Those accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, of suffering from necrophobia should eat their words. If he ever had it, President Tinubu has cured his. Last week, our brave president conquered his fear of the dead when he personally led the mourners at the National Cemetery in honour of the gallant 18 officers and men who suffered as a result of the ambush in Okuama-Okoloba community in Delta State.
Not only did the president; one of the three non-military presidents to have taken on the unenviable title of Commander-in-Chief since the return of democracy in 1999 take the salute, he consoled the military and their families and promised bounties. It was a brave thing for a civilian to do, even if that civilian is the head of state of Africa’s most populous nation.
From the way our president has carried on as C-in-C, it is sheer bravery to know that he has not relinquished that title. It is perhaps one of the duties associated with the presidency that he is not particularly keen on exercising. So far, except for signing in commanders for the army and paramilitary forces, the president’s attitude has been to let the military handle their issues.
Except for those who live in the Presidential Villa, nobody would seriously say that security has improved since the president became the supreme authority over our welfare. As leader of ECOWAS, the president almost led us to war with our neighbours in Niger, without critically looking at the historical antecedents of coups and the role Nigeria’s past coupists have played in it all.
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Somehow, we all escaped that trouble. Then, Plateau happened and our president abandoned ship in Abuja, did not fly to Jos, but went to Lagos where Governor Muftwang had to go and brief him. The president’s most common retort has been to order appropriate agencies to – bring the perpetrators to book. And from the way we never hear whether the perpetrators are brought to book, it is safe to perhaps conclude that it never happens.
That does not appear to deter the president. Because when Tudun Biri massacre happened as a result of an error on the part of the military, our president issued orders to ‘fish out the perpetrators’ with a clear promise to deal with them decisively. We are still waiting for the outcome of those investigations.
Okuama, the latest tragedy is a lesson in classic bungling of military discipline. The only consistency about the facts that led to this tragedy is of a crisis between Okuama and Okoloba communities over land or shall we say littoral rights. Contrary to scouting rules engagement in a volatile area, senior officials led their junior colleagues on a ‘peace mission’ with their weapons behind. The volatility of things in the Niger Delta predates Boko Haram making it surprising that 18 soldiers went on a mission without arms. It is sadly unsurprising that they all ended up dead.
Mr President pulled his normal orders from the rule books, asking the military to do whatever was in their power to bring the perpetrators to book. It was a blanket order for the imposition of martial law in the area and when soldiers returned to the area, there was hardly one roof left that was not torched. Citizens fled to jungles because neighbours feared harbouring even the women among them. From all indications, the military is ready to keep the siege for as long as necessary.
The accounts of what truly happened; the real reasons for the military presence in the area are shrouded in mystery from bloody civilians. Military authorities have declared Nigerians wanted without a warrant of the courts as required by law. That is martial law in force. A wanted fugitive that gave himself to the police, was quickly handed over to the military authorities like poisoned hot cake.
Next, the military raided the home of elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clarke. They treated the residents like an army of occupation but found no smoking gun or a bloody dagger. The soldiers later apologised for their fishing expedition that caught nothing but trashed the home of an icon. When soldiers attack civilians, they fracture the bond of respect and cooperation expected from the civil populace.
The abnormality of the tail wagging the dog is becoming normal in our relationship with our armed friends. This is why some see the blanket order given to the military in this case as surrendering supremacy to armed officers. In established democracies, martial law applies as the last resort and usually when dealing with foreign enemies.
The president’s presence at the Military Cemetery in Abuja, his condolences, his assurances and his promises are tactically seen as acts of pacification of a group whose supremacy supersedes that of the president. The military is not supposed to exercise investigative or other prosecutorial powers over civilians even under a circumstance as tragic as the Okuama-Okoloba tragedy. Not even when democracies are collapsing under the weight of military coups in the sub-region.
It is shameful that gallant soldiers are being sacrificed for the greed and avarice of some people running the Nigerian arms regime. We have heard stories of how troops were called off the pursuit of late Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, when his capture and trial could have settled the terror he unleashed. We have heard how those who slaughtered our troops are ‘rehabilitated’ and reabsorbed into the army or unleashed on the community with disregard to the potential they have to continue to supply their former commandos with information harmful to our counter-insurgency moves.
These are the reasons not many people took our president’s mournful cries and soulful promises seriously. These promises, like medication after death, can no longer comfort the families of the dead or reassure the living of their safety and security. It is doubtful if the civil populace trusts its civilian leaders or its military commanders to end terror and insecurity in the land. The seeming tendency to keep the insurgency going without any concrete plan to extirpate it is robbing field commanders of the intelligence and support they need to ‘win’ these wars. The military is spread so thin that its impact is hardly noticeable.
Yet, ours is one of the oldest militaries in Africa, one that has participated in global peace and war missions with record success. One that commanded the defeat of battle-inoculated war rats in Liberia and Sierra Leone to global acclaim. Mr President is truly new on this job, but he would need to do more than his necrophiliac predecessor in charting a road map for the sustenance of the peace, tranquility and the security needed to keep a country from total disintegration. A fragile economy cannot sustain a war on terror.
This president should go beyond issuing ultimatums by following through on any instructions. He must fully exercise his capacity to hire and to fire without remorse or relent. That is the best way to prevent another Okuama-Okoloba on our hands. It is a sure way of preventing the hollow ritual of making empty promises to widows and belated reassurances to orphans. It is the only surety against burying gallantry while encouraging incompetence. The best soldiers are surviving veterans who could pass their tested winning strategy to young officers. A dead soldier is a wasted resource to his family and to his nation.
