Political Terrorism In Nigeria Came With Democracy, Says Military Veteran

By Frank Oshanugor

A former personnel of the Nigerian Army and currently a security consultant, Dr. Roy Okhidievbie has attributed the lingering insurgency in parts of the country to what he described as “political terrorism” brought in by the political class at the exit of the military from governance in 1999.

Speaking as a guest on Nigeria Info FM Radio programme ‘MORNING CROSSFIRE’ with the theme “Nigeria’s Struggle to end Terrorism” on Monday, Okhidievbie who is the Chief Executive Officer of AugustEye Security Company and other businesses noted that the political class from the outset created room for what is currently playing out in the country.

According to him, “when our political big wigs were coming into democracy after taking over from the military, one of the things they were supposed to have done was to interface our political environment with intellectual capacity, presenting good books, intelligence and things they could do to serve people of Nigeria, committing themselves to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and deliver dividends of good governance to the people. Those things ought to be priority.

“When the military left, those who took over democracy came ostensibly to satisfy themselves. It became an entitlement mentality. We could hear some of them saying I fought the military and some would say, I was locked up for the sake of democracy while others would say I know what I lost many things while fighting for democracy. So they came to pay themselves back and not to serve the people who also stood for them. So what did they need to do? They brought political terrorism into play.

“This political terrorism is now a model which Nigeria has adopted and to use political terrorism, one needs to mix ethnic and religious groups together and the result would be warfare as we now witness everywhere. The political class created this unhealthy situation and invariably positioned themselves as mediators in the crises they had created. They are both in the north and south of the country and people look up to them as god fathers. They are capable of pressing button to ignite violence and people will be fighting and killing themselves all to the benefits of the same political class who on the other hand, are clandestinely sharing the nation’s oil blocks among themselves.”

Commenting on religious disparity in relation to the terrorist activities in the country, the military veteran said. “if you look at the Muslims today, terrorists who would shout Allah Akubar still enter the mosque, kill the Imam and take worshippers away as hostages. If you look at the Christian side, one would see some fake pastors who do rituals to get powers or do some ridiculous things. Within the same Christian circle, there is still quarrel among denominations. They have their own internal crisis. They just need someone who can literarily pour fuel and strike matches to ignite some violence.”

The AugustEye boss explained further that the persisting religious disparity has divided the populace. “Take for example what happens in Kaduna. On one side Christians are living and dominating there and the other side; Muslims are those living there, but all in one state. It is not supposed to be so.”

Speaking further on why terrorism still persists in parts of the country, the military veteran who has been playing active role in Nigerian veterans’ affairs over the years, condemned the culture of unceremoniously retiring well trained military officers particularly in the category of Generals at the whims and caprice of the political class who want to put their favoured officers in positions of authority as Service Chiefs and the likes. He asserted that such premature retirement has done incalculable damage to the spirit of patriotism, troops’ loyalty and commitment for which Nigerian military was known for, in the past.

According to him, once a General is prematurely removed, the loyalty of his troops automatically become misplaced as his successor may not be fully trusted or embraced. In his words, “naturally if a General who has endeared himself to his troops gives order for the troops to move, they would certainly move even if bullets are flying because they understand the Commander’s (General) body language and have connectivity with him. This body language and connectivity are virtues that come with time and cannot easily be transferred from a Commander in a handover note to his successor. The lesson therefore, is for the political class not to meddle with the appointments of military officers in a manner that weakens or breaches the loyalty within the system. “Appointments of service chiefs or other senior categories should follow laid down procedure that recognizes seniority, excellence and other criteria that do not whittle down espirit de corp”, he advised.

He pointed out that one of the weaknesses in the system is the non-recognition of the fact that every commander normally develops his intelligence community where there are people who can reliably give him relevant information. According to him, among such people are police, Department of State Service and other stakeholders with access to relevant information. He is also worried that loyalty from Commanders to their troops has been thrown to the winds in the military due to unceremonious replacement of commanders with those who are more or less strangers to the troops.

The AugustEye boss being a former soldier, also took a swipe at his military constituency blaming certain elements in the military as problems of the armed forces. Giving example to buttress his argument, he said “recently, we generated a document for the creation of the Veterans Federation of Nigeria because the Nigeria Legion has been polarized and misdirected away from the welfare of members. We had three days retreat with another three days to consummate the document in the time of General Abayomi Olonisakin as the Chief of Defense Staff. Now, the document is at the Ministry of Defense but certain persons from our own military constituency went there to bastardise the document, imputing clauses that would strangulate the freedom of speech and freedom of operations of the Veterans Federation of Nigeria.

“That is what we are kicking against right now. However, the current government has promised to look into the document and extract all those constricting clauses. So the military itself through the imputation of manipulative tendencies by the political class who are in power have been constrained against itself.”

The attempt by the Federal Government to engage foreign army of one country or the other in curbing insecurity in Nigeria like terrorism looks laudable to some Nigerians but the military veteran cannot be convinced of achieving any success through such attempt. Hear him: “I am just holding myself not to laugh because I do not want to make this a joke. Let us explain it this way. If I call a friend to come and help me because someone wants to beat me up and by the time my friend comes , he discovers that I gave my attacker the permission to beat me up. Obviously, there is some level of insincerity on my part. Therefore, may I ask; which country do you think would bring its troops to fight terrorists in Nigeria, a country where the local soldiers are being killed?

“The information we have to show the world that we have terrorists in our midst does not display an incapability position. The information we have which shows that our territorial integrity has been polarized does not really convince certain countries we are discussing with, that we have done all and what we should do. So invariably, those countries would send us weapons, arms, collect our money and just walk away. Let me assure you that most of the arms deal we talk about, there is a lot of cartel and cabal under it. Also the percentage of our hard earned tax payers money that actually go into purchase and procurement is far below what is displayed in the public space. In any military capacity or deployment, there must be something they are negotiating for and with. What is it that Nigeria has, that it wants to negotiate with, he asked rhetorically.