By Gabriel Omonhinmin
His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo, chairman Bayelsa traditional council has advised President Bola Tinubu to isolate the Nigerian armed forces from partisan politics.
His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo Agada IV (FNAA) who was a member of 38th Officers Regular Course of the Nigerian Defense Academy in Kaduna State, noted that henceforth President Tinubu should strategically make sure the Nigerian Armed Forces is deliberately isolated from the country’s partisan politics as this will make the country’s Armed Forces concentrate on its core duties, thus making it more efficient and better to serve the country.
King Dakolo who spoke exclusively with TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) after his recent investiture as a Fellow of the Nigerian Association of Authors in Abuja, stressed that the isolation of the country’s Armed Forces from partisan politics would make the Army, Navy and the Airforce more responsive to its core mandate and help throw up hardcore military professionals than politicians in Military uniforms as was sadly the case in most recent times in the country. He said once this is done the country will be better for it.
King Dakolo stressed, that His Excellency, President Tinubu in his most recent key military appointments has demonstrated that it is possible to have a professional Armed Forces, that will be efficient and be a pride to the country.
King Dakolo continued, with the appointments of highly competent military officers into key positions in the Nigerian Armed Forces the Nigerian Military in particular and the Armed Forces in general, the confidence, moral and spirit of officers and men which have over the years ebb due to bad leadership, is now gradually been restored.
He added if the President and the present military high command is able now to isolate the country’s armed forces from intrigues and partisan politics, the Nigerian Armed Forces will concentrate fully in their constitutional responsibly of defending the territorial integrity of the nation and peoples from external aggression and when necessary help with internal security. He stressed, the Nigerian Armed Forces have the officers and men to carry out this odious national assignment, once they are encouraged to do so.
King Dakolo regretted that the present problems with the Nigerian Armed Forces if the truth must be told, did not just begin today. Saying they were caused sadly by some elements who were not so wonderful in the Nigerian Armed Forces who got into positions of trust or responsibility.
Stressing that in the past there were instances were Army General had to plot against and remove very bright junior officers they perceive as threats to the positions they were holding which they in the true sense of the word, were not worthy of holding in the first place. It was as bad as that.
And in the true sense of military training, such a behaviour was unmilitary. What this says therefore, he added, “is that, there were some persons in the military or the Nigerian Armed Forces then who were not very competent, but found themselves in the Nigerian Armed Forces especially in the military service.
This same people made sure, that they handed over the batten to their kinds only, thereby not properly utilizing officers who had the right frame of minds who were also competent to serve in the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Thus, rewarding failures in the place of excellent and expertise. So, the bulk of officers who were ready to die for the country, were sadly, invariably thrown out of the armed forces through this unjust system, and majority of these officers ended up grumbly as they could not do anything to save their own commission.
So, when you have someone who is not at all competent who does not have what it takes to lead me for example, is now leading me, the question that naturally comes to mind, is where is this kind of person leading me to? There lies the problem them with the Nigerian Armed Forces.
This behavior did not also help the Nigerian Military in particular and the Armed Forces in general over the years. But with the recent appointments of forthright and competent officers into key military positions in the country’s armed forces by President Tinubu, lost hope is now gradually been rekindled.
King Dakolo further explained, “The Nigerian military as an institution is a very wonderful institution, in spite of some of the shortcomings pointed out, the Nigerian Armed Forces are still doing very well, this I can tell you.
However, could it have done better over the years? Yes! It would have done far better, if competent and professionally minded military officers were allowed to superintend the affairs of the Nigerian Military and the Armed Forces in general, instead of some politicians in military uniforms.
For all the damages done over the years to be undone now, the Nigerian military and the Armed Forces, needs to adopt systematic approach and planning for these problems to be resolved eventually.
King Dakolo said, “Gabriel, you have my book ‘The Riddle of the Oil Thief’ especially, where I talked about juice and non-juice posting in the Nigerian military.
Why should juice posting be an issue? Why should posting in the Nigerian military even be considered juice and non-juice? By the way, why should any posting in the military be considered juice at all?
