The Jonathan Administration: Entering self-destruct mode?

by Eze Eluchie

With the ease with which terrorist elements brandish military hardware they seize from Nigeria’s military forces, it is natural to expect suppliers of such equipment to express some reservations with regards to providing more sensitive and technologically up-to-date military equipment to an army that cannot guarantee safe custody of such weapons and are prone to losing same to criminal elements or worse still, whose top brass may surreptitiously be ‘handing over’ such weapons to terrorists. Some equipment in Nigeria’s military arsenal, the prior loss of which had not been made known to the Nigerian public, which Boko Haram had displayed with glee in some of its video releases include, Tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers and endless cache of M-16 and AK-47 guns.     

The above scenario clearly founded the reluctance of United States authorities to sell “Cobra attack helicopters” to the Nigerian military – a reluctance which certainly did not augur well with the some at the helm of affairs in Nigeria.

The further escalation of the situation by Nigeria’s cancellation of ongoing Military Training exercises   for our soldiers being conducted by the United States military is an ill-thought, most unfortunate and deplorable descent into very murky waters.

The following issues immediately come into focus:

1.      Who in heavens name in the Jonathan administration suggested the discontinuation of training programs for Officers and men of the Nigerian Army by United States military authorities?

2.      What was the intended outcome of such discontinuation?

3.      Was it merely to ensure the continuations of schism with an entity the administration can least afford a confrontation with? Is there a ‘Plan B’?

4.      Considering that key allies of the US will not step in to fill the void, did those who proffered this discontinuation foresee alternative arrangements with other countries and the logistic and lingual barriers such alternatives may pose?

This discontinuation is akin to the push by some elements in the Nigerian Government, led by the present Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Adebowale Adefuye, to frustrate earlier efforts to designate Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), an effort which portrayed the present administration as bereft of unified approach at tackling terror and unable to pinpoint its enemies/problems.

By all means, you can make new friends, but certainly not in the middle of a war! You stick to the folks you are familiar with and if there are differences, you amicably sort it out. Not cut off relationships!

Mr. President, if you are looking for 5^th columnists in your ranks, look no further than the source of the advice to discontinue and cut off military ties with the US. And if, per chance, God forbid, the advice and decision was initiated by your goodself, then clearly Mr. President, the administration has taken further action which appears to set it in a ‘self-destruct’ mode.

With the abundance of anarchist elements posturing as 'opposition politicians', and a full fledged terrorist onslaught at its northeastern flanks, the Nigerian Government is least equipped to take on a cunning and swift extra-powerful opponent. 

Avoid schisms. Make peace!

Picture: Training session US soldier and Nigerian soldiers

Mr. President, bring back the boys, NOW!

One of the oddities peculiar to the Nigerian State is that we give out what we lack and purchase what we have in abundance - of particular import here is our penchant to contribute to international peacekeeping and peace-enforcement missions in foreign lands whilst our homeland is afire and our seeming relentless thirst for imported refined petroleum products with our oil-rich Niger Delta region awash with cheaply available sweet Brent crude..

I was stunned when it was brought to my attention that despite the several embarrassing loss of territory routinely suffered by the Nigerian military to the rag-tag Islamist terror outfit, Nigeria still remains one of the top 5 contributors to United nations Peace Keeping (and enforcement) missions.

For several years, the top hierarchy of the Nigerian military and their collaborators in the relevant Federal Ministries and agencies, have used the platform of ‘international peacekeeping and enforcement missions’, either under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU) or Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a ruse to fleece not only the hapless soldiers drafted for such missions (who are shortchanged with regards to their payments and emoluments) but also carve out a sizable slice of our enormous military budget for personal pockets via the award of spurious contracts to supply all manners of articles to ‘deployed troops’.

The involvement of Nigerian troops had been clothed and sold as a dummy to an unsuspecting Nigerian population under a bogus ‘Afrocentric foreign policy’ which sought to portray Nigeria as the ‘giant of Africa’ and thus ever ready to provide troops, personnel or whatsoever required to stabilize our neighboring ‘African brothers-States’.

Well, with the advent of sustained Islamist terror insurgency in our northeastern region, and the apparent inability of our Forces to effectively contain and rout the terrorists, whatsoever arguments that might have founded the continued deployment of Nigerian soldiers,  Policemen and other military or para-military forces outside the shores and territory of Nigeria has been clearly debunked and rendered unreasonable.

Data available at the United Nations Peacekeeping websites is to the effect that as at today, Nigeria has Military and Police personnel stationed at the following Missions: United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MUNUSCO), African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID), United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), and only Military Forces at the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Commonsense should dictate that all Nigerian soldiers and policemen currently stationed in these various foreign peacekeeping and peace-enforcement missions should be recalled home immediately to contribute their quota towards saving the ‘motherland’. If they continue to stay outside, at going rates, they may not have any country to return to if urgent steps to reverse ongoing trends are not taken.

Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief, it’s time to face realities: bring the boys back home, NOW!

Picture: Some Nigerian troops deployed in one of several United Nations Peacekeeping Mission where they are currently serving.

