COAS Appointment as Missed Opportunity for Unity
Farooq A. Kperogi
Saturday, May 29, 2021
COAS Appointment as Missed Opportunity for Unity
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
The appointment of my namesake, Major General Farouk Yahaya, as Chief of Army Staff to succeed the late Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru who died in a plane crash on May 21 is yet another tone-deaf but entirely predictable mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity at a time it desperately needs to be cared for with deliberate symbolic nourishment.
There is no question that General Yahaya is qualified for the job. His CV shows evidence of immense professional and academic preparedness for the position. But the alternatives to him are just as qualified, so this is never about competence for the job. It’s about symbolism and the politics of representation at a time of heightened national storm and stress.
Many people had hoped that the regime would appoint Major General Benjamin Ahanotu from Anambra State as Attahiru’s successor both to water the perishingly shriveling tree of national unity in the country and to pacify the Southeast whose sense of alienation in the last five years is resurrecting the ghost of Biafra secessionist agitation.
Since Ahanotu is just as professionally and academically prepared as Yahaya is, a lot more would have been gained in symbolic and substantive terms if the regime had chosen to not appoint another Northern Muslim to succeed a northern Muslim who succeeded a previous northern Muslim.
In no previous civilian administration has this ever happened. Former President Shehu Shagari had ethnic and religious diversity in his choice of Chief of Army Staff. He started with Lieutenant General Ipoola Alani Akinrinade, then appointed Lieutenant General Gibson Jalo, and finally Lieutenant General Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi.
Although Obasanjo’s choices of Chief of Army Staff didn’t reflect religious diversity, they reflected regional and ethnic diversity. Goodluck Jonathan also chose only Christians from the South-South and the Southeast, which we condemned, but his security council was more broad-based than Buhari’s is.
Many well-placed northern politicians who are disturbed by the widening intensity of fissiparity in the Nigerian polity told me they intervened to ensure that the regime appointed someone other than a northern Muslim as Chief of Army Staff. One man told me he was part of a group that reached out to Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, to persuade him to advise his boss to appoint Ahanotu—or another qualified southerner—as Chief of Army Staff.
Perhaps, that was where the group erred. Gambari has no powers to influence consequential policy decisions in this regime. A personage who is intimately familiar with the workings of the Presidential Villa told me a few days ago that Gambari was recently caught dozing off in the waiting room of Sabiu “Tunde” Yusuf, the 30-something-year-old cousin of Buhari’s who is also his special assistant.
The man said the fact of Gambari drifting off in Yusuf’s waiting room was indicative of the extended minutes, perhaps hours, that he had been waiting for the young man. But, for me, it emblematizes Gambari’s powerlessness and lack of access to the man he is supposed to be Chief of Staff to.
As dramatic as this revelation was, it wasn’t shocking to me. I have always known that Sabiu “Tunde” Yusuf, whose highest work experience prior to joining his cousin’s government was a phone recharge card seller, is the real successor to Abba Kyari.
In my November 23, 2019 column titled “Government of Buhari’s Family, By His Family, and For His Family,” I described him as “one of the most powerful people in Nigeria today. He determines who sees and who doesn’t see Buhari. Only Mamman Daura and Abba Kyari can overrule him.”
I also pointed out in my May 16, 2020 column titled “Real Reason the Buhari Cabal Picked Gambari as CoS” that Gambari’s linguistic “handicap” in the Hausa language would ensure that he isn’t sufficiently close enough with Buhari to have any meaningful interpersonal relationship with him. That, I said, would whittle away the influence of his office.
A May 25, 2020 exclusive Daily Trust story titled “How Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Gambari facilitated removal of TCN boss” proved me right. “The Special Assistant to the President (President Secretariat), Sabi’u Yusuf, the same day, wrote a letter referenced PRES/65-I/COS/3/750, addressed to the CoS, Prof. Gambari, conveying Buhari’s approval of his earlier memo,” the story said.
