Why Ihejirika has no case to answer
Arguably one of the saddest chapters in the annals of the Nigerian Army unfolded during the early hours of 22nd April 1990. That an embittered faction of our army’s officers corps was sufficiently begrudged to excise a section of the nation they had solemnly sworn to protect was a disturbing first beyond the usual veneer […]
Arguably one of the saddest chapters in the annals of the Nigerian Army unfolded during the early hours of 22nd April 1990. That an embittered faction of our army’s officers corps was sufficiently begrudged to excise a section of the nation they had solemnly sworn to protect was a disturbing first beyond the usual veneer of petty jealousy, abrasive egocentrism and the infectious rivalry that Nigerian soldiers disguise so well when planning and executing coups.
With this background, the mindset under which Ihejirika earned his third generalship star is not too difficult to discern. According to a noted academic, public policy analyst and a onetime chairman of the editorial board of the former” flagship of Nigerian journalism”-The Guardian-Chidi Amuta “In the soldiers’ mind, reality has only two faces: enemy or friend. Friends are to be protected with one’s blood while enemies are for destroying. Tactics, strategy, ruse, surprise and decoy are some of the tools that the soldier needs to succeed in his trade. It is not likely that an accomplished, long-serving soldier who finds himself in power will suddenly abandon these tools. He is more likely to deploy them to serve political ends, often to devastating effect”.
The other glimpse is however much more personal and historical, and is that of a Jos township boy growing up IN ITS EARLY 1960S highly integrated streets. But that kind of cosmopolitan background mirrored against the not too distant past antics of another Jos Boy, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the governor of Imo State, who made concerted efforts to recently “register” the northerners in his domain is very indicative.
The main thrust of the Orkar coup attempt was not aimed at any form of national salvation, but a determined quest to breakup and partition Nigeria. Its main falconers were political foot-soldiers in military uniform. Put another way “a bunch of comedians dressed in fancy dress”
The circumstances that facilitated Ihejirika’s elevation to army chief were however not as comical, but can be best be summarized as an act of political falconry. Falconry is the hunting of free ranging quarry by a trained bird of prey. Political falconry is the systematic decapitation of political opponents and their interests by the misuse of state power. If so Ihejirika has no case to answer concerning his alleged sponsorship of Boko Haram, since he is probably just an adept falcon caught up in the unrelenting machinery of determined falconers.
The fear of a monolithic North has always been the beginning of political wisdom in Nigeria. Poor Orkar, the ever dutiful acolyte and his falconers believed and accepted so, shuddered and made an attempt to terminate the resultant psychosis by military fiat. The current political rearguard actions of a prominent surviving, and now pardoned April 22 co-conspirator, Lt-Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), is the continuation of that same war of regional chauvinism by other more civil but nevertheless underhanded means.
As the author Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie ebulliently declared to Stephen Sackur and the rest of the world on BBC’s HARDtalk programme “There are unresolved issues on Biafra”. To understand these issues, one would have hear out Ihejirika’s former commander in chief when he enunciated at the recently concluded World Igbo Congress in the United States that his “Administration had appointed Igbos into positions they had never got under any other government in the country” and continued that “no part of Nigeria under my leadership will be short-changed”, concluding that “let me state that appointments by this administration will continue to be based on equity, fairness and competence”.
In retrospect, these same issues featured prominently in Orkar’s coup broadcast when he claimed that one of the main reasons of the coup was to reverse “The now pervasive and ongoing retrenchment of Middle Belt and Southerners from public office and their instant replacement by the favoUred class and their stooges”. The favoUred class, he further implied, was concentrated in those states to be “excised” from the rest of Nigeria.
Ihejirika is entitled to his personal biases, many of which today the country and the army are suffering from. Out of office, he holds the unenviable record of being Nigeria’s first army chief to be threatened with legal action at the International Criminal Court. Side by side with his more notable and illustrious predecessors, he is far from being a colossus. Ihejirika, while in office obviously lacked the kind of broadminded openness of Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina, the professional reticence of Gen. T.Y. Danjuma and the disarming charm and personnel management genius of Gen. I. B. Babangida. Even when compared with his kinsman and Nigeria’s first indigenous army boss Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi in the area of regimental competence, the difference, as they say, is clear.
Nyiam is an 8th-course officer while Orkar 12th course, with Ihejirika from a distant 18th COURSE. Nyiam and Ihejirika however belong to the same combat engineering corps. Every large tapestry is made out of tiny interlocking threads, more so in the military profession where mentorship is a major determinant in progression. If so, what kind of army did Ihejirika rise in and eventually inherit its leadership mantle? Again let us gravitate back to the ranting of the April 22nd conspirators, which is no different from the kind of “fourth dimension warfare” defensive pose the former army boss is now hiding under.
According to Orkar, their mutiny was not “Just another coup but a well conceived, planned and executed revolution for the marginalized, oppressed and enslaved peoples of the Middle Belt and the South with a view to freeing ourselves and children yet unborn from eternal slavery and colonization by a clique of this country”. Nyiam, as recent as 2000, has been blunter, maintaining that “It got to a stage that if you were in the army, you have to speak Hausa. What I am saying in effect was that, there was a gradual acculturation of other people who have superior culture”.
Unfortunately, Orkar was so naïve about the coup’s exit strategy which did not cover the Middle Belt; as such he became the most senior officer to face a hail of the executioner’s bullets after the stern judgment of Gen. Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu, who has since then discarded the Omar Sanda aspect of his identity, as he now swims in new waters. Nyiam and Saliba Mukoro made a clean break.
Even if the link between Nyiam, Orkar and Ihejirika is farfetched and speculative, the actions of the former army chief in the blatant violation of federal character provisions while in office leaves much to be desired in circumstantial evidence as it is largely consistent in historical continuity with the spirit and letter of the April 22nd putsch.
Yahaya-Joe wrote from France Road, Kano<[email protected]>;