On Guardian’s ‘Desperate Choices’

I was puzzled by the Guardian Newspapers’ big story of Friday, October 25, 2024; colorfully accompanied by a front page cartoon of a military tanker surrounded by civilians, egging on the soldier manning the vehicle, painting a picture of a civilian population supposedly asking for a military takeover. Normally I wouldn’t think The Guardian would be involved with salacious headlines, as that should be left to blogs and new or upcoming media houses, desperately seeking attention.

The writer of the piece took all of two full pages, talking about misery and harsh policies supposedly driving Nigerians to desperate choices – asking for military intervention.

But Eno Abasi Sunday, the writer, even in his opening remarks, declared that “military insurrection holds no solutions to our country’s woes.” Mr Sunday took all of one and a half of those two pages, underlining and emphasising the demerits of a military intervention or military style rule in Nigeria. At the end of the day. I wondered why such a headline and a front page military vehicle cartoon, when you’d spend the whole day arguing against it.

Mr Sunday says, “By whatever nomenclature or appellation that it goes by, military rule is an aberration in modern society, given the repressive, rapacious and gluttonous tendencies of its practitioners. Gross absence of truth, transparency, and sincerity of purpose are some of the vestiges of long years of military governance that the country has endured.”

In another breath, he says, “Not only has military rule been more of a curse than a blessing to the country, but it has stunted the growth of democratic ideals, which ought to have blossomed in the country.”
Research confirms this he says, rightly establishing that military rule has done more damage to the country’s psyche than good. Mr Sunday waxes on, “military rule in Nigeria has a rich history of corruption and human rights abuses and has been characterised by periods of authoritarianism, repression and violation of civilian rights. These abuses have often resulted in widespread suffering and hardship for the people. It also foisted on the country, a reign of widespread corruption and economic hardship, as well as a proven absence of a sustainable solution to the country’s many challenges.” Mr Sunday is directing us away from the military I must say.

Sunday posits that the worst civilian government is better than the best military government. He quoted the chairman of the Oyo branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Michael Olajide Olanipekun, who said that the calls for military insurrection is ill-placed. He advises that Nigerians should wait for 2027, if they want to change the government.

Olanipekun Esq says that those calling for a military takeover are those too young to have witnessed the days of military incursions into Nigeria’s governance in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Sunday did outline that Olanipekun’s views align with that of Prof. Olabode Lukas of the University of Ibadan (UI), who also says, “people should remember that we’ve had military governments for more than 25 years since we got independence and we were not better for it.”

Prof. Lukas says military government institutionalised corruption and destroyed the moral fabric of the country. He insists that military government is frowned upon by the international community and isolated countries like Mali, Niger, Guinea, and Burkina Faso that are currently under military leadership are not faring well as they are overwhelmed by the enormity of governance problems.

There certainly isn’t a general consensus amongst Nigerians that the military should take over. Not the NBA, not the labour unions, and certainly not religious bodies or traditional institutions. Student bodies have also not come out to seek a military intervention. The international community has not lent its voice to this supposed call or consensus. Those involved in the last nationwide protests showed their hands and ill-intentions as politicians and other pressure groups who wanted to take power through an insurrection, having failed through the ballot. All of them belong to one political party or the other.
Some are candidates, while most are their supporters in one way or the other. This begs the question, are we looking up to the “a bar masa kayansa” mob to choose between military or civilian rule on our behalf? The mob that looted public and private property and unleashed mayhem in some states where the protests were held? Those praying and seeking anarchy in our country? Are these the people Mr Sunday is talking about?

The situation is tough, the challenges are many; but when Mr President took those decisions, he didn’t deceive anyone that they wouldn’t be tough decisions. Tough but necessary. All of the presidential candidates campaigned on removing fuel subsidy. We all know that we do not have the forex strength or inflow that would adequately defend the naira on a monthly basis against the dollar. This “misery” is an accumulation of years of governance without prudence. However, the government has to fast-track those cushions that would ameliorate the cries and woes of the common man, and even the not so common man this time around.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in place of petrol, and a host of other fiscal policies that would revamp our manufacturing and agricultural sectors, along with other economic stimuli. The fast-tracking of these reforms holds the key to the success of the policies put in place. We all know that the years of military rule are long gone. Just like the civilian population and most of its establishments, the military is also facing similar struggles. The military of today is a shadow of that of yesteryears. What we cannot find in the civilian population is not hidden in the military population. The military is a subset of Nigerians afterall. So stricto sensu to borrow from Mr Sunday, there is no place for the military in Nigeria’s governance space. Those calling for the military would not be here when the military rule is in place. They would comfortably be in the safety of their asylum heavens furnished by their paymasters.

–Tahir is Talban Bauchi