Colonel John Ubah (rtd) is former Military Administrator of Kebbi State and Secretary General of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF). He spoke with SAXONE AKHAINE, Northern Bureau Chief, on the corruption that has bedevilled the military institution in Nigeria.

On corruption in the military
Nigerians, whether in the military or not, have been accused of corruption. The immediate past British Prime Minister, David Cameron, described Nigerians as ‘fantastically corrupt’. In fact, in that aspect, I once voiced out when I was doing my post graduate presentation at the Staff College, that was way back in July 1986. I asked whether it was expected of a military man to carry his weapons and start going on border patrols, when people that are not serving better than him in other fields of government, whether in the executive, legislature or judiciary, are busy looting.

Even his own welfare is not being cared for. So, the military is part and parcel of the society. The society should not expect to breed a military that is very clean, when the entire system is stinking, unless you want to bring Rawlings of Ghana here in Nigeria. That I think will be very good for us. But unfortunately, the British background we had is against that type of rash interference or intervention in the political arena, like Rawlings handled Ghana when corruption reached its nadir in that country.

The politicians engineer the corruption in the military. It is what some people call political corruption. We have political and bureaucratic corruption. The military is part and parcel of the executive arm of government. And at the top level, they have rules, regulations and procedures. And because due processes are not even followed by the bureaucrats in the ministry, that has rubbed off on the military. I can say that, as Colonel JIP Ubah, who has passed through the system and also managed a state for two years, I think the bureaucrats are our problems. I will tell you what Charles Dickens says about them: whatever was required to be done, because they are in the second locucious office, they are always there with all the public departments in the art of perceiving how not to do it. So, even if the military wants to maintain its integrity, the bureaucracy would get them involved in corrupt practices.

We will still be saying the same thing. I insist that it is the politicians and bureaucrats that corrupted the military. I don’t know what actually happened that the military hierarchy allowed itself to be deceived, as well as the Commander in Chief. Look at it critically; the military said they were going to set up a division to fight Boko Haram in the Northeast. Boko Haram was a very fluid operation, with terrorist tactics; setting up a whole division for that purpose, to do what? But, they deceived the President innocently or because he didn’t have much knowledge of the military, he ploughed so much money to them, in the division. They didn’t even have the machinery to monitor how the money was used.

On way forward
Alright, the way forward for Nigeria. From the top, the constitution has to be followed to the letter, as applicable to all issues. And it should be properly structured, adopted and followed rigidly. And anybody who violates the constitution, irrespective of your position, should be made to face the music, because the constitution, which is the root of our laws and order, is not even respected. Even traffic regulation has collapsed. Everything that has to do with law and order has collapsed. By the time Obasanjo took over, they should have called on all the military administrators to account for their tenure and even retire them, may be those who served from 1985 and so on, but instead of doing that, they got a powerful committee to go round to see who did what and how. In fact, they should have made people to answer for their stewardship individually; I am sure if they had done this, then corruption should not have escalated to this level in the military. But they just got everybody, and those who didn’t commit any offence were dealt with. It was injustice of the highest order. Injustice breeds corruption and then too, corruption also fights back.

On Ghana’s experience
Not today, because the time has passed. Nigeria has grown too much. There are too many nationalities that form one Nigeria. At a time when the country was a bit smaller, if we had somebody with military character things would not have degenerated to this stage. But, again if I would take you back to Britain, in 1871, on

February 27, Benjamin Disraeli, standing in the House of Common, told them what exactly Nigeria is in now. We have legalised confiscation and consecrated sacrilege. And also condoned high treason. So, I think Nigeria is at that stage confiscation and consecrated sacrilege. Things that are meant for the benefit of the public are converted to personal use. And there is nothing anybody is doing about it, because the law is not working. The judiciary puts the unnecessary injunction to stop people from being punished. Then about sacrilege, I can’t remember anything as more bloodletting that has happened in Nigeria since 2009. Even the civil war was not like this, then it was like a just war to keep Nigeria one. But today, the level of sacrilege committed here in this country, God Himself may regret creating a Nigeria and Nigerians.