By GABRIEL OMONHINMIN –
Chairman, Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council, His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo Agada IV, who was a member of 38th Officer Regular Course of the Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA) in Kaduna State, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian government to henceforth strategically make sure the Nigerian Armed Forces is deliberately isolated from partisan politics.
According to him, this will make the Armed Forces concentrate on its core duties, thus making it more efficient and better to serve the country.
King Dakolo, who spoke exclusively with NATIONAL ACCORD after his recent investiture as a Fellow of the Nigerian Association of Authors (FNAA) in Abuja, stressed that the isolation of the country’s Armed Forces from partisan politics would make the Army, Navy and the Airforce more responsive to its core mandate and help throw up hardcore military professionals than politicians in Military uniforms as was sadly the case in most recent times in the country.
He strongly believes that once this is done the country will be better for it.
King Dakolo observed that President Tinubu, in his most recent key military appointments, has demonstrated that it is possible to have a professional Armed Forces that will be efficient and be a pride to the country.
He noted that with the appointments of highly competent military officers into key positions in the Nigerian Military in particular and the Armed Forces in general, the confidence, moral and spirit of officers and men, which have over the years ebbed due to bad leadership, is now gradually being restored.
“If the President and the present military high command are able now to isolate the armed forces from intrigues and partisan politics, the Nigerian Armed Forces will concentrate fully in their constitutional responsibly of defending the territorial integrity of the nation and peoples from external aggression and when necessary help with internal security,” he said.
He expressed the view that the Nigerian Armed Forces have the officers and men to carry out this odious national assignment, once they are encouraged to do so.
King Dakolo regretted that the present problems with the Nigerian Armed Forces, if the truth must be told, did not just begin today, pointing out that the problems were caused sadly by some elements who were not so wonderful in the Nigerian Armed Forces but got into positions of trust or responsibility.
He noted that in the past, there were instances where Army Generals had to plot against and remove very bright junior officers they perceived as threats to the positions they were holding, which they, in the true sense of the word, were not worthy of holding in the first place.
“It was as bad as that. And in the true sense of military training, such a behaviour was unmilitary. What this says therefore, is that, there were some persons in the military or the Nigerian Armed Forces then who were not very competent, but found themselves in the Nigerian Armed Forces especially in the military service. These same people made sure that they handed over the batten to their kinds only, thereby not properly utilizing officers who had the right frame of minds who were also competent to serve in the Nigerian Armed Forces, thus, rewarding failures in the place of excellence and expertise,” he recalled.
Continuing, King Dakolo said: “The bulk of officers who were ready to die for the country, were sadly, invariably thrown out of the armed forces through this unjust system, and majority of these officers ended up grumbling as they could not do anything to save their own commission. So, when you have someone who is not at all competent who does not have what it takes to lead me for example, is now leading me, the question that naturally comes to mind, is where is this kind of person leading me to?
“There lies the problem then with the Nigerian Armed Forces. This behavior did not also help the Nigerian Military in particular and the Armed Forces in general over the years. But with the recent appointments of forthright and competent officers into key military positions in the country’s armed forces by President Tinubu, lost hope is now gradually been rekindled.
“The Nigerian military as an institution is a very wonderful institution and in spite of some of the shortcomings pointed out, the Nigerian Armed Forces are still doing very well, this I can tell you. However, could it have done better over the years? Yes! It would have done far better if competent and professionally-minded military officers were allowed to superintend the affairs of the Nigerian Military and the Armed Forces in general, instead of some politicians in military uniforms.
“For all the damages done over the years to be undone now, the Nigerian military and the Armed Forces, needs to adopt systematic approach and planning for these problems to be resolved eventually.”
King Dakolo further said: “Gabriel, you have read my book ‘The Riddle of the Oil Thief’ especially, where I talked about juicy and non-juicy postings in the Nigerian military. Why should juicy posting be an issue? Why should posting in the Nigerian military even be considered juicy and non-juicy? By the way, why should any posting in the military be considered juice at all? This is so because certain characters have come to reduce the activities of the Nigerian military cum Armed Forces, to this ugly level. What juicy posting means to me, as a professionally trained officer, is that an officer requesting for a juicy posting is no longer ready to do his work. And once an officer is taking or posted to such a place of interest, he is now ready to do more than his constitutional duties.
