13th January, 2011
The Nigerian military has been relatively quiet for a while and different reasons have been given why it steers clear of the country’s politcal affairs, despite the hiccups.
A school of thought has it that their welfare has been greatly enhanced under the present political dispensation, while another feels they are only waiting for a good time to strike and seize power from the civilians, yet another believes that the world has finally risen to conquer any uprising that may arise from the military, thereby restricting them to the barracks where they belong.
Regardless of the reason for their non-interference in running the government in Nigeria, I still give so much kudos to this group of dedicated and contended Nigerians. Power we all know is intoxicating and everyone that has ever tasted it never wishes to relinquish it.
We can draw references from the western world. The story of Tony Blair (Britain’s former Prime Minister) after his third term still wanted to carry on. Another good example is that of the ex-first lady of America (Hillary Clinton), after eight years as the wife of the president came around to run for president. It is the same story in other parts of the globe, not forgetting our own “stepping aside†Ibrahim Babaginda. The list is endless and we can only manage to mention a few.
The silence of the Nigerian military should really be commended, this has paid off in the attainment of professionalism. The Nigerian military more than ever before has been able to focus on its primary duty of protecting the territory of Nigeria while also ensuring that peace is maintained internally especially in volatile areas like Niger Delta.
Shall we then say that the present military is more mature than the military of three decades ago? or the present military is more focused and will not want any form of distraction by interfering with the running of the government.
We can go on praising the military for as long as we wish, but that does not mean they do not have among them a few bad eggs. The issue of military brutality is a thing that cannot be easily forgotten. The involvement of military officers in the democratic process in Nigeria has also exposed some of these bad eggs. An example is the annulment of an election adjudged to be the freest and fairest of elections held in Nigeria to date by the then military President Ibrahim Babangida.
In a similar vein is the holding on to power in Osun State for three and a half years by a retired military officer Colonel Olagunsoye Oyinlola only to be discovered that his victory in the April 2007 governorship election was fraudulent.
Another example is the common story of the 26 Motorized Battalion Commander, Colonel Abiodun Diya-Aizebere, the intelligence soldier who has been on exile for about two years and was recently spotted somewhere in Europe. The officer is said to be vast in knowledge and has worked with counter-intelligence agencies both home and abroad. As a result of his alleged complicity in so many intelligence issues locally and internationally which led to his face-off with the Nigerian intelligence authorities, he escaped to Europe. But the military intelligence is on his trail to bring him back to the country for interrogation and a very high possibility of prosecution.
Examples of such bad eggs abound, but we are not to lose sight of the good ones among them. The military, we may say, comprise the good the bad and the ugly comparatively. With the current trend one can easily say that the military is more positioned and focused to carry out their primary duties than the military of three decades ago.
— Kunle Silva
