MALU'S TRAVAILS AND THE NIGERIAN REALITY

By

Prof. Mike Ikhariale

General Victor Malu (retired) was until a few months ago the Chief of Army Staff of Nigeria. And by virtue of that office, was then the bona fide custodian of the nation’s flag and armory. More than that, he was equally the alter ego of the Nigerian Army, the undisputed repository of its doctrine and its general orientation. But just only a few days ago, the same General Victor Malu had to pour out his lamentation through the African Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation over his misfortune in the hands of the same army he has just relinquished command. Where else could such a drama happen, except in Nigeria and, in what army would such an abomination take place other than the Nigerian Army?

In a voice choked with frustration and laden with extreme emotion, the old soldier had to declare rather uncharacteristically to the world that "my faith in the nation is shaky". Here is a man whose curriculum vitae proudly proclaims such outstanding national service as a war hero in the Sierra Leone ECOMOG campaign, Chairman of the Military Tribunal that ably dispensed Abacha justice over those alleged to have plotted against that evil regime, the number one combat officer in Nigeria in the capacity of Chief of Army Staff and an acknowledged stickler for military professionalism and other no less enviable accolades. So carried away he was with the idea of professional soldiering in a totally politicized army that he was not able to walk the tight rope of real politics as required by his high office as the head of the army as he decided to take head on his political bosses on certain key policy issues like the US retraining of Nigerian troops both in military doctrine and in the ethical imperatives of maximum submission to civil authorities.

Malu was on record to have argued so strongly that the Nigerian army has nothing to learn from their US counterparts. Many of us disagreed with the Tiv-born general for two main reasons. One, the Nigerian army has been unduly politicized, and for too long. It was necessary that it re-learns one or two things from the Americans on how to relate with the civil political process. Professionalism should not be interpreted to mean reckless disregard of the political control by serving commanders. It was obvious that coming from the near anarchic past in which Nigerian soldiers assumed both professional and political responsibilities in society, it was understandable why Malu crossed the lines so glaringly. Secondly, it is no secret that the Nigerian army has grown to look on civilians with considerable condescension as typified by the "bloody civilian" sobriquet they so freely dole out on the civil populace with whose tax money they are kited. So he fell out prematurely with his constitutional civilian superiors in the Ministry of Defense. I was particularly irked by Malu studded defence of the old mentality of the Nigerian soldier as manifested by incidents like the raiding of Kalakuta Republic in the eighties and the massacre at Odi which in fact took place during his command. Consequently, I proceeded to deconstruct his rather naive philosophy and perception of the Nigerian landscape in a piece I christened "The Malu Fight". Even as I did so, it should have been clear to the general himself and who ever read me in good faith that his person was only tangential to the analysis as the gravamen of the piece was actually on the system that sustains such negative developments. He was only a symbol of a very active but oppressive political machine that keep eating up its best on a masochist scheme aptly described as the UAC (use and condemn) syndrome. In my widest dream, however, I did not reckon that the General himself would be converted so soon.

That the same General Victor Malu who did not blink an eye lid while sentencing fellow officers and an innocent journalist to death by firing squad for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation as defined by Abacha’s personal interests could now be wailing about his shaky confidence in the same state is a bold reminder of the old saying that no condition is permanent. Today’s patriot could be tomorrow’s traitor; and today’s nationalist could be tomorrow’s rebel, a situation that clearly defines the reality of the Nigerian State. He may want to have a tea session with Generals Gowon, Obasanjo and others before him on this darkling lane how it feels to be humiliated overnight by boys you once recruited and commanded. Just a few years ago, the bitter comment of the General which was openly aired by the BBC and widely reported would have been enough to send him to the firing squad, especially in the days he himself acted as the chairman of a military tribunal trying the cases of those who thought differently from his then boss. Well, times have changed as the chief hunter is now been hunted, so it seems, judging by his own statement that his own house was systematically destroyed and his blind old uncle together with the ailing wife were both killed by troops of the Nigerian army which were, until a few months ago, under his ultimate command.