“For example, this, juicy place could be a loading jetty for crude oil, or a loading jetty for petroleum products generally, where the officer is going to be making some kind of money, that is better defined as illicit. So, why should a military person be more bothered about that? The truth is that, a lot of military personal have continued to make this type of unfortunate remarks publicly, saying “They never post me to better place yet. So, there is a better place than the military duties they have enlisted into? That is what it is.”
According to King Dakolo, this ugly situation would have worsened now, because of the way and manner the political class regard the military.
“They unfortunately see the military as a small tool which they will usually use to play their polarized politics. But in reality, the military is supposed to be isolated and protected from partisan politics. The military are supposed to be experts who are determined to ensure, that the Nigerian state is safe at all times.
“For example, on Wednesday 8th, November, 2023, the British Metropolitan Police had said in a public statement that there were going to be a pro-Palestine protests this week on the streets of London, and that they were going to allow the protests to hold as the Metropolitan Police were ready to give those protesters protection. The British Metropolitan Police authority was quick to state in that statement that they were not answerable to the British political class.
“This simply means that no politician should come and pork his nose in what the Metropolitan police were going to do during that protest (as) they were ready to do their work as enshrined in the British act setting them up. This is the way the Nigerian military is expected to be behaving in the discharge of its military duties.”
King Dakolo further gave another example of an encounter between him and one ex-military officer, from his area of Nigeria who said that he had read The Riddle of the Oil Thief, and that Dakolo was a little too hard on the Nigerian Military.
“This argument took place, as at the time, the nine kilometers illegal oil pipeline through which the country’s crude oil was siphoned was discovered somewhere in Delta State. This was sometimes in October, 2022. The ex-officer said in effect, the cover for the construction of that type of illegal oil pipeline could not have been given by a unit commander in the Nigerian military or in the Armed Forces, let’s say an officer within the rank of Commodore in the Nigeria Navy or a Lt-Colonel in the Nigerian Army and so on and so forth. I said okay, could that person who would have given the order for the construction of that illegal oil pipeline have been an officer of a higher rank? He said, even a Brigadier in the Nigerian Army could not have been able to give such an order for a pipeline like that to be constructed. I again asked him, could it have been a person within the rank of a General Officer Commanding GOC? The Retired Military officer again, said, even an officer within that rank giving such an order for the construction of such a long illegal pipeline was very doubtful. He stressed, that whoever gave that order for the construction of that oil pipeline must be higher than the rank of a Major-General in the Army, because of the risk involved in trying to do an illegal thing like that.
“I now, told him, let us then assume the order came from the Presidency . I then told him, let’s even assumed that such an illegal order would have come directly from Mr. President himself. He then said, perhaps, let’s assumed such an order came directly from the Presidency before such an illegal oil pipeline could be contemplated and constructed. He excitedly says, “it is at that level such an act could work.
“Stressing that the military commanders, the way things are now in the country, are helpless, I told him, you were once a Military General, by your training, for example, if any President calls you and asks you to facilitate the construction of that type of illegal nine kilometers oil pipeline, as a trained product from the Nigerian Defense Academy, what are you supposed to do? Or what are you expected to do under that circumstance? Are you not supposed to place whosoever gave you that type of illegal order under arrest immediately? As this is what you are trained to do. Because what that superior officer is asking you to do, under that circumstances, is asking you to disregard the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and aid his attempt at sabotaging the nation’s economy. As such, a person has sadly constituted himself to be an economy saboteur which must not be treated kindly.
“At this point the retired General kept quite because he realized that I have won the argument between us. He however said, in a hushed voice ‘In Nigeria things don’t work that way you are proposing’.
“I countered, telling him, his training as a good military officer at the Nigerian Defense Academy is to defend the general interest of Nigeria as country even at the risk of his personal life. And that is why the NDA is regarded as one of the foremost institutions of military training especially for military officers in Africa. Under any circumstances, no matter the pressure, if an officer is unable to follow his military training, he is not fit or worthy of being called an officer gentleman of the Nigerian Armed Forces,” King Dakolo concluded.
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