Conspiracy Silence by Dr. Amanze Obi

IT will not be out of place to charge the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alexander Badeh, with conspiracy of silence. That is what his latter-day declaration on the state of the Nigerian military amounts. The other day, Badeh quibbled to no end over the Boko Haram insurgency. He said the Nigerian military under him did not have adequate arms and am­munition with which to confront Boko Haram, let alone defeat it. That was during the traditional pull-out ceremony organised in his honour by the military.

That was Badeh, the master of doublespeak. He was known with that trademark from the out­set. Let us recall that when he was appointed the CDS, the air chief had his head in the clouds. He declared with reckless enthusiasm that Boko Ha­ram would be defeated within four months from the date of his appointment. He said he had noth­ing but pity for the insurgents because, according to him, their days were as good as over. There was going to be no hiding place for them.

Alexander Badeh

Because Nigerians were, and still remain, a be­wildered lot over the Boko Haram menace, they tended to believe Badeh. The people needed just anybody or anything that would help to send the insurgents to the gallows. So, they hoped that Badeh’s upbeat declarations would translate into reality.

However, some discerning Nigerians were not taken in by Badeh’s off-handed remarks. They did not fathom how he could achieve his declared feat without a plan of action. They even considered it preposterous that a military officer would give his tactics and plans away the way Badeh did. His re­marks were frivolous through and through.

The spate of criticisms then probably jolted the CDS into reality. He began to see the absurdity of his declarations. Then, like most Nigerian public office holders usually do when they come under fire over their careless statements, Badeh turned around to say that he was misquoted. But the de­nial did not sink. It flew in the air.

Even those who tended to have sympathy for his denial abandoned the man and his points of view as he cascaded from one embarrassing epi­sode to another. The CDS took a certain delight in indulging in missteps. As the days went by, the chicken had to come home to roost. Nigerians were to discover, to their disappointment, that the CDS had no plans. He was just blabbing; feel­ing happy with himself and his new position. The man’s indiscretion almost made some of us to conclude that the military has lost its bite in terms of discipline and tact. Otherwise, how could a high-ranking military officer be so tactless in his declarations? We wondered at the man’s style.

That was Badeh as CDS. He went on that way until his days expired. But Nigerians placed one thing on record – that the air chief had no feat to commend him. While he was in the saddle, the insurgents mocked him to his very face by sack­ing his home in Adamawa State. It was an affront, which the CDS could not respond to. The ter­rorists simply went on with their reign of terror. And each time he had the opportunity to speak, Badeh would tell Nigerians that Boko Haram would soon be a thing of the past. His optimism was never supported by facts on the ground, yet the man continued to entertain us with empty in­terjections.

Nigerians were finally relieved of Barde’s bur­den when President Muhammadu Buhari retired the service chiefs appointed by his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. Badeh had to be pulled out in line with military tradition. But Badeh would not let us be. He opened a new can of worms when he said that the military under him could not achieve much because it was ill-equipped. I was aghast at that declaration. I considered it un­charitable, if not hypocritical, for Badeh to speak in the way he did. If the military under his com­mand was ill-equipped, did Badeh make bold to say so? Did he draw the attention of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the anomaly? Did he at any time drop such hints to the Nigerian publics? Badeh, certainly, did not do any of this. Then, you ask: where was he deriving all his en­thusiasm from? Why did he not speak out when it mattered for him? Was that cowardice or hypoc­risy or both?

The situation is made worse by the fact that Barde’s approach to public office is not peculiar to him. It is common among most public office holders in Nigeria. They are apes in harlequin’s jacket. What you see is not what they truly are. Badeh just made us to believe finally that he was not real. He was lying both to himself and to Ni­gerians. His action was most reprehensible, to say the least. It is one of the reasons why our leaders fail. Most of those who they appoint to help them to succeed do not have the interest of the coun­try or the government they serve at heart. Conse­quently, they divert the attention of the leadership from critical national issues that require urgent at­tention. Their motivation is not the welfare of the state and its citizenry. It is their personal interest that matters.

Maybe, Badeh did not speak up because he felt that such home truths should not be told so that he will not lose his job. But as it has turned out, the man has still lost his job in spite of his hypo­critical silence. Studied silences such as his are destructive. They retard the progress of a people. Badeh set out to protect self rather than Nigeria. But in the end, neither his interest nor that of Ni­geria has been served.

Looking back, it is noteworthy that in spite of the preponderance of quislings in Jonathan’s gov­ernment, the Nigerian military was able to push Boko Haram to the fringes. Regrettably, many Nigerians thought that Jonathan did not do much in this regard. They felt that with Buhari in the saddle, Boko Haram would disappear from the surface of the earth. Even Buhari himself gave such assurances during his campaigns. He said he knew what to do to end the insurgency. But he kept the secret, whatever it was, to himself.

But so far, Buhari’s assurances have not yielded fruits. Since he took over on May 29, Boko Haram insurgency has become more intense and fiercer. There is an obvious recrudescence in insurgent acts and activities. The new government, like the one before it, has also been caught looking.

It is obvious from what we have seen so far that Buhari does not have any magic wand in terror­ist activities as he would have many Nigerians believe. He has tried his hands on a few things that could deal with insurgency. But none appears to be working. He has relocated the command and control centre of the military from Abuja to Maiduguri. The president said that was the way to take the war to the insurgents. The action elicited mixed reactions. But Nigerians are waiting with baited breath to see how that would work.

The president has also been soliciting the sup­port of neighboring African countries. A multi­national Joint Task Force is now in place. Again, we are waiting to see how that would help to root out Boko Haram. But the president’s mood is al­ready upbeat. He said that Boko Haram activities would come to an end by the end of this year. That sounds like one of those Barde’s empty declara­tions. But as we did with Barde, we will hold Bu­hari to his declarations. In no time, the results will begin to show.

Culled from the Daily Sun