Daily Independent (Lagos)
Soyombo Opeyemi
27 November 2008
opinion
I do hope Miss Okere has been able to get back on an even keel after the violent storm that nearly wrecked her life on November 3, 2008 at Victoria Island, Lagos. The stormtroopers the very agents of her travails were, of course, six Nigerian naval ratings under the command of a Rear-Admiral!
The present military is, of course, a product of the inglorious and ignoble past. "I have no modicum of regard for Nigerian Generals whose preoccupations were coup-making, perfidy and criminality", reads an extract from my work on the military. "Watching them bark orders to civilians during their reign of terror, you mistook them for men of steel. And I pity an unfortunate nation that spawned these funks dissembling as men of valour, who for several years they were in power, chose to fight their own wars in the cities in Government Houses across the federation against unarmed Nigerians rather than confront the Cameroon gendarmes in Bakassi and risk being turned into prisoners of war. Generals my foot! You seized power by force of arms, sat behind a desk in a cosy Government House and began to appropriate promotion to yourself (of course, after wiring a tranche of your loot abroad): from Lt. Colonel to Lieutenant-General, from Colonel to General. Even one of those lazy men once fondled with the rank of a Field-Marshal. Field- Marshal! Not for deeds of derring - do in war front but for sitting behind a desk in a Government House!"
The armed forces bequeathed to Nigeria by the departing colonial master was of the British mould disciplined, professional and subservient to civil authorities. Unfortunately, the politicians in the first republic began to employ the services of these soldiers against unarmed Nigerians- to settle political scores and sustain their grip on power. From then began a new orientation of military towards the civilian populace and constituted civil authorities.
The brutal termination of civil government by the military in January 1996 only orchestrated a budding disdain and contempt for the civil society. And by the time the civil war was fought and lost and the military firmly established at the pinnacle of governance, civilian pride was completely submerged.
Hear the voice of the literary icon and gadfly to militarists, Wole Soyinka. "And it spread, and spread, and the culture was imbibed by a prostrate society, one governor and petty administrator striving to outdo the next in sadism. Brigadier, captain or colonel administrator arrives at his office five minutes before the official opening hour. On the dot of half past seven, he orders the gates to the secretariat closed while his soldiers take up position by the main gate and seal off all other entry points. Then, any worker arriving late, no matter his or her rank, age, or physical condition, is made to do the 'frog hop'. Laggards are assisted to improve their performance with the application of the koboko, the infamous rawhide whips, across their backs or knees. A number of deaths occurred from heart attacks from this unaccustomed exercise, but it made no difference. Discipline was discipline, and the civil servant was required to submit to its irrationalities. Humiliation filled the streets, the highways, in competition with violence. It entered the homes on camera cables and infested the media with tales of horror. I had not thought that prison regimen could ever lay claim to leaving the inmate with more dignity than victims of the dis'cipline in which civil society daily acquiesced."
Yes, it has remained since under the sea. Any pretender in uniform is to be hallowed and worshipped by the civil populace. You have a choice between receiving horsewhips and gunbutts and charming your car with wings in order to disappear from the sight of oncoming convoy of Admirals, Generals or Air Chief Marshals. I have seen commercial buses run over commuters while fleeing to avoid our gun totting masters of violence. Uzoma Okere was lucky to have escaped with only serious injuries. She could have been killed as the Undisciplined Administrator of Discipline allegedly told her.
Indeed, if she had been killed, the police would have issued a statement to the effect that she was a victim of armed robbery incident even though they're yet to commence investigation of the incident. They would then vow to leave no stone unturned till her killers were apprehended and brought to justice! Again, the story from the naval authorities would have been different had a smart Nigerian not recorded the atavistic conduct of the officers on a camcoder and released its video footage to the world behold the barbaric Nigeria in the 21st century, when an African-American was just a few hours from being elected the president of the United States!
Could this savagery have taken place in US, Britain or France: a Rear-Admiral, Major-General or Air Vice-Marshal, supervising the mauling of an unarmed female citizen, striping her of her cloth in the full glare of the public, in this age? No! No!! No!!! Don't just imagine it! The whole nation may as well go berserk in a fratricidal mode till no life flourishes again in God's own country!
Yes, it can only happen in Nigeria. As you read this piece, Admiral Harry Arogundade and his men have not yet been court marshalled and cashiered from the Nigeria Navy. And why should he? Did a naval officer not gun down an okada driver in Lagos for hitting his Mercedes Benz 190E car and got away with it? Uzoma Okere would not be the first and the last. But for the outrage provoked by the footage of the incident, the Nigeria Navy or Defence Headquarters for that matter would have lost no sleep over the battery of a bloody spare figure of a civilian. Is Uzoma's life more important than the Niger-Delta communities that are mown down on a regular basis by the military Joint Task Force under the pretext of fighting militants? Come off it! The headlines will soon subside and time will take its toll on public fury. Do Nigerians have long memory anyway?
Uzoma Okere has gone to court but when last has the military high command obeyed a court order in Nigeria (even though these orders or summons come from time to time)? Did Gen. Victor Malu as the Chief of Army Staff not invade Lagos with a battalion of soldiers when he came to appear at the Oputa Panel who's that bloody civilian human rights investigator?!
The civil society may never reclaim its lost glory and pride until politicians renounce the culture of employing the military (and police) to settle political scores and rig elections in order to hold on to power. But for now, let the military bow her head in shame because her strength and power is only revealed on the streets of Lagos against unarmed Nigerians instead of warfront.
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