In this week’s discourse, we shall be featuring one of the greatest Nigerians in the present age.Cham Faliya Sharon, the honest, fearless and brave Nigerian, the author of ‘As the Church slept’ trilogy and ‘Tools Jonathan uses to divide Nigerians’.
He is back with another mind blowing masterpiece. And here it is.
‘They say, “The worst democratic government is better than the best military regime”. Well, compare and contrast. All the military coups in Nigeria, except that of 1966 and 1976, were bloodless. But even during local council election, Nigerian civilians will murder people they perceive as hostile to their ambition and agenda. The number of people killed in one local government election alone in Nigeria has surpassed the number of people killed by military coups in 1966, 1976 and any other coups that had any loss of life combined!
Military regimes united Nigerians more than the civilian regimes. Muslim military rulers posted Christian military officers to be governors of Muslim dominated states like Bauchi, Gongola, Kano, Borno, Gombe, etc. In the same manner they posted Muslims to be governors of some Christian dominated states, and nobody complained. But today, corrupt civilian rulers and their evil collaborators in religious corridors will always emphasize ethno-religious sentiments for voters’ manipulations, which always leave their supporters looking stupid because they end up looting, looting and looting coupled with promoting demonic agenda that will help sustain their looting penchant.
The current Plateau state governor, Pastor Jonah David Jang, who is now among the frontline ethno-religious bigots in Nigeria, was posted to be military governor in a Muslim dominated state by a Muslim military head of state, and thereafter posted to govern Benue state. So also Professor Jerry Gana who is equally a frontline champion among those who always work to divide the people along ethno-religious lines was made what he is today by Generals Ibrahim Babangida. But today he is among the most divisive elements in Nigeria, always leading the orchestra choir of ethno-religious sentiments and sectionalism.
If it were democracy all the way someone should kindly tell me how Christian soldiers that were of ethnic minorities could have become governors in predominantly Muslim states! Tell me how people like Colonel YohannaMadaki, Col. John Madaki, Brigadier Chris Garuba, Col. Atukum, Lawrence Onoja, Group Captain Dan Suleiman, Wing Commander James Yana Kalau, Brigadier Dominic Oneya, Brigadier David Mark, Col. John Shagaya, could have governed Muslim states? At best they could have been governors only in Benue, Kaduna and Plateau states if it were democracy, and even at that, how many years will they take in a queue to become governors, plus would other tribes in their own states even allow them become governors through popular votes? However, it is common sight these days to see people like Jang and Onoja leading the vocals of the marginalisation choir! In fact, there were more Christian military governors and cabinet ministers under Muslim military heads of state, and most of them were from ethnic minorities. When Abacha created Gombe state in 1996 its first governorwas Wing Commander Joseph Orji, Igbo and Christian! Talk about national unity in practice! However, I mustn’t forget to add that if Abacha were alive today, and wants to contest for the Presidency, the issues that will be brought up against him will not be about corruption or incompetence but wild propaganda about an Islamic agenda because of his religious belief and the usual stuff about marginalisation of ethnic minorities.
Tell me how military rulers who had the military power to decree an Islamic agenda by fiat but didn’t do so could turn round and do so in a democracy where every decision must be vetted and backed by the legislature and other interest blocs? Pretty illogical, isn’t it?
No military regime in Nigeria ever stole $20 billion per annum. The worst case scenario was the charge against IBB’s regime of looting $12.8 billion in his eight years tenure or $5 billion Abacha was said to have looted in his five-year regime. But now civilians have converted public funds into their personal estates or ATMs and do “not give a damn” about it! Shamelessness and dishonour have all become fine art, and the more shameless and dishonourable you are the more you get applauded by stinking hands from the rotten bodies of walking corpses that assume their walking ability to mean normality!
Violent crimes like armed robbery and illicit drugs trade were effectively checked by military regimes, but civilian regimes not only multiplied armed robberies and illicit drugs trade, they also added kidnapping, militancy, cultism, children and women trafficking, baby factories and terrorism. Add to it the unsavoury fact that under corrupt civilian dictators, kids as many as 300 could be abducted at once by bandits in areas supposedly under the patrol of some 20, 000 soldiers!
No military ruler ever shut down any airport except if there was a coup. Today, civilian dictators command soldiers to shut down airports so that civilian politicians in the opposition should not fly, or if they are already airborne they should not land so that if the aircraft has insufficient fuel it should crash and kill them. We have even reached the stage whereby a corrupt civilian dictator can order soldiers to stop governors from entering another state by road, and the soldiers could even tell the governor that they would shoot him if he didn’t comply! The same soldiers that “Boko Haram” freely pass through their checkpoints in North-eastern Nigeria. The same soldiers who cannot rescue 276 poor schoolgirls from the evil clutches of their abductors.
To be continued……..
