The
chief of army staff Tukur Buratai warned soldiers of the Nigerian Army against
any perceived plan for a military coup in Nigeria. Buratai also said that any
unapproved gathering among the military rank and file and anyone found wanting
would be punished servery. But in this fresh piece, the former minister of
aviation Femi Fani-Kayode thinks otherwise. The former minister says he is
worried as this could be plans by the Northern ruling class to truncate
democracy over indication that they might loose power. I am very worried now.
Ever since 1966 the northern ruling class has ALWAYS effected a coup d’etat
whenever they feel sufficiently threatened with the loss of power. The only
time that they failed to do this, to their eternal regret, was when President
Goodluck Jonathan succeeded President Umaru Yar”Adua after the latter’s death
in 2010. Up until today they blame my friend and brother Lt. Abdulrahman
General Dambazau for that failure and they felt he was weak and cowardly.
This is because he was the Chief of Army Staff at the time and
he did not strike. He paid a heavy price for his “weakness” and for not doing
their bidding a few years later because when Buhari came to power in 2015
instead of appointing him Minister of Defence or National Security Advisor,
which is what he had originally been penned down for, he appointed him as
Minister of Interior which is far less strategic and important. As a
consequence of his “failure” to strike they had to endure Jonathan for five
long years and their response was to covertly support and encourage Boko Haram
to make parts of the country “ungovernable” and to organise the whole Chibok
girls affair, in collusion with a notable foreign intelligence agency and
foreign Government, to get him out by 2015. President Muhammadu Buhari was
“elected” into office that year and now his fate is similar to Yar’Adua’s. He
is chronically ill and he is NOT coming back to lead and rule as he once did
because he will NEVER be the same again.
Once he dies the northern ruling class have already decided on
what to do. They will give Vice President Yemi Osinbajo an ultimatum and they
will threaten him and ask him to resign. They have resolved that they will not
allow power to go to the south and they will encourage their senior officers in
the military to effect a coup. In doing so they are only doing what they have
ALWAYS done when they feel sufficiently threatened with the loss of power. That
is their way. And that is the measure of their ruthlessness and determination
to hold on to power. They would rather have a core northern military dictator
in power than a southern leader or President. And they are prepared to kill
anyone, no matter how highly placed, who stands in their way or who attempts to
oppose or stop them. The only options that exist if they are to be stopped is,
firstly, if someone beats them to it by effecting a “progressive” Rawlings,
Orkar or Nzeogwu-type coup of junior southern and Middle Belt officers. This
would lead to massive loss of life and to civil war and it is therefore
unacceptable.
The other option is for the southern and Middle Belt civilian
population to come together and march the streets in an attempt to resist
military insurrection and mutiny in the name of fighting for and attempting to
preserve democracy. That would be the best option but sadly we do not have a
very good track record when it comes to protesting against injustice and the
truncation of democracy and this is especially so because the core north will openly
support the coup and hail it.
However, one thing is clear this time around: if a coup led and
inspired by the core north and the FN takes place simply to keep a southerner
out of power it will signal the end of Nigeria as a united country. Such is the
anger and frustration in the south and Middle Belt today about the excesses,
abuses of power, wickedness, bondage and arrogance of the north that there is
likely to be a very violent reaction to any northern coup. This may well lead
to the disintegration of the federation and when it gets to that point even the
army will be hard pressed to keep us together as one nation. The likelihood is
that it would lead to a second civil war because even the army would be split
down the middle along regional, ethnic and religious lines.
That is the catastrophe, madness, chaos and carnage that the
northern ruling class are now leading us to and toying with in their insane
quest to hold on to power. That is where they are pushing us to with their
obsessive and insatiable appetite and lust for that power.
It is for this reason that the plan by the cabal in Buhari’s
government and the northern ruling elite to effect a coup in order to keep
power for themselves and their people and to stop a southerner from enjoying it
must be condemned and resisted by ALL men and women of goodwill. And as we
condemn it we must prepare for a very strong reaction to it (and not just with
loud and empty words) when they strike. We must be ready to put our money where
our mouth is. We must be prepared to risk our lives. We must be prepared to
fight back and resist them with guns and bullets and every fibre of our being.
We must not let them steal our country from us right under our noses and deny
us the right to wield power as the constitution dictates. We must not let them
abort democracy even though Buhari’s rule can hardly be described as one and
would be better described as a murderous and despotic civilian dictatorship.
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