Can anyone imagine US troops destroying the house of General Collins Powell (retired)? But Malu who had thought himself to be commanding an army that was at par in all departments of the profession with that of the US must now begin to know the differences between the two systems, a fact which we have been trying to draw out to him but to no avail. Yes, we also have a flag, a national currency and even a democracy. Truth however is that Nigeria is not America. Our troops enlist into the army to serve the nation but circumstantially end up serving an individual or group, practically mai gading for him or them, so it seems at the expense of the nation. That much was how we were made to understand the role our soldiers played during the various military regimes. Eye service and morbid god-fatherism became the battle cry for our soldiers and whatever doubts existed about this proposition evaporated quickly during the Oputa Panel proceedings. The khaki uniform does not make officers out of bigots and as Fela would put it, uniform na cloth, na tailor de so am. Just as Odi was razed down, then denied and trivialized, so is the recent massacre in some parts of the country being denied, down played or rationalized before a horrified world.

While it may be an appropriate subject of another essay, the nagging question of why on earth would people think they can easily mess with national security forces doing their lawful duties in Nigeria and get away with it is germane. It is just that we must for now dispose of the issues raised by the drama in which a former Chief of Army Staff would be having a taste of "his own medicine", so to say. Military justice, as we have been repeatedly told, has no room for the luxury of neither the rule of law nor the doctrine of equity. That, I should think, is regrettably a given for us in Nigeria. I therefore completely agree with the President and C-in-C, retired General Obasanjo, when he said that anyone who killed a Nigerian soldier for any cause whatsoever should expect disaster aplenty. Our point of departure however is his reasoning that soldiers are only trained to kill and maim. Modern professional armies actually do more than killing, burning and looting, they also build and create. We must re-orientate our soldiers accordingly.

And, it is also imperative that we look into the psychology of people who would kill troops duly commissioned and kitted in the colors of their own nation. What is more, troops who are only on peacekeeping missions! It is unheard of; it is un-African, irresponsible and utterly barbaric. Such must stop or be stopped at all lawful costs. That said, the military reprisal massacres in Tivland and elsewhere are deplorable incidents which can not stand the test of civility and the law of warfare even if we were to be at war with ourselves. The story of My Lai massacre in which some US marines needlessly killed several unarmed Vietnamese enemies has remained a major contentious issue in the US-Vietnam war. I do not see why massacres of Nigerians by Nigerian troops inside Nigeria should take a different form, irrespective of the circumstances in which these mayhems were committed.

A lot must have gone wrong in the land for these ominous phenomena to have become a national pastime, so much so that they no longer draw much attention. In the aftermath of this criminality, it is tempting to want to put the blame on the hapless common man. Our position is that there is really nothing fundamentally wrong with the Nigerian. What has gone awry is the system, a set of situation wherein it is the whims and caprices of those at the helms, rather than defined set of rules and standards or operative principles that determine what is in the national interests. People behave the way they are doing today because they have been systematically disconnected from the essence of the Nigerian states by a ruling elite that could not rise beyond the limits of their stunted vision and had gone ahead to reconstruct the national ethos in ways that are totally inimical to the evolution of the national spirit all in their own blurred image.

That was why, General Malu could not understand that resisting Abacha could not by itself constitute treason for which the accused must die. He could not separate the interest of the nation from that of Abacha and it is pretty obvious that those soldiers that destroyed his house so viciously are of the same doctrine, which he propagated while he was in active service. I have no doubt in my mind that if I ask the embattled general today what his position is on the call for a Sovereign National Conference, such a question would sound to him to be rather pedantic because he has by his own proclamation on the BBC made it clear that his faith in Nigeria is now "shaky" not just 'shaken' as others had experienced. Now he can see clearly what the other side has been saying for years. Given the depth of his manifest frustration with the status quo, only a renegotiating of his people’s position in the national order would sufficiently reassure him that his kith and kin are still valued members of the Nigerian system. But must we all undergo such grueling experiences before appreciating an obvious logical imperative confronting the Nigeria society?

I think the time has come when the nation must have to address the question of what values that supremely animate our system of governance, the essential consensus in our Union and where we want to go from here. Resorting to escapist and self serving constitutionalism and misguided political cum sectarian sophistry in the face of a failing national project is at best playing the Nero or at worst, planting a time bomb that will at the appropriate time detonate on all of us. Nothing so far down at the level of legislation and policy formulation speaks to the problems on the ground. All we hear of is about politics and politics, corruption and corruption, arrogance and undeserved affluence but nothing about social justice, the welfare of the people and the needs of the downtrodden. It is clear that we are not taking the window of opportunity, which the new democracy is offering us to either talk or walk. Instead it is ‘chop and chop’ as usual. To fill the vacuous space, religious bigots and ethnic chauvinists have stepped up and seized the national agenda to the detriment of progress and national cohesion, leaving the politicians to become mere cheerleaders in the melodrama.

