Posted by BOLADE OMONIJO, Deputy Political Editor on
Why would men who have been ex-this, ex-that, who felt they had the power of life and death over their compatriots now feel encircled by enemies?
What could frighten men trained to fight wars?
Why would men who have been ex-this, ex-that, who felt they had the power of life and death over their compatriots now feel encircled by enemies? These are questions that civilians at the conference have been asking since the Committee on Political Parties and the Electoral Process recommended that all those who had ruled the country in the past at the federal level should be disqualified from contesting the presidency. The committee similarly held that all those who had been military governors should never be allowed to contest for governorship at the state level.
Analysts have since argued that the provision was targeted at particular individuals. Already, General Ibrahim Babangida and Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari have indicated their intention to contest the 2007 presidency. If the conference endorses the committee recommendation and it passes through the mill of amending the constitution, the presidential ambition of these men would be frustrated.
The fear is not just at the centre. Air Commodore Jonah Jang is a delegate at the confab. In 1999 and 2003, he sought the governorship of Plateau State. Col Bello Khaliel also sought the governorship seat in Kebbi State but eventually lost to the incumbent, Alhaji Adamu Aleiro, a retired Customs officer who contested under the canopy of ANPP. Had this provision been in the constitution then, he would have been disqualified. There is no indication that he is tired of seeking that office. He therefore has a personal interest in fighting the clause.
Retired military men
Indeed, retired military men have moved powerfully to dominate politics at various levels. At the last election, at least four of the presidential candidates were former military rulers. They were, the incumbent President, General Olusegun Obasanjo who was the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Buhari who was flag bearer of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu of the All Progressive Grand Alliance and Major Gen. Ike Nwachukwu of the National Democratic Party.
Military men holding or who have held powerful political offices include the current chairman of the ruling PDP, Col Ahmadu Ali, a National Vice Chairman of the party, Commodore Bode George, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman who is now an envoy and Brigadier-General Sam Ogbemudia. Others are many serving ministers and former governors.
In ANPP, apart from Buhari, General Jerry Useni who played a prominent role in the Abacha administration and Admiral Augustus Aikhomu are power brokers and pillars of the party.
In the Senate, there are at least two visible Senators, who both retired as Brigadiers. Both had served as military governors and there are indications that both may be interested in ruling Benue and Kogi States respectively. David Mark is a power broker in Benue and the only thing standing between him and a governorship ambition is his Idoma origin. He is working on the possibility of getting the Tiv to accept that power should shift to Idoma land in 2007, in which case he would easily pick the PDP ticket. In Kogi State, Tunde Ogbeha is the godfather. He is reputed to have installed the incumbent governor. There are indications that, by 2007, when the Igalas would have occupied the seat for two terms, Ogbeha himself might try to move to bid for the seat. Both men had been military governors. Should the rule be passed, they would stand disqualified.
In this case, military men of various shades of political opinion, as men trained to fight and win wars, they were not going to give up their advantaged positions without a fight. They have served notice that they would do everything to win this battle.
Military men at the confab: The military clan and representatives of other arms of the security forces constitute the largest single constituency at the conference. Those outside rely on these comrades to prosecute this war without fail. The men are: Lt. Gen. Joshua Dogonyaro, Rear Admiral Hamzat Sani, Air Commodore Emeka Omeruah, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Lt. Gen. Victor Malu and Major Gen. Geofrey Ejiga.
Others include Brig. Gen. Bassey Asuquo, Rear Admiral Mike Onah, Admiral Mike Akhigbe, Col. Bello Khaliel, Col. Ahmadu Ali, Gen. David Jemibewon, Group Capt. Usman Jubrin, Lt. Gen. Garba Duba, Air Comm. Jonah Jang, Col. Mohammed Audu, Major Gen. Alwali Kazir, Major Gen. A. B. Maman, Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako, Brigadier-General Samuel Ogbemudia and Useni.
Also at the confab are: Nwachukwu, Major Gen.
Ibrahim Haruna, Major Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo, Brigadier General Oluwole Rotimi and Vice Admiral Akin Aduwo.
Two former Inspectors General of Police, Ibrahim Coomasie, Sunday Adewusi and a former Assistant Inspector General Fidelis Oyakhilome, along with a former Director of the SSS, Albert Horsfall, among many other representatives of security agencies, are also on hand to lend their weight.
An indication of how the retired military men would prosecute the battle emerged in the past two weeks as, one after the other, the retired men rose to criticise the Committee on Political Parties and the Electoral Process for including such a provision in their recommendations.
Case for the ban: Two members of the committee rose to defend the ban. First was Chief Polycarp Nwite who said there was no provision for the ban of anybody in the committee?s report. He said: ?We did not ban anybody. We did not single out any group of person for disqualification as some people have said. What we have simply said is that anybody who had ruled this country before should not rule again. This includes the current President and former presidents, military and civilian, at the federal level.
At the state level, former governors, by that provision, are also barred. Again, they include former military and civilians. So it is false to say people were banned. If people say it is undemocratic to limit participation in public life, then it would also be undemocratic to limit executive office holders to two terms. Why is it not left open. The people have a right to draw on their experience to design their political system.?