This is so, because certain characters have come to reduce the actives of the Nigerian military cum Armed Forces, to this ugly level. What juice posting means to me as a professionally trained officer, is that an officer requesting for a juice posting, is no longer ready to do his work.
And once an officer is taking or posted to such a place of interest, he is now ready to do more than constitutional duties. For example, this, juice place could be a loading jetty for crude oil, or a loading jetty for petroleum products generally.
Where the officer is going to be making some kind of money, that is better defined as illicit. So, why should a military person be more bothered about that?
The truth, is that a lot of military personal have continued to make this type of unfortunate remarks publicly, saying “They never post me to better place yet. So, there is a better place than the military duties they have enlisted into? That is what it is.
This ugly situation would have worsened now, because of the way and manner the political class regard the military. They unfortunately see the military as a small tool, which they will usually use to play their polarized politics.
But in reality, the military is supposed to be protected from politics. The military are supposed to be experts who are determined to ensure, that the Nigerian state is safe all the time.
For example, on Wednesday 8th, November, 2023, the British Metropolitan Police had said in a public statement that, there were going to be a pro-Palestina protest, this week on the streets of London, and that they were going to allow the protest to hold. As the Metropolitan Police were ready to give those protesters protection.
The British Metropolitan Police authority expressly stated, in that statement that they were not answerable to the British political class.
This simply means, that no politician should come and pork it noises in what the police were going to do, during that protest. As they were ready to do their work as it is enshrined in the British act setting them up.
This is the way the Nigerian military is expected to be behaving in the discharge of its military duties. The King further stressed, “Let me further give another example of an encounter between me and an ex-military officer, from my area of Nigeria who said, that he has read my book The Riddle of the Oil Thief, and that he felt, I was a little too hard on the Nigerian Military.
This argument took place, as at the time, the nine kilometers illegal oil pipeline through which the country’s crude oil was siphoned was discovered somewhere in Delta State. This was sometimes in October, 2022.
The ex-officer said in effect, the cover for the construction of that type of illegal oil pipeline, could not have been given by a unit commander in the military, let say an officer within the rank of Commander in the Navy or a Lt-Colonel in the Nigerian Army and so on and so forth. I said okay, could that person who would have given the order for the construction of that illegal oil pipeline would have been an officer of a higher rank?
He said, even a Brigadier in the Nigerian Army would not have been able to give such an order for a pipeline like that to be constructed. I again asked him, could it have been a person within the rank of a GOC?
This officer again, said, even an officer within that rank giving such an order for the construction of such a long pipeline was very doubtful.
He stressed, that whoever gave that order for the construction of that illegal oil pipeline must be higher than the rank of a Major-General in the Army, because of the risk involved in any of the commandants trying to do such a thing.
I now, told him, let go to the Presidency then. I then told him, let even assumed that such an illegal order would have come directly from Mr. President himself.
He then said, perhaps, let assumed such an order came directly from the Presidency before such an illegal oil pipeline could be contemplated and constructed. He excitedly says, “it is at this level such an act could work. Stressing that the military commanders the way things are now in the country, are helpless.”
“I now told him, you were once a Military General, by your training, for example, if any President calls you and asked you to facilitate the construction of this type of illegal nine kilometers oil pipeline, as a trained product of the Nigerian Defense Academy, what would you do? Or what are you supposed to do? Are you not supposed to place whosoever gave you that type of order under arrest immediately?
As this is the correct thing to do. Because what that superior officer is asking you to do, under that circumstances, is asking you to dis-regard the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and aid his attempt at sabotaging of the nation’s economy. And as such, a person like that has constituted himself to be an economy saboteur which must not be treated kindly.
At this point the gentle man kept quiet because he realized that I have won the argument between us. He however said, in Nigeria things don’t work that way.
I countered, telling him, his training as a good military officer at the Nigerian Defense Academy is to defend the general interest of Nigeria as country even at the risk of his personal life. And that is why the NDA is regarded as one of the foremost institutions of military training especially for military officers in Africa.
Under any circumstances, no matter the pressure, if an officer is unable to follow his military training, he is not worthy of being called an officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