The Tiv/Junkun crises have been on for years. The same for several other flash points across the length and breadth of Nigeria. While the causes of these conflicts may be remote, it is obvious that the reasons why they continue to fester and escalate are not too far-fetched: some people are profiting by these unfortunate crises. Pure and simple. Politicians in khaki and agbada have all found our unfortunate peasants as cheap and pliable cannon folders in their selfish scheming for the privatization of the national wealth in the guise of governance by playing to their religious and ethnic sentiments. It is hard to beleive that peoples and communities that have lived together in relative peace and harmony before now are suddenly at each other’s throat. People who have intermingled and respected each other’s religions and cultures for ages are today burning houses of worship, killing and maiming each other in the most satanic fashion. It is noteworthy that in all these pogroms and vandalism, not a single Imam or Pastor, Monarch or Governor has been reported killed, not even their children. Yet, in the name of God, those who have no business with religious affairs have been committing all manners of atrocities against their fellow citizens. While those who do not know how their ‘town’s man’ routinely loots the treasury in collaboration with people from the "enemy side" are ignorantly killing each other in the name of politics or whatever.

People have wondered why would most of these criminality and misguided religious salvationism and hate-filled fundamentalism blossom in spite of the new democracy. The truth of the matter is that the system in place has ensured that the democracy we instituted is corrupted and disorientated, ab initio. When politicians deploy political powers into personal material aggrandizement in a society acutely faced with economic disability, social dislocation and massive ignorance, the resulting sense of relative deprivation by those not within the zone of plunder is often translated into anarchic tendencies like robberies, frauds, corruption, communal hostilities, sectarian violence and other conflictual relationships. Matters are further complicated when the political elite attempt to rationalize the misfortune of the people --simply by pointing to members of the other groups as the source of the problem. In this process, old quarrels and ancient squabbles are revived and town meetings and religious gatherings are mischievously converted into fora for demonizing those groups perceived to be ‘against us’ by elite who corruptly share improper estacodes and official bonanzas across ethnic and religious lines. For example, Abacha was able to convince some people that the problem he faced was because of his nativity and not his policies and ideology. Yet, not many of his ethnic stock tasted of his loots. The wealth he illegitimately accumulated is exclusively for the Abachas and they alone.

At the end of the day, our people are simply dying, fighting for the crumbs from their oppressors’ table. The mindless plundering of the little that is available by those in custody of the national resources is exacerbating the struggles for farmlands, grazing lands, waterways and other resources needed for very elementary survival. With some moderation in the plundering, there ought to be enough for all in Nigeria. It is most unlikely that contented adults and gainfully employed youths would have the time and the necessity to enlist in the booming ethnic and sectarian militias causing mayhems across the country. Malu's travails is therefore a perfect manifestation of the Nigerian reality of which the disorientation of the military is the most effective illustration.

Well, we are now supposed to be in a democracy, it is therefore proper that we demand a new lease of civilized life from those that govern us. But from what materials, if one may ask, were the politicians made? The army might have gone formally, but in substance its mentality continues to dominate our lives. I am not going as far as pointing out that it was only those who dealt with the military directly or collaboratively that met the discriminating and unfair hurdles set by electoral institutions in 1999. But I would only remind us that the product of any effort is a direct function of the input: garbage in, garbage out. That is why General Malu, a national hero yesterday now openly doubts his patriotism today. Remember that when they came for the Ogonis, we did not talk; when they came for the Odi people we kept mute; when they came for the Ijaws, we also did not complain either. Now they have come to the General! Maybe you will be the next. That is the way it goes when rules are truncated for political expediency. And it could be tragic.

My heart truly goes out to General Malu and all those who suffered in the unfortunate massacre. And in the context of the Nigerian reality, this may just be daybreak for some.

Massachusetts, USA.

November 2001