By Owei Lakemfa
The Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike made two errors of judgement in the incident involving the alleged property of Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, a former Chief of Naval Staff. These have given the leeway for military apologists, defenders of impunity, apostles of the law of the jungle and unfortunately, unsuspecting ‘bloody civilians’ to rule the waves.
When Wike was briefed that military personnel guarding a private property were preventing the Ministry’s staff from carrying out their lawful duties, he did not need to go there himself. He should have employed the processes and procedures of the law to compel compliance, especially in dealing with a neo-colonial institution with an history of impunity and a sense of entitlement.
Secondly, he ought not to have been provoked to the point of insulting the young officer at the site whose training may simply be to obey instructions given him by a superior officer whether such order is legal or illegal.
I have read comments of some arguing that Wike ought to have respected the officer’s uniform; is it the Minister’s office that should not have been respected by the soldier? Yes, the uniform of the officer ought to be respected, but so also should the ministerial toga of Wike who is representing the President who, apart from being the Governor of the FCT, is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Above the uniform and the ministerial regalia, the greatest respect should go to the Nigerian citizen who under Section 14(2)a of the Constitution, has sovereignty over all powers in the country.
There have been arguments that we ought to respect the uniformed personnel as our British colonial masters do. True, but will a British General, whether serving, retired or tired, draft soldiers to his private property to prevent state authorities and agents entrance? If like the young officer claimed, the property has legal documents, including of allocation and construction, and state agents had been visiting it, claiming other wise, shouldn’t the Vice Admiral had gone to court rather than resorting to self-help because he has the privilege of controlling armed soldiers? This is simply perpetuating the law of the jungle which the military in 29 years of misrule has planted, nurtured and cultured in the country.
When I read comments of retired Generals and their apologists talking about the officer displaying strict discipline, I laugh because he equally displayed the disdain of the military for the police. At a point, the soldier could be heard being irritated that a policeman was talking with him. He felt angry and insulted that he, a soldier, was talking and a police officer was also talking. He said this, not in a moment of anger. Rather, it is the sexist mentality imbued in many soldiers that the police are mere “women”. This is why it is not uncommon in our streets to find soldiers viciously attacking policemen at the slightest dispute. What we simply have is not just the rule of lawlessness, but might over right.
In the reactions that followed, I also detect fear in government circles, and a deliberate pandering to the military. For instance, the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru, said: “We are looking into this issue, and we assure all that any officer on lawful duty will be highly protected. We will not allow anything to happen to him so long as he is doing his job, and he is doing his job very well.” Given such a statement, what else can Badaru tell the nation he is investigating?
Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, was more open about where he stands. He said: “The Minister should not have confronted him. Lieutenant Yerima was acting on orders. If Wike had any concerns, he should have spoken to his superiors or to me directly since I oversee naval affairs.” He then praised the officer: “You can clearly see that he was respectful while standing his ground. As far as we are concerned, he did not break any law or military regulation”.
I am not surprised about Matawalle’s position, and it is not his fault. The fault lies in a country that appoints as its Minister of Defence, a man who claims: “Not all of them (bandits) are criminals…”. What defence can a man who argues that bandits merely “go for reprisals” against vigilante groups, offer the country? I was shocked when Matawalle was cleared to be Minister, not so much because he had on-going corruption charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. But primarily, that as a teacher who became a governor, Zamfara State students for some years were not allowed to take the West African School Certificate Examination, WAEC, because Matawalle would not pay the examination body.
The haste with which the Ministers threw their fellow Minister under the bus may be a reflection of a division and lack of cohesion in the Federal Executive Council, FEC. It may also be an indication of the immaturity in that body; couldn’t the Ministers have raised this issue at the weekly FEC meeting rather than in public?
In contrast to the display of the Ministers, retired Generals rallied behind the Vice Admiral. A former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai (retd.) pontificated: “A minister’s verbal assault on a military officer in uniform is an act of profound indiscipline that strikes at the very foundation of our national security apparatus. It is not political theatre-it is a reckless endangerment of national order.” He added in a theatrical tone: “This action by Wike is clearly an indication of undermining the Federal Government’s authority. It disrespects the Commander-in-Chief and wounds the morale of every officer who serves under the Nigerian flag.” True? Who soiled the Nigerian flag more? A Wike who admonished a military officer or a Buratai who because of an alleged traffic altercation he had with some Shiite Muslims in Zaria, 347 of them were murdered by soldiers? In a good country, Buratai should have been tried for crimes against humanity. But since he has not been brought to justice either in the country or abroad, he arrogates to himself the right to pontificate.
No, the military, some of whose Generals for decades brutalised Nigerians, enacted retroactive laws under which our fellow citizens were executed, issued decrees which punished Nigerians for speaking or writing the truth and, seasonally, executed their fellow officers for real and imagined coups, have no lessons on patriotism or morality to teach us. Rather, we need to reorientate the soldiers to realise that they are paid and armed to serve the people, they are not superior to other Nigerians, and that the age of impunity must come to an end.
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