That intervention was however not enough to stem the agitation over that clause. Two days later, Professor Christianah Okojie rose to give further explanation in justification of the provision. According to her, in a globalised world, Nigeria cannot be an island unto herself. She drew heavily from the Latin American experience to justify the committee?s decision. She identified the greed for power as one of the major problems of the society and called attention to the system in Switzerland where the presidency is rotated over periods of six months.
Generals at war: There is nothing as fearful as encountering Generals facing an invading army. The men went to map their strategies and in no time it began to show on the floor of the conference. One after the other, despite the core issues they were mandated to defend by their constituencies, they spoke out in a language that they considered the action unfriendly, targeted at them and thus deserving of their full attention.
What they said: Hamza Sani is a retired Rear Admiral and he officially represents the Navy at the conference. Although he still had the presence of mind to comment on issues such as rotation of the presidency which he insisted should be between the North and the South and the need to develop a minority dialect as Nigeria?s national language, he devoted his attention to the issue of the disqualification. Sani said: ?The proposed disqualification of past military leaders is very unfair. It is against the tenets of democracy and, if past military leaders should be banned, their civilian collaborators who worked with them also have to be banned.?
He explained that no military government ever worked alone at any stage of the take over and consolidation of hold on power. The bracket of those to be banned, he said, would then include those who served as ministers, commissioners and other appointees of the military governments.
Jemibewon: Jemibewon has more at stake on the issue. He once served as governor of Western State during the military leadership of the Murtala/Obasanjo regime. He is a foundation member of the PDP and served on the committee that drafted the party?s constitution. Jemibewon was Minister for Police Affairs in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo as a civilian ruler.
Primary consituency
It was therefore not surprising that he sprang to the defence of his primary constituency. As a lawyer, he knew what buttons to press in making his submissions to ensure that the point sink. In addition to arguing against the provision for a single term of six years, Jemibewon would want former military rulers to be given equal opportunities with their civilian counterparts. The retired military officer also touched a controversial point when he argued against the position of the South-East that another state be created in the zone to bring it at par with the South West. Jemibewon said the old Eastern Region now has nine states while the old Western Region has eight. ?Who then is marginalized?, he asked.
Useni: Preparing the ground for his position, Useni chose to speak on the vexed issue of resource control. And, like the soldier that he is, he decided to be blunt. Very blunt. He said: ?Honestly, the word irritates me. It sends the wrong signal. If you want more money, say so. I know the problem of the area is much. I know the terrain very well having served in the military but the issue must be thoroughly discussed and the indices put on the table.?
Useni, whose committee, too, had recommended that coup plotting should be made punishable at all times, was fully against the ban. Useni rubbed it in when he identified with the unpopular General Abacha regime which he lauded for its actions.
Abdullahi Mamman: The General who once served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had no time for preambles. He had two major issues dear to him. As a representative of the FCT, he had to pay some attention to the plight of indigenes of the territory, but his first and major concern was the ban. He railed against it ??because it is selective in nature. You cannot decide to ban a man from exercising his fundamental right just because he served in the military.?? He opined that the military is a profession like any other and there should be no discrimination on this count.
Dogonyaro: He represents the Army at the confab but he is also the national president of all retired officers of the armed forces. He therefore was very direct in denouncing the ban. In his view, the ultimate deciders of who should rule should be the electorate. Nobody, he said, should put himself in the place of the electorate. He argued that if anyone should be banned, then it should be all those who participated in the military administrations, which he was quick to point out would include many of the delegates.
Jonah Jang: The retired Air Commodore is reputed to be a gentleman. Till date, reference is made to his administration of old Gongola and Benue States. He is believed to have distinguished himself as a soldier and a gentleman. But, in this case, his interest is directly touched as he has consistently indicated interest in occupying the Jos Government House, and, because he is involved, he maintained opposition to the ban which he considered unjustified and unnecessary. He spoke passionately on other issues including the electronic voting machine, resource control and the security situation in the country, especially the state of the police. He called on the delegates to support the use of voting machines in order to expose those who had been lying about their voting strength.
Mike Onah: This retired Rear Admiral represents Delta State at the confab. It is therefore natural that resource control should take much of his seven minutes. However, he had enough time to join other members of the league in drawing attention to the discrimination allegedly inherent in the proposed ban.
The debate is still on. Just as the military class rallied round their colleagues in politics, some civilians also campaigned vigorously against the ban. Chief Sam Iredia from Edo State was one of those who saw no wisdom in the provision. He said: ?I don??t support the concept of banning anybody from running for any office. We are all agreed that military era was an aberration, so what we should worry about is conducting free and fair elections.
However, the likes of Dr. Dapo Fafowora and Chief Femi Okurounmu expressed their support for the move which they said would sanitise the political scene. Fafowora said the military men were using the wealth they had somehow acquired to lord it over others ?and, unless they are disqualified, there would be no level playing field.?