Our Military has arrived! Ik Muo, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye

Our military has arrived!

Ik Muo, Ph.D, Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye

Our people say that for every bird dancing by the roadside, there must be somebody beating the drums for it somewhere close by. Our military has come a long way; from the days of generals who saw war in the Congo et al, to those who saw the Biafran war, to coup plotters who later became militicians, and now those who involved in several internal operations, including the  boko-haram onslaught and those strange ones in which the pythons danced and crocodiles smiled.  I watch everything, including the military and  I can say without equivocation that based on some recent developments, our military has surely arrived.  They have been effectively performing their primary function of defending  Nigeria and Nigerians from external aggression, deter would be aggressors and preserve our territory, people, culture and national security. But  they have also extended their tentacles and influences, consciously or unconsciously  and here are my ‘witnesses’.

 In December 2018, the Nigerian army suspended the operations of UNICEF in the North-East, accusing the multilateral agency of working for boko haram. After all, the friend of my enemy is my enemy! Onyema Nwachukwu of OLD( Operation Lafiya Dole) pointedly accused UNICEF  abandoning its ‘primary duty of catering for the well-being of children and the vulnerable … and engaging in training selected persons for clandestine activities to continue sabotaging the counter terrorism and counter insurgency efforts of troops through spurious and unconfirmed allegations bothering on alleged violations of human rights by the military’. Later, that same day, the military lifted the suspension, following ‘interventions by well-meaning and concerned Nigerians’

A few days later, the Nigeria army  called for the closure of Amnesty International's operations in the country for trying to destablise the  country with fictitious claims. That was after  AI had reported that at least 3,641 people had died in clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria since 2016, with more than half in 2018, stating that These attacks were well planned and co-ordinated…"Yet, little has been done by the authorities in terms of prevention, arrests and prosecutions, even when information about the suspected perpetrators was available’. There were even some public altercations between the army and  AI on the mater, with the army avowing not to be discouraged and the Amnesty calling on the army to ‘do their job of protecting Nigerians rather than threatening human rights organisations’ The presidency joined the fray when through Shehu Garba it declared that ‘while President Buhari cherishes and encourages the noble ideals on which institutions like AI were founded, the organisation’s operations in Nigeria seem geared towards damaging the morale of the Nigerian military.“It often appears as if the Nigerian government is fighting two wars on terror: against Boko Haram and against Amnesty International…. “There is a credible information that the Nigerian branch of the International Non-governmental Organisation is determined to destabilise the Nigerian nation.”   These two spats with UNICEF and Amnesty were  in December  2018

 Just the other day, the Nigerian army  warned the UK against interfering in Nigerian elections, following the concerns expressed by the British High Commission in Nigeria over the military interference in River state elections, which made it difficult for INEC staff to perform their functions. The Nigerian army, warned  foreign interests  against inference, especially where there is no credible evidence, stating that the statement is totally baseless, untrue and therefore capable of misleading unsuspected members of the public…’   The army  blamed it all on the mischievous activities of some selfish individuals who recruited thugs dressed in military uniform and armed to harass and intimidate their opponents…and snatch ballot boxes and other electoral materials.

Meanwhile,  INEC has officially  bemoaned the activities of the military and some armed gangs  in the Rivers elections, stating that  collation centres were invaded by some soldiers and armed gangs resulting in the intimidation and unlawful arrest of election officials thereby disrupting the collation process.”,  to  demand neutrality and professionalism  from security agencies. The Military has also set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the allegations and counter allegations.

We may well have to interrogate the involvement  of the military in the last elections, especially, in Rivers State but my concern here  is that our military now takes foreign-affairs related  actions and makes foreign-affairs related statements. By suspending the operations of UNICEF, even if for one second and publicly calling for the closure of Amnesty operations and warning Britain against interference in Nigerian affairs, it appears that the military has usurped the roles of the Federal Government and specifically, those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  And since the government does not see anything wrong at that, I believe that our military has indeed arrived!

Other matters: Fake ballot papers, fake soldiers, fake guns and fake armoured vehicles

The voter no longer occupy the centre-piece of elections. They were first harassed by hoodlums who were easily chased away by policemen. Then militias, with Ak-47 et al took over from hoodlums and common thugs. The miltants took over from the militias and the military was sent in to stop the militants. The military came in full swing in 2019; they did not bother with ballots, ballot boxes or small results; they went for the RECs, the highest collation centres and it went from hijack to heists. The problem is that the military now has two versions: the fake and the originals. Owners of the original military would blame the hijack on the fake military and owners of the fake military would blame the original.. in the two-dimensional world of Rivers Politics, everything is two: real and fake. For everything that is real here, we have fakes: fake ballot papers, fake PVCs, fake result sheets, fake INEC officials; even the INEC REC is being dubbed  by the APC as a PDP agent faking as REC…  In Okirika, women laid ambush and when soldiers, real or fake attempted to jump in from the back-yard, the women captured them; in fact, de-robed them… how do fake military dressed in fake uniforms carry fake military rifles and drive fake amoured vehicles and trucks? Even the political parties have original and fakes! In Rivers  lost polity, the elections are about the military, the militants and the militias. Each type reports to some stakeholders and each stakeholder shouts loudly against the one they do not have  but hide the ones they have( Of rivers elections: Military, Militants and militias: Ignatius Chukwu, Business Day, 14/3/19, p33)