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Troubled Waters: That cozenageous renaming of "our" naval bases By
I read with trepidation the recent announcement by the Minister of Defense on the renaming of military installations in the country. Much as I do entirely agree with the seminal foundation laid by Dr. Nowa Omoigui, concerning the naming of these installations in the country, my trepidation was borne out of the fact that when Obasanjo’s generation decides to do anything, even with the best of intentions..... watch out! The message being sent to the indigenes of these areas where the bases are located is: We are a foreign and conquering navy, and there is nothing you would do about it; as opposed to, this is your navy and children., guard and protect them.
I cannot disagree, nor do I have the necessary intellectual savvy to debate the pros and cons of, the renaming of Army Barracks in the country, but the renaming of Naval installations, is not as simple as members of the committee would want us to believe. The criteria used by this committee in renaming naval bases should be re examined. The question that arises, is why rename a naval base after Beecroft, when Everard Welby or Lugard, have no Army barracks named after them. Bear in mind that, Beecroft spent more time in Fernando Po, and has streets named after him in all the major towns in the south of Nigeria.
Would the committee confirm that names like UMALOKUN, ANANSA, AKASO, NKEMIRI, OLOKUN etc., have been jettisoned, and their reasons for doing so? Is it because these names are linked to the peoples and beliefs of the Niger Delta where most of the country’s naval activities are based? Apart from Adekunle, Adaka Boro and the operational commanders of Operation Sea Lion exercises, very few Nigeria soldiers have experienced the exigencies of sea borne operations, and hence, they lack not the theoretical military, but the trado - cultural know how, of having a friendly and safe home base environment, to return to, after being at sea. This ignorance of naval affairs, traditions and lore are also due to having an ’anything goes’ military, without enough cohesive interaction between its three arms, and the lopsided advantage inherited by the Army due to its tendency to sack and overthrow governments. Only those who have spent two to three days at sea, with only water, sky and water, as their constant companion would appreciate the meaning of the term ‘safe harbor’ and home base.
The end result is that, the Army thinks what is good for it, is okay for the other wings of the military and sometimes the country. Their idea of ultimate brilliance is appointing a member of the ‘Pyrates Confraternity’ as Minister of State for the Navy! A man whose greatest knowledge of the sea is ‘raising the deck’ at Ibadan University.
If the committee has a problem with the naming of bases after local deities and rivers, may I remind them that Nigeria is named after the River Niger, also, they are states like Benue, Cross River and even Rivers. Those of us who come from seafaring communities and have at one time or the other committed our livelihood and safety to the sea, think differently from landlubbers. Hence, the original naming of the above naval installations for the different Goddesses of the locales where they are located. Renaming these indigenous bases is wrong and smacks of ignorance and intolerance. If there is no hidden motive, we are waiting for the government of the day to rename Ogun State. After all, the first policy decision pronounced by its newly elected governor is to see that Ogun State becomes part of the Niger Delta Development Commission. Or, is Ogun not a Yoruba deity? What has our GODS done to deserve this slight? I suggest Ogun State should be changed to Obasanjo State since Ogun State was his brain child, of coupling ‘two undesirables’. The good thing about our GODS as opposed to the Christian and Muslim Gods is that they do not need us their worshippers to fight on their behalf. I guarantee that within the next one hundred years, the names of the changed naval bases would revert to what they were.
That, this Obasanjo's generation have been naming and renaming things after themselves in a country that is not yet fifty years old smacks of immodesty. What is it about this generation that they can never put a good foot forward? They took us into a civil war in which over a million lives were lost. Those of them that survived the war, stumbled into millions from our oil wealth which they couldn’t manage, and landed us in a crushing debt trap. Obviously, they are now beginning to realize that all good things have an end, and are trying to reposition themselves in the light of history., by naming and renaming monuments to massage their ego. It does not matter to them that institutions and traditions are abused and slighted. Though, the reasoning behind the renaming of military installations is sound, as there would be no barracks to go round if they get named after every commandant who maintained strict discipline and hygiene. For posterity, we need to know the following: Where was Obasanjo and how old was he when a military barracks was named after him? Did he have the decency to turn it down? When the same barracks was renamed after IBB, did he turn down the offer? Be that as it may, since the powers that be today claim they have resolved the problem, and we know in situations like this everybody cannot be satisfied, I need to alert the nation that the Johnson/Danjuma/Obasanjo committee has been fishing in troubled waters.
For those of you who do not know how old the tradition of sea fighting has been with us, and why we take more than a passing interest in her activities, Let me take the readers back to when there was no Nigeria. I will copy an eyewitness account of the first recorded indigenous battle ship. "His great canoe was gaily decked out with several ensigns streaming in the wind, British ensigns with his own name thereon in large letters. The little house amidships was brilliantly painted red and yellow. Astride its roof sat two men beating drums with might and main. Before it stood Eyamba, shaded by his great umbrella, dressed as usual, except in having a gold laced cocked hat under his arm, and a splendid sword, a present from the Dutch Government, at his side. In the bows a large gun pointed forwards, and before it stood a man with a bundle of reeds, which he kept shaking at arm’s length, to exorcise every obstacle and danger out of the way. On each side sat fifteen men with paddles, and between them down the centre stood a row of men armed with cutlasses and guns." This observation was made in the early 19th century.
From the foregoing, one can then appreciate the harm Obasanjo’s generation has done to our Navy. This organization has traveled from being a fighting cum policing Marines department, to the Nigerian Navy deployed for crowd control at public stadiums, and now down to an offshoot of the American Coast Guard., that could not rein in local militia in engine boats. Even the stillborn Biafran Navy had enough sense to mount rocket launchers on speed boats and use them in patrolling the creeks. It would not be too much for the Nigeria Government to separate the threat perspective of the Nigerian Navy into two, namely ‘the high water mark and low water mark’ threats. [no resource control pun intended] and beg the American government to donate a couple of Vietnam era PTI boats for our low water mark patrols.
For those of you who do not know, the Navy has paid her dues, forget all the glorification that Dr. Nowa ‘barrack boy’ Omoigui, is now ascribing to the Nigeria Army. It was the Nigeria Army that put us into ‘this mess’ in the first place. It was the Navy that bailed us out. Without an effective enforcement of the economic blockade, Nigeria would have lost the civil war, change of currency or no change of currency. When soldiers were busy hunting down their course mates and seniors to assassinate, it was the Navy that gave them succor. Where did Ogundipe hide out before absconding? And, if not for the steady hands of Admiral Wey, Gowon would still have been stuck half way between Edith and Victoria.
My personal advise for what so ever it is worth is, T.Y., hold your horses on the renaming of naval installations, especially those with traditional names. Set up a sub committee of Naval veterans to take a second look at the affected bases. Picking a quarrel with the owners of the sea is not the way to go. And, when next you go fishing, on your way home, don’t turn round and look back.
May 2003
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