Buhari certificate: The army went too far

This morning, Thursday, January 22, 2015, while I lay in bed waiting for time before I go to work, my closest next-door neigbour, a young divorcee and mother of three made several phone calls. Some of them very frantic to some of her relations some resident in Abuja and others in faraway Kogi State. The […]

This morning, Thursday, January 22, 2015, while I lay in bed waiting for time before I go to work, my closest next-door neigbour, a young divorcee and mother of three made several phone calls. Some of them very frantic to some of her relations some resident in Abuja and others in faraway Kogi State. The central points of all her calls were feelers she wanted to have on the situation as the next general election dates draw nearer.
I don’t need a soothsayer to tell me that this is the current trend among many innocent Nigerians millions of them non APC and PDP members nationwide. This lady was serious and based on her genuine worry, the thought of my relatively large family far away from me in Kaduna just seized me. The thought of my innocent Zainab just few days over three years enveloped me, not to talk of her other seven siblings.
To some extent this fear is more than justified given the reckless abandon with which the typical politician goes about his things. No creativity or ideology, only crudeness and deployment of gutter language, backstabbing, cluelessness, lack of clear cut programmes, among others. Of course, the polity is more than heated.
If the politicians have succeeded in heating the polity, created fear and a police situation in our mind and soul, the Nigerian security machinery through the conduct of its personnel should give us a double assurance not to fear. Partisanship of the security operatives always draws the ire of well-meaning Nigerians. Then there’s the so-called certificate scandal meant to rubbish APC presidential candidate retired General Muhammadu Buhari. I don’t know what the Army has succeeded with that ugly drama. I, for one, believe that the Army took their partisanship too far. And for that matter against one of theirs, a former Head of State with global respect.
This last misstep of the Nigerian Army in the Buhari certificate case and their inability to defeat the insurgency raise doubt about their commitment and professionalism to defend this country. They also do not give the average Nigerian confidence that he can run to the Nigerian Army for cover in the event of political violence. We need a non-partisan Army at this point in time to reassure Nigerians that the on-going insurgency is a different security issue altogether, and not to lump everything up with politics.
Sale writes from Mararaba, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State.