Umar: It’s prerogative of the military to purge self
Captain Aliyu Umar (rtd.) is a retired army officer and consultant on security matters. In this interview with KAMAL TAYO OROPO, the former military intelligence officer said compulsory retirement in the military is not unusual.
What do you make of the recent compulsory retirements in the military?
First and foremost, the army is, somewhat, like an institution of learning, where students graduate or seek admission every year. That is to say, it recruits and retires soldiers yearly.
Now, to the retirement issue, those officers were found to have been involved in one way or the other in the wanton death of soldiers in Borno State. They were allegedly either used or partook directly in the sharing and distribution of monies meant for the welfare and equipment of troops; even up to pocketing monies meant for feeding and medication. This is not surprising, because at the very helm of affairs, there are allegations that the service chiefs were also stealing.
This has led to unnecessary deaths; wives turned to widows overnight and families suddenly left bereaved. This is not counting the losses in individual property and materials, as well as, resource loss to the nation and the states involved.
Luckily we are in a democracy; hence, the concerned officers have the right to contest their retirement. In a democracy, the Service Chief can also invoke the tenets of martial law and have them tried as such, but that’s not the case here, and I wonder why. Recall that one Major (Suleiman Alabi) Akubo was jailed for life. He was found guilty of selling weapons to militants in the Niger Delta.
Now, if that officer got life sentence for killing no one, but selling guns, what do we make of those who sent troops to death, by cornering funds and even trying those who refused to be ordered to fight without weapons? A retirement is a magnanimous offer and it even gets better; if anyone feels they have been wronged, they should, with all due respect and sincerity, head for the court.
But beyond possible ethical culpability in some unethical attitudes you pointed out, some have alleged certain biases, on politics, ethnicity or religion, into the purge
We must tell ourselves the home truth –– religion and ethnicity have no place in this instance. Crime has no religion or ethnicity; crime is crime. If you count Nigerians today, one ethnic group will surely have more people. One religion will also have more adherents; they can’t be equal on all fronts. Women, men, children are all variables that inform our essence as a nation and they cannot be equal in numbers. One must outnumber the other; anyhow you look at it.
We should be careful in our unfortunate propensity to jettison superior and issue-based argument for petty reasoning and shenanigans, which we cloak in religious and ethnic robes. We have been at this dirty habit since independence and it has led us to nowhere. The world is no longer about ethnic group, language, hamlet or religion. It’s about superior proactive synergy of minds and heads. No one can think from his or her Village Square or corner and get far these days. Not anymore.
We must begin to recognise and see ethnic and religious jingoists for whom they are. They only know what sets us apart. They never preach what we have in common. The Army is one of the few things that still bind us together, but these local champions and ethnic-religious low minds can’t get their ideas to work therein. As an ex soldier, I can confidently tell you that Africa will pass away before the Nigerian Army balks on ethnic or religion sentiments. It takes being in the army to understand my take here.
Are you also dismissing the charge that politics may have played a part in the retirement, against the background of the role they purportedly played during the Ekiti election?
If I may ask, what roles have soldiers in politics? I’m sorry, but this type of insinuation is a no brainer. Why would Generals allow persons with only probably four years of governance rubbish them or get their careers hindered?
Putting it in another way, the General who cannot remain professional, but would rather hang around politicians and run their dirty errands using his training and command as leveraging is a hybrid compost. His body is military, but his soul is politics. His hunger for affluence and power binds him to rogue politicians. And to balance it, you could also consider the politician who would use his office to engineer undue advantage, by using willing police and military officers, as a rogue politician and profiteer. Such a politician is not in politics to build and lead, but to destroy and steal. That the retirement is political still begs the issue at hand. In any case, when, where and how did politics and the army begin to meet, sleep and blend.
Some of the soldiers so relieved of their jobs are those who served in previous administrations, for example the Aide De Corps (ADCs) to both former Presidents Yar’Adua and Jonathan. How do you react to allegation of witch-hunt in this regard?
Simply happenstance. A witch hunt is just what it is; a witch hunt. The hunted can genuinely prove they are being witch hunted and even gain some popularity there from. But in our situation, we seem to be saying that witch hunting makes it right for them to have tampered with public funds ab initio. Wherever there is a witch hunt, there must be witches so to say. If they have no culpabilities it is an opportunity to expose the government of the day for whom they are; i.e. witch hunters.
All said and done, but does that obviate the facts of the matter that officers who accessed the corridors of power as ADC or staff officers to public office holders were converted to conduits for stealing money? Does being ADC or CSO to any office holder grant one, life immunity from being called upon anytime to clear doubts where there are?
Sadly, we seem to be somewhere between gullible and easily impressionable when it comes to matters of politics, religion and ethnicity. But that should not always be exploited to stand reason and simple logical thinking on its head.
Against the backdrop of the yet-to-be concluded war on Boko Haram and the resurgent Niger Delta militancy, don’t you think the military might be undercutting itself with this purge?
Probably yes. Probably not. It all depends on the method we adopt in solving the debacles, as they were. Ours is a country, the law enforcement and security agencies of which are still alienated to the subtleties of current security and intelligence trends. Suffice it to say we are still struggling with these challenges because we are still very much stereotypical and laid back. We need to engage more in non-stereotypical approach to problem solving.
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1 Comments
Captain Umar isn’t a pepper soup Nigerian Army officer. Retired or not! Anecdotally, most military officers are pepper soup officers.
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