Agwai: Courage of conviction

The for-mer Chief of Army Staff Agwai had said that change in leadership had become inevitable in the country and advised that those in position of leadership not to resist it. Delivering a paper at the 78th birthday celebration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, last Thursday, General Agwai counseled soldiers to remain professional […]

The for-mer Chief of Army Staff Agwai had said that change in leadership had become inevitable in the country and advised that those in position of leadership not to resist it. Delivering a paper at the 78th birthday celebration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, last Thursday, General Agwai counseled soldiers to remain professional and keep clear of partisan politics if they wish to overcome the security challenges facing the nation.
In the lecture titled, Imperatives of a National Security Framework for the Development and Progress of Nigeria, General Agwai had said, “In life, you find out that everything needs change, if that is what the community wants, what the people want, you must give it to them and as such, it becomes inevitable.”
But more tellingly, he had added: “You can have everything nice, but, if you don’t have the right leadership to propel it, it cannot go anywhere. Integrity matters, doing what is good for the larger society, and not just what you want to do for a narrow society to please yourself.”
For telling them these two things, they removed him. Clearly, it ought to have been obvious that when he speaks, especially by way of offering counsel to power, Agwai is someone who should be listened to by any self-respecting government. He had never been a controversial officer in uniform or any type of security out of it, or even ever overly political as a retired officer; and, even if only for this reason, his counsel should have been taken by the government in good faith.
A very intelligent officer, Agwai was the best all-round cadet graduating from the Nigerian Military Academy in 1972. He took all the honours. He was the Senior Under-Officer, the Parade Commander and the bearer of the Sword of Honour.
He is accomplished in a way those who removed him cannot be, and by what he is and what he has put before him, he is qualified to give guidance and direction to this government. He is not just a soldier – and a very good one at that – he is a leader.
He attended and graduated tops from the Nigerian Command and Staff College, the British Army Staff College, Camberley, the United States Armour School. He holds a post-graduate diploma in public administration from the Administrative Staff College, Lagos and a masters degree from the National Defence University in Washington, DC, where he became the first foreign student to win the prestigious Ambassadors Award for excellence in research and writing.
In the army, he held several positions including that of the chief of training and operations of the Nigerian Armed Forces and director of military training at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. He was a directing staff and chief instructor at the Command and Staff College Jaji. He became General Officer Commanding at the army’s First Division in Chief of Army Staff in 2003 and Chief of Defence Staff in 2006.
Prior to becoming Chief of Army Staff, he was the Nigeria’s military adviser for the whole of Southern Africa between 1993 and 1996. He was also deputy military adviser at United Nations headquarters. He commanded a combined UN-AU peace-keeping force in Darfur, where he had the distinction of leading with distinction what was recognized as one of the biggest peacekeeping operations in the world, with 20,000 troops and 6,000 police officers under his command. He retired from the Nigerian Army in December 2009 as one of its most accomplished officers.
Like his predecessor at SURE-P before him, he has chosen to speak truth to power. Only a dunderhead will fail to see the great danger in involving our troops in politics and the even greater danger of making peaceful change of leadership impossible in Nigeria. It is almost as if what they have is a death wish. For, here is an unpopular government facing a clear existential election doing exactly all the things it shouldn’t do.
When, for instance, its religious propaganda had unravelled and also backfired, this was certainly no time to seek to disgrace one of the leaders in this nation and one of the most illustrious sons of Southern Kaduna, especially not when it, in all likelihood, has only a few weeks to go.
When states across the country are unable to pay salaries and the mass of the people are having it the roughest they have ever had it, it is certainly not the time to convert the Central Bank of Nigeria into their personal ATM.
When the First Lady, as part of presi-dential campaign entourage, decided to give vent to the contents of her unconscious mind, and throw stereotypical shildren insults, at the already disaffected part of the polity, you begin to wonder whether it is votes that these people are really looking for.
Within the short time they have tasted it, they have thoroughly mishandled and misunderstood power-how to get it, but especially how to keep it; and, now, most especially how to lose it. They got it by accident and they wished to keep it by subterfuge.
They have declared a war and embar-ked on a new battle against a retired gene-ral who represents an emerging trend and is now armed with nothing but the truth, which, though bitter, is the only weapon that matters in the new moral war.
In the end, they might have removed General Agwai from SURE-P; but if the government intended it to be punitive action, it had singularly failed, and might as well have backfired; because to most people, this should be Agwai’s most prized badge of honour-the largest and most shiny of the epaulettes on that multi-decorated shoulder.
And by removing him, President Goodluck Jonathan is really telling the nation an entirely different and unintended narrative. General Agwai had told soldiers not to allow themselves to be dragged into, or be used in fighting, partisan political battles; and he told the nation’s leadership of the inevitability of change and counselled the leaders not to resist it.
Obviously, Agwai’s sack must have been because they intend to do exactly what he cautioned them against. In other words, this leadership will use soldiers in politics and will resist change when it comes. Agwai has been sacked but it is he who last that laughs best; because there is neither strength nor power except in God and, by His leave, in an idea whose time has come.