Mr. President, nip this mess in its bud, NOW!

by Eze Eluchie

The unruly events which played out in the National Assembly yesterday, when some Legislators and hired thugs in a most unbecoming fashion, scaled the gates of the National Assembly compound and forcefully gained entrance into the premises of our National Assembly, if not properly addressed could signal the commencement of a quickened slide down the path of infamy which most observers have long foretold will be Nigeria’s lot since we have failed to effectively restructure and renegotiate our polity.

Under no circumstance should the ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, and whatever number of unruly elements he might be able to assemble, have been allowed to desecrate the hallowed chambers of our National Assembly.

Whilst I congratulate the security officials stationed at the gates of the National Assembly for exercising utmost restraint in the face of attempts at forced entry into the premises of the National assembly earlier this morning, it behooves on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to ensure that the laws are implemented with regards to persons disrespecting lawful orders issued by Police and Security authorities in the dispensation of their duties and people forcefully trying to gain entry into secured premises irrespective of whatsoever positions they may hold in society

I knew we had some dishonorable characters who had infiltrated the membership of our legislative houses; I however never believed in my wildest imaginations that the dishonorable characters were in such huge numbers as was displayed in the shockingly unruly behavior of so many of them as they forcefully entered the premises of the National Assembly today – no wonder we are where we are and the rest of the world are where they are forging to.

To gauge the direction the Nigerian State is drifting to, it is pertinent that the following queries be clarified by the Presidency and the Office of the Inspector General of Police respectfully:
Questions for the Jonathan administration:
1. Did the Presidency actually write a letter to the ex-Speaker to reconvene the House to discuss the extension of the State of Emergency in the northeastern region OR did Mr. Tambuwal decide to storm the National Assembly of his own volition?
2. Considering that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has deposed, in a suit pending before the Federal High Court in Abuja, to the fact that Mr. Aminu Tambuwal’s membership of the House, by virtue of his decamping from the political party via which he was elected into the House of Representatives and in keeping with the provisions of Section 68(1){g} of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic, had expired, who advised the issuance of a letter to the ex-Speaker to reconvene the House? (If indeed a letter was written to Mr. Tambuwal).
The Presidency simply has to get its act together and right. Continued prevarications, docility and unwillingness to proactively and effectively exercise the powers vested in the Presidency by the Nigerian Constitution to ensure stability will boomerang with horrible effects!

Questions for the Police/Security authorities:
3. Why was a contingent of police officers and other security personnel unable to successfully secure the perimeter of the National Assembly from forceful entry by unruly thugs?
4. Was it necessary to have indiscriminately fired Tear Gas canisters within the premises and into the main building of the National Assembly?
5. Why were the characters who scaled the gates of the National Assembly not immediately apprehended and where appropriate charged for relevant offences committed?
6. Has the failure of the Nigeria Police to adequately prosecute other acts of hooliganism by thugs masquerading as members of various Legislative houses across Nigeria contributed in any way to the delusion of immunity being displayed by our supposedly ‘honorable’ Legislators?
Whilst appreciating efforts at enforcement of our laws relating to decamping from political parties [as provided in Section 68(1){g} of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic] being exercised by the current Inspector General of Police, it must be stated that such aggressive law enforcement must be equally implemented across political divides. Having taken the rightful position that a defection during the pendency of an elected public officials tenure amounts to an abdication from Office, the IGP should have likewise visited other defectors, since the Mr. Tambuwal episode, with similar consequences.

And to those who, under the pretext of partisan activism, continue to fan the embers of illegality and desecration of the Constitution by denying the fact that Mr. Tambuwal vacated his membership of the House of Representatives when he defected from the party via which he gained membership of the HOR, bear in mind that when the polity goes up in the flames we are all stoking up, there will be no hiding place for any.

For sanity to prevail, the Police authorities MUST identify the members of the House of Representatives who scaled the gates to forcefully gain entrance, and others who acted in similar manner to gain access into the House and take necessary legal action, including prosecution where deemed appropriate.

There simply must be a limit to the depth we are willing to descend.



Our Courts have repeatedly held that defection tantamount to loss of membership of the Legislative House (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/court-declares-house-reps-seat-vacant/ ).  Mr. Mark Reckless defection from the British Conservative Party to the UK Independence Party, triggered the recent by-election won by the UKIP (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30140747 ). When the Mayor of Drogheda, Kevin Callan, resigned from his political party, Fine Gael, he honorably relinquished his position as Mayor ( http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/fine-gael-mayor-resigns-from-party-over-water-charges-controversy-30712030.html ). Why should Mr. Tambuwal's be different? Why can we not learn from where systems work?


Video of a past episode of a legislator (Mr. Chidi Lloyd, in white native dress in the video) almost clubing his colleague to death in the Rivers State House of Assembly ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zX388EnB5I )

Picture: Minority Leader of the House of Representatives (Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, in white shirt descending the gate, who unfortunately is enrolled as a member of the Bar inthe United States) and some of his colleagues, scaling the gate of the National Assembly in Abuja (20th November 2014)