Some Nigerians are at it again. They have started doing what they are good at, forgetting too soon how we got to where we are.
Oguwike
Nwachuku
Fourteen years after the country returned to democratic rule in 1999, after being under the grip of military dictatorship for several years, some have started making comments that suggest that military regime is a better option.
Those conversant with our political history cannot be in a hurry to do what these funny characters with short memory are doing.
Since last week, insinuations as to whether the military should return to our political scene have been heavy. Reports of fifth columnists wetting the ground for the army to wade into governance once more are everywhere.
They are creating the platform, though negative, for the military to think that the democratic experience has not fared well and should be dislodged.
Only those who are not informed about the political history of Nigeria can argue the fact that the enormity of the problems facing the country arose from the long years the military dug into its political affairs.
A solid argument is that the worst civilian regime is far better than the best military administration.
Nigeria is facing difficult situations that it seems the best thing to do is canvass the return of the army and the suspension of democracy.
Nobody is under any illusion that lives and property are under a serious threat, which calls to question the capacity of those in power to pilot the ship of state. The story is the same at all the levels of government, but do we throw away the baby together with the bath water?
After the havoc Boko Haram wreaked in the Nyanya area of Abuja on April 14 that caused the death of more than 70 people, and the abduction of more than 200 girls from Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, it became glaring that most Nigerians have become tired of democracy.
One of them is Adamawa State Governor, Muritala Nyako, a retired Admiral. He may not have told the military to take over power from President Goodluck Jonathan, but his statement that the president is committing genocide in the North is like asking Northern military officers to rise up and save their helpless brothers and sisters from extermination.
A letter Nyako wrote to Nothern Governors on April 16 accused the Federal Government of carrying out genocide against the people of the North.
The letter said in part: “While every state government is doing everything possible using virtually all its resources to stem the tide of near disaster facing all of us, especially in the North, it is a well-known fact that the present federal administration has now become a government of impunity run by an evil-minded leadership for the advancement of corruption that is apparently enjoying the protection of the federal administration.”
Nyako accused Abuja of using “mass murderers/cut-throats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional defence and security organisations” to carry out the genocide and that the “administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is determined to create strife between Muslims and Christians in the North or between one ethnic group and another.”
More disturbing was the accusation that the federal government is the one organising the killing of citizens and attributing it to Boko Haram.
Nyako wrote: “Cases of mass murders by its bloody minded killers and cut-throats are well known, but it attributes the killings to so-called Boko-Haram.
“Militias backed by the government are responsible for the rampant kidnappings in the North. Over a hundred school girls were abducted from their Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on Monday night.
“These organised kidnappers must have the backing of the federal administration for them to move about freely with abducted children just as those who convey ammunition and explosives from the ports to the safe-houses of so called Boko Haram in the North.”
I wonder why those who used the military to destroy this country should cause bigger problems because they have upgraded their status as politicians.
And think of the audacity with which one Habiba Abubakar expressed her feelings over the killings in Nyanya and the abduction in Chibok?
She said: “Goodluck Jonathan is insane over the 2015 elections that nothing matters to him anymore.
“Goodluck Jonathan is a disaster to Nigeria as a whole; 200 people bombed in Abuja, 200 young children taken in their sleep to an unknown destination and yet this PDP heartless leader could still go out campaigning and even dancing.
“Where are those Nigerian generals and major generals, air vice marshals, rear admirals? Please come out and overthrow this government which has no feelings for its people, which cares less about the common man in Nigeria.
“Please come and overthrow this government which is heartless, they are slowly turning Nigeria in to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia,” she said.
Both Nyako and Abubakar are acting out a script. They should be invited to explain what they mean or else we will all pay the price.
Full emergency rule in troubled states, please
The best thing that can happen to the North East where Abuja slammed emergency rule in May last year is to have the governors step aside.
They are having more challenges now than when the emergency rule was imposed and this has not helped the fight against insurgency.
The allegation by the security authorities that politicians are part of the insecurity problem also makes it imperative to extend the emergency rule without the governors in place.
A full military authority should be put in place in the affected areas to rout the insurgents between now and the next six months when serious electioneering begins . Anything short of that will be counterproductive the second time.
