The Nigerian military should just go away, leave us alone to develop our democracy

It’s a shame, big time embarrassment that Nigeria, after gaining independence almost 60 years, is still under what appears to be military rule.  Which other progressive nation is as hopeless as my home to be controlled by uselessness?

Look around you to see which nations have developed well now under the military junta. Is it China? United States? Britain? Germany? Canada? Which modern nation? Every one of these nations is developing unhampered by the military.

Take another look at backward places where pure military dictatorship has made life difficult with high unemployment, endemic bribery, and insecurity. economically uninviting, corruption-ridden, and unsafe.?

What countries have military mismanagement such as North Korea? Thailand? Libya? Pakistan? Sudan? Myanmar? Read up on these nations where the military is a problem. This writer would prefer a democratic nation to a totalitarian setting.

Although Nigeria is said to be democratic on paper, yet in practice, the Nigerians are suffering under what appears to be dictatorship., such as was under Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and Sani Abacha.

That Nigeria is under military rule is undeniable as events seem to indicate and, unless change comes and comes quickly, Nigeria shall degenerate to the point of being ruled by the military for a long time. It would be a tragedy if Nigeria is an armed camp occupied by unfriendly foreign invaders who would not just go away.

This essay predicts that we Nigerians shall remain pawns in the hands of exploitative/manipulative strong men so long as we fail to acquire quality education that enables us to make wise decisions in choice of our leaders, to appreciate democracy and learn to abide by the rule of law.

This we shall do: become more politically savvy; vote for educated, nonmilitary persons; challenge unconstitutional legislation in the court system, and organize grassroot to present democratic views.

We don’t want to be ruled by the military consisting of persons who are armed, martial, soldierly, or fighting men and women who do not share love and well wishes to my people.

What comes to mind when we conjure up military comportment? It is the organizational behavior of ignorant, undereducated, soldiers who had not had training in civilian government.

We are sorry to say that Nigeria is predisposed to the rule of the jungle where the male lion defecates 

on the ground to stake out a domain he defends with the combined ferocity of Babangida, Buhari and Obasanjo. Ferocity involves fierceness, cruelty, viciousness, wildness, and unkindness. Terrible!

Since soldiers are trained to defend a besieged nation threatened by a boko haran; the military is always ready to pick up guns and bayonet at the sound of a gunshot or flying arrow at the border.

The military has no rulership quality in a peaceful nation where there is happiness, roads are drivable, farmers are growing staple crops, and people are not dying from dehydration due to a lack of drinking water.

Who needs AK-47’s but killers? The military spends the budget meant for education to train killers and importation of armamentaria or weapons of mass destruction.

This writer is a Nigerian, has no political ambition; he is not a Biafran, does not condone armed violence against his beloved country. He wants the military to vacate and the country returned to pro-democratic state of time of Azikiwe, Tafewa, and Shehu Shagari and other pro-democratic politicians Have you heard us say we do not want the military? Yes.

The military is militaristic, bellicose, aggressive. Being martial and warmongering, the Nigerian soldier abjures or avoids the finer qualities of civility, defined as courteousness, a gentleman’s politeness, courtesy. Elevating a soldier to political leadership position is tantamount to covering excreta with akwa ocha (Igbo for white cloth).

The Nigeria’s ill-prepared soldier lacks the respect and graciousness of Dr Michael Okpara, the fatherliness of Nnamdi Azikiwe, the gentility of Tafewa Balewa, the longsuffering and the wisdom of Shehu Shagari.

Nigeria was a Camelot, Garden of Eden before the military came to power. The army boys are a group of ruffians, thugs with drug-infested brains who cannot comprehend civilian administration. What do we mean by civilian government?

We mean the administration and management by non-fighting forces, that is, a rule, direction, or lead where there is no war or emergencies. The military is known for creating destruction, mayhem or loss of land, limb, and property.

If you’re one of those Nigerians who feels that your home is the free, self-governing Giant of Africa, you’re in for a surprise. You are not free, you’re being deceived, taken for a ride, meaning you’re a plumb nincompoop..

Get down and off your high horse and experience reality. You’ve been on high horse since October 1, 1960, when the world told you freedom was within your reach and you developed an inflated ego upon being called “independer.”

What’s independer? Oh, that silly name we called ourselves when Great Britain and other countries sent white representatives to Lagos to tell Nigerians, “You’re free, free at last, thank God you’re free to go your separate way from us.”

The over-used words were independence, freedom, liberation. They mean nothing, nonentity, naught, zero.

The overused word-independence- created monotony to our ears, infused great false pride in us and makes us walk on Cloud Nine.

The Queen of England was invariably our Head of State. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was there as Governor General and  Alhaji Tafewa Balewa was the first Prime Minister. We were told the Queen reigns but does not rule.

The ruling Africans were dressed majestically in flowing gown, looked straight ahead, and sat erect with sophisticated recherché Africans are noted for when they are not in the bush hunting rats and grass cutters for supper.

The presence of our Azikiwe and Balewa plus the dignitaries representing the Queen of the Commonwealth of Britain sparked inyanga (Igbo for great arrogance) as we sat in the hot tropical sun and watch children march barefooted on dusty field.

We felt not only pride, there was wild jubilation that we’d arrived at a juncture where  the world ceases to consider us as being a nation of “bush man” and “bush woman.”

Didn’t we feel great pride when Elizabeth 11, Queen of England, sent representatives to grace the occasion and increase our vulnerability and gullibility, vulnerable because the military has rendered our democracy weak, defenseless, helpless; gullibility as a result of being made naïve, trusting, susceptible.

The purpose of this essay is not so much to burst a carefully hidden bubble as to warn we’ve been had. What we had and were given was a subterfuge, a make-believe ceremony designed to tranquilize 

The questions to ask are multifarious, miscellaneous, diverse Where do Nigerians come from?. Do they need independence in a democracy or slavery on the West African slave plantation of Nigeria?

Why didn’t some smart person like Ahmadu bello or Awolowo dialogue with the white man to stay until further notice in Africa to help natives manage themselves first before being entrusted with the responsibility to manage resources?

The inability of Africans to manage the oil and coal in Nigeria, cocoa in Ghana, diamonds in Sierra Leone and so forth, is due to Africans’ selfishness buoyed or kept afloat by the greedy military establishment.

 That independence was and is still being celebrated on October 1 for almost 60 years. Independence with the military in charge is a joke played on children.

The Nigerian military should go away, get out of running a democracy, get back into barracks where they belong. Alternatively, why can’t the Army Corps of engineers draft the soldier to help build roads and bridges, construct hydro-electric power plants to conquer Nigeria’s everlasting darkness?  

  

This we shall do: become more politically savvy; vote for educated, nonmilitary persons; challenge unconstitutional legislation in the court system, and organize grassroot to present democratic views.

Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.om

Sunday, June 16, 2019