So, unlike Abba Kyari who had a direct access to Buhari and whom Buhari said all ministers should meet if they wanted anything from him, Gambari has an intermediary between him and Buhari, and that intermediary is a blood relative of his planted there by Mamman Daura, his Trinity College, Dublin-educated nephew on whom he has always been emotionally and intellectually dependent.
As I pointed out in my May 30, 2020 column titled, “Gambari: Embrace and Alienation of an Outsider on the Inside,” “The real Chief of Staff to Buhari is Sabi’u ‘Tunde’ Yusuf (of course, acting on Mamman Daura’s behalf) while Ibrahim Gambari is only the public face of the office— with some legroom to do the most obvious official requirements of his job.”
I’ve gone to this length to rejig the reader’s memory just to make the case that anyone who wanted to influence the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff should have gone to Mamman Daura who is the real, if unofficial, president of Nigeria. But Daura has a really retrograde and fossilized understanding of Nigeria’s ethnic and religious diversity.
Nonetheless, in case people who can influence Daura are reading this, he should be made self-aware that in moments such as Nigeria is going through now, even little symbolic acts of inclusion go a long way. At the twilight of his life, he has become the luckiest Nigerian alive. He has unofficial presidential powers without winning or rigging an election, staging a coup, or even being appointed. Even for the sake of his grandchildren, he should snap out of his provincial cocoon and save the country from avoidable implosion.
Nigeria’s chance for continued existence going forward will be dependent on intentional symbolic gestures that nurture national cohesion. National cohesion doesn’t magically emerge out of thin air because people who are luxuriating in the decadent orbits of power facilely proclaim Nigeria’s unity to be “settled” and “non-negotiable.” Nation-building is never “settled”; it is always in a state of negotiation and renegotiation.
Unity is not an article of faith to be internalized and accepted unquestioningly. It is consciously sowed, watered, and nourished by acts of kindness to the disadvantaged, by equity and justice to all, by consensus-building, by deliberate healing of the existential wounds that naturally emerge in our interactions as constituents of a common national space, and by acknowledging and working to cover our ethnic, religious, regional, and cultural fissures. The efforts will never be perfect or fool-proof but doing something about a problem is always better than complacency and smug self-satisfaction.
Most progressive Muslim northerners I know are embarrassed to no end by the extreme and unprecedented Arewaization of appointments in this regime. They are embarrassed and worried because the lopsidedness of the appointments invites unearned hate to innocent northerners who don’t materially benefit from them, line the pockets of a privileged few, and alienate our compatriots from the South. That’s not sustainable if we still want a country.
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
Toyin Falola
Farooq:
I have been pondering over the issue of why 35 other Generals may be asked to retire, as I read but without confirmation, as soon as the appointment was announced. National unity is one consideration, but there are other issues, I suspect. How a group in power reads a political space is always critical. Situational politics is quick to disregard other considerations:
What is the agenda?
Is it about “national” control?
How do you establish the grip on power?
Do you want to prevent a coup and look for loyalists?
Who does resource distribution?
Which part of a country do you want to weaken?
What is the core ingredient of “factionalism” at a specific moment?
Who profits from chaos?
TF
From: dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooq...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 4:35 AM
To: dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - COAS Appointment as Missed Opportunity for Unity
Saturday, May 29, 2021
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
The appointment of my namesake, Major General Farouk Yahaya, as Chief of Army Staff to succeed the late Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru who died in a plane crash on May 21 is yet another tone-deaf but entirely predictable mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity at a time it desperately needs to be cared for with deliberate symbolic nourishment.
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2021 11:18 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - COAS Appointment as Missed Opportunity for Unity
Farooq A. Kperogi
Blog: www.farooqkperogi.com
Sent from my phone. Please forgive typos and omissions.
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Cornelius Hamelberg
N.B. If my memory serves me right, in his time Abacha retired 35 Yoruba generals. I read this in the Swedish papers.
Since, sadly, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru was not terminated by retrenchment or retirement his replacement, no doubt also a politically strategic decision is not surprising since it shows more of a continuity than a dramatic break with the past and the present.
