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Babatunde Adenodi
Pharmacist
East Orange,
New Jersey
 USA

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Having handed over twice to a northerner, first in 1979 and for the second time in 2007, it is impossible; not that they would not try to do otherwise,  to hand over to a northerner at the end of his second term in office. If this be the case, do we expect the next president after Yar’Adua to reverse everything he did?  Will this always be the way to handle a matter of this magnitude? Is there any hope that a president will act in the best interest of the nation as regards federal character  just like Obasanjo did during his tenure? Has Yar’Adua’s high education had any impact in his government? Only time will tell!

 

Northernizing the Nigerian military… yet again
 by Tunde Adenodi.
 

By selecting what he thought was an urbane intellectual from deep north*, also known as the Sharia States or “Gideon Orkar excised states” (my own coinage), former President Olusegun Obasanjo had hoped that his work of 8 years might not necessarily be overturned. The good that he did; that is! He was dead wrong. What he did that he thought was good was not necessarily good to the north, specifically to the Hausa/Fulani people of the deep north. He had painstakingly dismantled their forty years of unearned privilege unfairly bestowed on them by successive Heads of State of northern stock from Tafawa Balewa to Abdulsalami Abubakar. And this hurts very badly!

This group in the north had come to believe, like the royal family of Saudi Arabia that Nigeria belonged to them and whatever their whims and caprices made them do to us or on our behalf was ordered from above! And true Muslims do not question their lot. It is ordained from heaven! Consequently, they are often shocked that the rest of the country is so fastidious in their demand for more than the crumbs from under their dinner table. “Wetin dis Yoroba feofle want sep? We annulled Abiola’s election and give dem Shonekan. E no do! Wetin dey want?”- General Sani Abacha was overheard saying to his subordinates. Now, for “Yoroba”, substitute the words “Delta feofle”; then you will get the picture as it concerns the contemporary issues of the day.

So, Obasanjo was dead wrong in hoping that Yar’Adua would be different in his approach to dealing with Nigerians who are not his kinsmen. He was wrong to believe that high education would make him see issues in less narrow perspective than most others from this geopolitical zone. He was wrong to believe that anyone like Yar’Adua, born in privilege whose father was a Minister of Lagos Affairs in those early years, would not be so sectional in his approach to issues.

The process began in earnest in 1966 when the first coup by Nzeogwu wiped out the corp of northern and western leaders from the national scene. Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, Okotie-Eboh, Maimalari, Ademulegun, Akintola and many others were slain. The jubilation of Nigerians especially the Igbo to these events (Nzeogwu was Igbo) and the caricature of Bello under the jackboot of Nzeogwu in the papers was one insult too many for the northern political machine especially the Hausa/Fulani. Nnamdi Azikiwe was conveniently out of the country. They decided to secede. But the British prevailed on them. Then they decided to never compete on the Nigeria’s political mine-field in a free and fair manner. And they would achieve this through massive manipulation of the military skewing everything in favor of the north.

They enrolled their young in the rank and file of the Army, Navy and Air Force and even in the Police Force and used the cover of the civil war to place their men in strategic commands in the military. Meanwhile, the Igbo had been removed from contention and the Yoruba had to be content in playing second or third fiddle, in some cases, to their subordinates. They got the command of the customs and immigration and the chairmanship of major parastatals.  By the time General Abdulsalami Abubakar came along, they had completed the northernization of the country. And along with northernization also came Islamization.  Even the new federal capital was not left out. Buildings were constructed with Islamic architecture as the model.

Babangida did not have to consult the Armed Forces Ruling Council to dissolve the AFRC or to pull the nation into the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). In fact, at a particular period, the business of the AFRC was said to be conducted in Hausa. Ebitu Ukiwe, his General Staff Chief was removed for daring to suggest that Nigeria’s entry into that body was never discussed in any meeting he was part of. Northernization was complete and islamization had begun.  The Nigerian Army had become the Northern Nigerian Army.  Same goes for the Navy, Air Force and all the uniformed forces.  Babangida disrobed Aikhomu and called him Vice President while he held firmly to his own uniform. In other words, they, the northern officers did anything they liked with the country with impunity. Their word was law!

Buhari, against the normal practice, chose Idiagbon, a Muslim northerner as his deputy. The Head of State, his deputy, 80 percent of the AFRC membership, General Officers Commanding of the three divisions of the Army, FOC West, and FOC East of the Navy, all consequential postings in the Air Force were all manned by men of northern origin. By the time they annulled Abiola’a election, Nigerians had been fed-up by the brigandage of the ruling elite in the military and their civilian collaborators. And they had no choice other than to invite, yet again, their puppet, General   Olusegun Obasanjo to clean up after them.

I had to provide this historical perspective of the successive northern rulers’ actions in order for readers to put into proper context contemporary events. I believe that I owe my readers this much.

Why are we on this subject? Is the current president addressing the issue in a fair and equitable manner?  I will answer this question by referring readers to my article on this subject titled, “Yar’Adua’s Presidency: the nature of things to come” in the NigerianNews.com.  In one of the  first series of appointments, he had appointed 10 people into his national security outfit. Out of the 10, seven were from the north and 3 from the south.  Out of the 3 from the south, no one was appointed from the geopolitical west. This had prompted me to write that article.

In the last 3 weeks, 20 officers of the Nigerian Air Force were retired.  Ten, may be eleven were from the geopolitical west, 3 or 4  from the east and only one or 2 of the names appear to be of northern origin. It is expected that this trend will continue until all the non-northerners are flushed out living only a sprinkling of southern personnel who cannot threaten the status quo! It is expected, if this trend is followed, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, that this war of attrition will continue unabated until we are back where Obasanjo picked up in 1999.

Having handed over twice to a northerner, first in 1979 and for the second time in 2007, it is impossible; not that they would not try to do otherwise,  to hand over to a northerner at the end of his second term in office. If this be the case, do we expect the next president after Yar’Adua to reverse everything he did?  Will this always be the way to handle a matter of this magnitude? Is there any hope that a president will act in the best interest of the nation as regards federal character  just like Obasanjo did during his tenure? Has Yar’Adua’s high education had any impact in his government? Only time will tell!


 

 

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