nigeria Army to another officer, who later became military Head of State and two-term President of Nigeria, revealed deep frustration with the Nigerian system.
This war hero, demobilised on the grounds of a misdemeanour, never regained his groove and dignity. He died poor, in utter penury, probably depressed and a shadow of his military decorations.
There are many retired military officers in this funk. Having descended from their previous heights of power and privileges, they have become humbled, and even fearful, like their equally disenfranchised civilian compatriots.
Their only restraint from behaving like America’s deranged Vietnam War veterans, like “Rambo,” the unhinged war hero played by Actor Sylvester Stallon in the eponymous movie, is the ethos of patriotism drilled into them in military school.
Many of the retired military officers, well most of them, have been “zoned out” of reckoning in the current political dispensation still largely run by Nigeria’s equivalent of a military industrial complex.
They have been outed from nearly all forms of sinecures and patronages, and enjoy no more than their meagre pensions and the symbolic access and privileges of the officers’ mess in the barracks.
A few others, still with access to their colleagues in the corridors of power at the state and federal levels, occasionally get appointed unto government boards or are awarded some consultancies or even contracts.
These days, the worry of most men who used to wear the uniform on behalf of Nigeria is that the military seems to lack the professionalism and bite of old. That may have led to the recent consultations with retired military officers by Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Lucky Irabor.
The most recent affront to Nigeria’s military establishment is the daring raid on the grounds of the prestigious Nigerian Defence Academy, the country’s equivalent of America’s elite West Point military academy.
Somehow, the security of the academy was breached by some terrorists, that some think are probably Boko Haram or Islamic State of West Africa Province insurgents, leaving two officers dead. The cheek of it is that the renegades are asking for N200 million ransom for the officer kidnapped!
In recent years, Boko Haram insurgents attacked military installations, to steal ammos and other military materiel, raid the food stores and kill officers of the army. Flight Lieutenant Abayomi Dairo was forced to bail out of his aircraft when it was shut down by bandits that some suggest are probably insurgents in disguise. The insult to the military is almost unending.
Navy Commodore Kunle Olawumi (retd.), who is currently Head of Department of Criminology and Security Studies at Chrisland University, is obviously affronted by the invasion of the NDA. He laments, “It’s an aberration. You don’t attack the Nigerian Defence Academy and get away with it.”
Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a retired Brigadier General, and former military administrator, who also served as a democratically elected governor, thinks the attack that “happened at the NDA is a total disgrace… a slap on the face of the military.”
But still serving Major General Benjamin Sawyer, Director of Defence Information, gave an uninspiring “Troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria will continue with its operations to ensure all those involved in the dastardly act are brought to justice.” As if the military could do less.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), a former military Head of State, thought he could boost the morale of the men under arms with his trite, “Attack on NDA won’t dampen the resolve of our military to bring decisive end to criminality.” To which those who know better will say, “Famous first words,” and Warri people would ask, “Na today?”
If you have been paying attention to some retired military officers who have been making appearances on television talk shows, you will read deep frustration with the poor show of the military against insurgents, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and (almost militia) herdsmen who prey on farmers, their families, communities and farm crops.
There is a TV soundbite of former Chief of Army Staff and former Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Theophilous Yakubu Danjuma (retd.), accusing the Nigerian military of complicity in an agenda to subdue and place other Nigerians under some kind of internal colonisation.
Apparently in a deep-seated frustration, Danjuma disclosed, during the maiden convocation of his home state’s Taraba State University, that the Nigerian Armed Forces “are no longer neutral, (and) there is (a) need for Nigerians to rise up and defend the country, defend the state and defend yourselves.”
Then, he warned pointedly, “If you depend on the armed forces to stop the killing (all over the country), you will die one by one. The Nigerian Armed Forces are not neutral.” This is extremely scary and worrisome.
Currently, there are two main battles on the streets of Nigeria: The first, between ideological insurgents and renegade bandits who are taking on the state and society. The other is between members of a trade group, herdsmen, usually of the Fulani stock, against farmers and other ethnic groups.
The government and the military need to engage retired military officers very quickly before some of them take up arms in their personal capacities to defend members of their trade or their ethnic groups.
Col Kunle Togun, (retd), an establishment stalwart, agreed to be Chairman of Oyo State Security Network’s Amotekun, probably an ethnic militia that is just not made in the order of Oodua People’s Congress. Another retired military officer, Col Olabanji Olayinka, is the Commandant.
Imagine if Yoruba separatist, Sunday “Igboho” Adeyemo, was a retired military officer with a professional competence in the use of arms. The story of his protests could have taken a different turn.
Instead of those tame rallies that he held before men of the Department of State Services raided his home at night, you could have witnessed the kind of scenes that Americans experienced in 2020.
Fully armed black militia, made up of veterans, stood up to also armed Proud Boys, a far right, neo-fascist, white supremacist and exclusively male group, many of whom were also veterans, on the streets of Washington DC, after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of Black American George Floyd and killed him.
Failure of government to decisively stem violence of one group against the others is dangerous. Those professionally trained in the use of arms and violence must not be pushed to taking up arms against the state to protect their lives and those of their loved ones.
Government should engage them, as the reserves that they are, to blunt the thrusts of insecurity, and contribute to the efforts of nation building. All military hands, retired or still serving, must be on the deck of peace keeping efforts.
The near fatwa given by Emir Abbas Tafida of Muri against the Bororo or migrant Fulani, who prey on his subjects is enough warning that men trained in the use of arms may wrest the initiative for national security from the government.