However inelegant/ ugly Kperogi’s infelicity of expression “ the perishingly shriveling tree of national unity “ may be, this is the reality:
The first question for the uninitiated is, “Is a coup possible or likely, given the current situation in Nigeria?
The answer is: Not likely! Masterminding and coordinating a coup in Nigeria is not child’s play. Most of the general and the regions have to be on board, That’s why Abacha was in Port Harcourt for Christmas in 1983, to put the finishing touches - a big party was thrown for him at the Officers mess (I can’t remember if he drank or not( but when all the communication lines were cut and the only place I could phone from was Scanastra, I thought there was something fishy going on...
The logic and the logistics of a coup taking place right under the noses of former General Buhari (now democratically elected for the second time as Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari) and his military appointees, so freshly appointed, speak against that possibility. Part of the logic underlines why he would not appoint a possible Biafran secessionist as head of the Nigerian Military at this very sensitive time when things are ostensibly falling apart. Certainly not in order to appease the ethnic separatist instincts of the South-Eastern Igbos who only gave Brother Buhari a meagre 5% of their votes at both the Presidential Elections which he won. Of course, there are another few million Igbos scattered throughout the rest of the Federation and goodness knows what percentage of their votes were devoted to Brother Buhari.
So, it’s not as if he’s going to bribe the Igbos or ensure their change of mind towards him by appointing one of their rank and file to the most sensitive position of Chief of the Nigerian Military. Such a move would have definitely only increased Igbo contempt for Brother Buhari , and if anything , I wouldn’t put it past them ( some of the Igbos) to at least surreptitiously prevail upon their Brother Major General Benjamin Ahanotu from Anambra State to stage a coup/ lead the secession like Ojukwu, or at the very least to increase the venom, the ammunition, the fire-power and the bombs against Boko Haram and any marauding Fulani Herdsmen found loitering or on the brink of encroaching / eating up the yams on any Southern farmlands. Even carpet bomb the Sambisa Forest
That logic also resuscitates the ghosts that still surround that awful Dreyfus Affair
Brother Buhari came to prominence with the New Year’s Eve coup of 1983 - after that heavily rigged Hiroshima Day Election of 6th August 1983. Brother Buhari did not come alone - in fact his partner the now late Tunde Idiagbon was demonstrably the idea-power behind the throne, starting with the much needed WAI (war against indiscipline) - no more dropping in at the office to sign in and then taking off for the rest of the day to go fishing. I saw first hand how the mountains and hills of garbage at Mile One Market were cleared away within the very first week of the Buhari- Idiagbon period, by presidential decree.
What about appointing someone with strong Amotekun connections but without any secessionist tendencies (smile) as overall head of the Nigerian Military?
(To be continued...
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2021 11:44 AM
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: COAS Appointment as Missed Opportunity for Unity
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Farooq A. Kperogi
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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Cornelius Hamelberg
A mere mention / suggestion of Major General Benjamin Ahanotu as Nigeria's military head under Brother Buhari and I think of Operation Python Dance 1 & 2 – how untenable that would be. In the case of Iran, the Shah’s SAVAK got tired of mowing down it’s own people and it was all over for the Shah of Iran from the moment that Imam Khomeini ( r.a.) said that “ The army is the people and the people is the army !”
Comparisons can be odious when made comparing places and situations that are very dissimilar, such as the odious example of how preposterous it would be to suggest that, big and fanciful grammar at a time when the country allegedly “desperately needs to be cared for with deliberate symbolic nourishment...at a time of heightened national storm and stress.” - that in order to appease or reassure Israeli Arabs, Benjamin Netanyahu should appoint someone from the Palestinian Arab ethnic group as head of the IDF, breaking tradition with the long line from Moshe Dayan, through Ehud Barak (modern Israel’s most decorated soldier ever) followed by Persian born Shaul Mofaz, and now we have Aviv Kochavi.
It’s an idea that would be pronounced dead on arrival.
Subject to correction from Wofa Akwasi, one of the strong points of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was that ethnically speaking, he came from a tiny minority tribe – so that for a while there was some kind of ethnic balance and equilibrium in the mix – his cabinet and military etc., without the traditional Ashanti – Ewe rivalry to spoil business , yet see how easily they toppled him and erected a monument to the event, in down-town Accra, known as “National Liberation Circle” which has now been appropriately renamed “Kwame Nkrumah Circle”
There’s every reason to start feeling nervous when John Campbell who has for some time now been making dire predictions about the future of Nigeria and the direction in which the country is heading. There’s even more cause for nervousness after the long Rothberg – Campbell statement entitled “Nigeria Is A failed State” based on the incontrovertible facts on the ground, no mention of the moribund economy , overpopulation and poverty, but a very accurate assessment of the insecurity, the banditry, the Boko Haram terrorism and the ongoing general anarchy that now characterizes the last phase of Brother Buhari’s presidency as sufficient cause for any rapid disintegration, deterioration, even a military coup – in which the leader will righteously announce on Nigerian Radio, CNN and the BBC that they (the military) stepped in as the redeemer, “to save the nation”
In the short view from this distance I’d say that a guaranteed recipe for a hastened disintegration of Nigeria would be a failed coup in which the military was fractured and fragmented regionally, along ethnic lines - which would aid secession of say the East, the West, and the South, from the North….
(to be continued
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Toyin Falola
I wish I had time to answer Ken, as there are many books on the Egyptian military dating back to Sadat. It was a deliberate state policy that created the military dominance in the Egyptian economy.
The Nigerian military took a different tradition since it became bloated with the Civil War—it became more parasitic and not integral to the productive forces. In the 1980s, if you asked a primary school student what he would like to do as an adult, it would be to work for Customs or join the army—both were extremely lucrative. And to reflect the social order, if you ask that same student, if a boy, “what does you dad do at home?” He would say parlour (living room). What does your mom do? “Kitchen”.
Indeed, after 1999, Boko Haram replaced direct participation in government to make money. The greatest justification for large military/security budget has been the insurgency.
In politics, you allow whatever works to fester. Just as senior officers made money from it, bandits are also now profiting by kidnapping school children to collect ransom.
If you approach Nigeria from rational politics, you can reach the conclusion that it is a “failed state”.
If you approach it from state capture and chaos, Nigeria works well, from the politicians to the Pentecostalist leaders who are stinkingly rich.
Saturday, May 29, 2021
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Okey Iheduru
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Once again, I'm in full agreement with the sentiment expressed by Dr. Sikiru Eniola, a man of heart.
Joel Osteen ( the USA’s greatest Pentecostal orator) usually starts with something “funny” to get his flock into a more relaxed mood before launching into the main thesis of his sermon. How I wish that I could do like him, even without a thesis and without a sermon to deliver. The only funny thing that I’ve heard all day is when I went for walk with my Better Half this afternoon and she told me the real meaning of weed / weeds ( not cannabis) that they are powerful to the extent that they crowd out other plants, flowers and take over vast areas...
I have been following the serpentine progress of this thread from my quiet corner over here in Stockholm and praying with the chorus, “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend. The brightest heaven of invention !” Big grammar himself would like to elevate the on-going discussion to an “evolution” before the ascension – the ongoing evolution of the Nigerian higher intelligence/s and other specifically human species characteristics which we are all witnessing as being manifested in this thread. Considering the darkness in which some of us are otherwise living in, if the logic being adopted/advanced by some of the various professors and the premises on which they build continue in a positive direction they might even lead to some kind of denouement and at the end of the day, I might even get enlightened. Like the Buddha. Some light-awakening, after which, never back to sleep. Baba Ram Dass did say or propose that if your therapist is a Buddha then at the end of your therapy you should be enlightened. I’m sure that before he himself gets old, arthritic, demented or decrepit and before I myself metamorphose into vermin or a mere skeleton the one who started this thread will agree with me that in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit some of our politicians are probably in need of all three - the Buddha, the therapy, and the enlightenment.
Youth unemployment, massive, apart from the fact that their heads must be reeling, how is the ordinary man and the ordinary woman in the street feeling about all this ? Latest from BBC, more than a hundred school children kidnapped somewhere in Niger, less than an hour’s drive away from Abuja and all Big Grammar can say is that like a real or “demented” idiot Brother Buhari should do something “symbolic” such as appoint the most qualified Igbo-man as head of the Nigerian Military and then the multi-ethnic nation would begin to heal and security would be a fait accompli. Big Grammar could be right and not all that demented after all, Major General Benjamin Ahanotu from Anambra could make a difference , at least we would have to try him and the rest of the no nonsense Nigerian Military, to see.
From what can be gathered from this thread so far, especially from Lord Agbetuyi’s last epistle, (and some other background info) it’s obvious that after the 1966 Nigerian coup d’état a coup d’état can’t succeed in Nigeria without the express approval and blessings of some of the core Northern oligarchy (nobility, elite money, silent or overt support from their clergy, the religious hierarchy...
So, as far away from enlightenment as possible (my own peculiar logic) I’d like to start with this last thing first: Re- Professor Iheduru to Professor Harrow - “In other places you mentioned like Egypt religion played an over- arching dominant role. The Egyptian top brass in nullifying the representatives of the Muslim brotherhood’s election was playing to the gallery of the West, particularly America whom they knew would support the overthrow of a fundamental Islamist regime.”
I’d just like to add this reasonable conjecture: In doing his best to avoid direct, face to face parley with representatives of the then Israel Government, the Muslim Brotherhood’s President Mahmud Morsi's greatest mistake was in appointing el-Sisi as his representative (ambassador) to the Israelis, to discuss / negotiate Egypt- Israel relations (co-operation?) about what was then transpiring at the Sinai Peninsular. I’m sure that after the Israelis had done with cuddling El-Sisi , he must have been cooing, like a baby boy. The rest, as they say, is history. I conveyed this insight to Hamdi Hassan who pooh-poohed it and can only come up with the question, “ When were you last in Egypt?” Well even to get a correct answer to that question, there are several ways of knowing.
Isn’t the general consensus that the short lived Murtala Muhammaed regime is the cleanest that there has ever been?
It’s also common knowledge that the Nigerian Military has some of the most academically qualified personnel ( doctors, engineers etc.) in the world. But when it comes to appointing a Military Chief - even in the meritocracy that’s supposed to be the order of the day in the military, surely that’s a very politically sensitive position, even in the United States? With such qualified military manpower, I wonder why there are not more men and women with a military background holding other key positions. Cornelius Ignoramus is thinking of e.g. Gabi Ashkenazi who was the head of Israel’s Military and is now Israel’s Foreign Minister
With regard to the monetary and the military in Nigeria, and if Nigeria’s top military brass have large financial holdings like their counterparts in Egypt, in that interview with Stella, Emeka Ojukwu was definitive - that the military takes over for one reason and one reason only “for profit”
The Federal Minister of Transportation for example is a very lucrative position - when Umaru Dikko held that portfolio wasn’t he responsible for purchasing aeroplanes, tanks, boots, military vehicles?
Which reminds me, I have named my ten Nigerian men – Moses Ochonu eleven and would like to add someone who I wish was here: insightful, incisive: Shehu Dikko, number twelve and twelve is the symbolic number for ORGANISATION...
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Lord Agbetuyi,
Some more little tittle-tattle from yours truly.
I’m not trying to be pedantic, but the whole tone of your submissions in this thread is such that it’s difficult to determine whether or not it was a Freudian slip of your pen or a typical typographical error of Your Lordship when you refer to the late head of the Nigerian Military as the “diseased” and not the deceased. The former choice of words would be atypical of you as would be “vermin” as another specimen of the beloved Almighty’s creation. Heaven forbid that you would be so mean-spirited; but then again there’s posterity ever on the horizon, not to mention those who don’t know you, another reason why we have to be careful with the words we use and the unintended mischief of our typographical errors.
Rule of thumb number two: “You shall neither take revenge from nor bear a grudge against the members of your people; you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Vayikra /Leviticus 19: 18) Number three: Speak no devil of the dearly departed. Four: Save the nation from further degeneration.
I had mixed feelings when it was reported that Boko Haram's director of operations Abubakar Shekau had just kicked the bucket/ bitten the dust. But I did not feel “Good Riddance” or “who is going to take his place?” And it was only a day or two later – after that piece of fake news about Shekau’s demise that I imagine that I was as distraught as Dr. Sikuru Eniola, possibly even more so when I first heard the breaking news of Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru’s tragic death. I’m still puzzled why his death was not widely lamented in the Naija media or in this forum. My first thought was that it must have been a planned assassination – like the plane crash of Pakistan’s Zia ul Haq, in his case with some of his top generals and the United States Ambassador on board – all sacrificed to get one man. In case you’re wondering how could a Saro man be distraught about the tragic death of Nigeria’s military head – well, all the world’s a stage etc. and that's how humans apply universal meaning to what’s known as tragedy. BTW, I cried profusely when we first got news that Maxwell Khobe had died of his gunshot wounds - bullets lodged in his stomach. Wailed like a banshee when Anna Lindh was butchered.
Of course, Dr. Eniola can further speak for himself, and so can Presidential Brother Buhari who has not committed any crime or violated any constitution, when, all things considered, including military intelligence that ordinary mortals like his Lordship may not be privy to, Brother Buhari appointed Major-General Faruk Yahaya as his next trusted Chief of Staff. Mighty Congratulations to him. It’s a very challenging job, Brother Buhari’s song should not be “ No one to depend on “: just see what been happening in Mali, recently
Re - all the hoopla about symbolically appeasing what some people believe to be the under-representation of this or that that tribe in some key positions - if only we could be less tribe- conscious and more for the good of the nation-conscious, more grateful that the man deemed to be best man for the job is appointed – even though as you know the President can’t please everybody, no matter who he appoints or disappoints. Trump didn’t with his many hirings and firings, nor can the Swedish Academy in announcing Noble Laureate for Literature, every year. I suppose that there too, in the name of tribalism you and your cronies in this thread would like to introduce a quota system whereby the Prize having been awarded to a Yoruba-man in the person of Brother Soyinka, for balance in the ethnic stew it’s high time that it should be awarded to e.g. Chinua Achebe, the so called “father of African Literature”, albeit posthumously. Failing which I suppose some people would like to accuse the Swedish Academy of tribalism and racism, or something worse ( genocide
Reminds me of when F. W. de Klerk was asked about how he felt being the last whitey to be president of South Africa and he answered that since the colour of his skin was no longer an issue, how could the questioner be sure that he was the last white man to ever become President of South Africa? Long way to go: Ditto of course, when tribe ceases to be an issue in Nigeria, then anyone can become President of the Country or head of the military, but not before.
It’s worth noticing that occasionally a Black man has been appointed head of the awesome US Military which has many “Black”soldiers (without fear that with payback time in mind that Black Military Commander might join al-Qaeda in bombing the Pentagon or the monument to the Pilgrim Fathers or the slave owner, particularly now that the Tulsa Race Massacre happened only a hundred years ago is fresh in the mind. Or that Black Military Commander (Powell, Austin) could want to secede and raise their own Biafra flag over Rufus or Georgia , with Atlanta as their New Jerusalem, their eternal Capital.
I cannot remember the figures that Baba Kadiri gave for the ratios of Nigerian ethnicities represented in Nigeria’s national army (Tiv, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa) – but what’s clear with the current devil situation in the country is that the Southern Governors want to be in charge of their own security and also in charge of their Southern pastures, grazing rights etc. a nice balance between State and Federal authority (and, hopefully, bigger budgetary allocations to finance the security services and militias/ peoples’ defence committees such as Amotekun. For the time being no the time being no armed insurrection, mini civil war or confrontation anticipated between the Federal and the state about ramming ranches and Fulani beef down their unwilling throats
More seriously, less of a side issue: Nietzsche : Of Love of One's Neighbour
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
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Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - COAS Appointment as MissedOpportunity for Unity
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (kenneth harrow
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 31 May 2021 23:00
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - COAS Appointment as MissedOpportunity for Unity
Cornelius Hamelberg
Indeed Ken,
“I don’t know, but I’ve been told
The Streets of Heaven
Are lined with gold...”
Indeed, “tons of information”. How I wish all the dossiers could also meet the public squarely in the eye. As the saying goes “one does not hide a lamp under a bushel´ basket” – like Okey, one exposes or reveals it for all to see ! With Boko Haram as a thorn in the flesh , a thorn in the soft underbelly of the Buhari regime, this is surely the juiciest piece of information which if true should be brought to Mr. President’s attention. We can skip the rest and just focus on this wee bit of Okey Iheduru faithfully waxing poetic about one of his Igbo tribesmen when he says – and this is serious:
“He could wipe out Boko Haram in a month, if given the free hand to do so. Nothing like "bandits" when he was in Sokoto. Who born them? “
Are we to believe that if he (Iheduru) had made this recommendation to Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, then Boko Haram would have ceased to exist, would have been vaporised or turned to dust, referred to as history, a thing of the past, past terror ? But maybe, they would have resurrected under another name? Boko Haram II – as in “he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day”?
In his day Goodluck Jonathan said that Boko Haram members and sympathisers were to be found in both the Police and in the Military….
“Wiping out“Boko Haram does sound a little genocidal - in the same class as “exterminate all the brutes” – not that the Nigerian Military necessarily minds being dragged to the ICC for War Crimes. It was bad enough what they did to Shia Sheikh Zakaria and his Islamic Movement, with impunity…
There are subtle nuances in the vocabulary: for instance, Naftali Bennett wants to “decimate” Hamas
The academics in this thread still have to wait and see, since President Buhari’s nomination for the post has to be confirmed by the Senate which, after all may not lay so much emphasis on seniority as the greatest merit. I have it on good authority that Ojukwu was not the most senior military figure when he was appointed Military Governor of the Eastern Region, nor was Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi when he became military head of state...
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Cornelius Hamelberg
The anti-Buharists are still on the rampage and at this late hour surprisingly it’s about President Buhari’s nomination of the next chief of staff that will lead the war on terror and help restore security against wanton banditry, ransom kidnappings and the general anarchy that is spreading throughout the Federation with the aim of making the country “ungovernable”. I daresay, if Brother Buhari - himself a very experienced former Major- General and military head of state had appointed the best possible candidate from the planet Mars there would have been little or no tittle-tattle from the Naija earthlings, but a fellow Nigerian of their own kind elicits some more toothless “ academic” tittle tattle from the darkness brigade who do not question the competence of the President’s nominee (his choice is impeccable, his competence is beyond dispute) what they want to see is preferably one of their own ethnic kith and kin installed. The President’s choice they say is Nigerian alright but not of the ethnicity that they would like to see. Of course, given the regional fissures and other fault lines in the body politic,nothing could be worse than an unpopular chief of staff under whom rebellion and insubordination would be a likely outcome – as history has shown us, all over the world.
During the Sierra leone Civil War ECOMOG was under a Nigerian Commander, without any problems, but the Tribe/ ethnnic fixated Nigeria wants to see some untenable "proportionality" in their visions of ethnic based appointment - I suppose they want to see the same in Nigeria's National Football Team,.How absurd can we be? That was just the army. What about doctors, medicine - you don't want to be operated by a qualified Fulani Doctor ? Don't want to chop FUlani beef ? Marry Fulah Musu?
If things get worse as is likely, almost inevitable according to all indications here, the next stage could be that the army declares a state of emergency and martial law.
What is going to happen after that is anybody’s guess
Did you know the word incorrectly is spelled incorrectly in every English Dictionary?
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