As someone who has been fighting corruption ferociously since he assumed office on Friday, May 29, last year and has made many retired and serving military officers, politicians and others forfeit their illegally acquired wealth of several millions or billions to the state, I am not surprised of Friday’s announcement of a rumoured army coup against President Muhammadu Buhari. But I don’t believe that soldiers are planning a putsch to oust or kill him and take over government. What I make of the story is that some corrupt people may be out to assassinate him to stem his war against corruption and easy acquisition of wealth.
I doubt the hearsay tale of an army insurrection against the President because it emanated online and because the soldiers who want to carry it out are said to have approached some militants for its execution. Why and how on earth will military men who want to overthrow a government seek the co-operation of civilians with illegal arms to do so? When such a move can lead to the leakage of their sinister ambition and end up in their arrest, trial and death penalty or long – term jail.
I believe for a coup to succeed in the final analysis those behind it after announcing the overthrow of the government must be powerful and influential enough to win the support of the other divisions of the military. In other words, a successful army putsch can only be carried out by the Chief of Army Staff or a combination of some General Officers Commanding (GOCs) Divisions of the military. How will such people who have access to enough arms and ammunition and thousands of soldiers to execute a coup, approach civilian militants to overthrow the government?
It doesn’t make sense! What President Buhari has been doing in the one year and one month he has been in office (May 29, 2015 – June 29, 2016) is to bring to book military officers, politicians and others who pocketed the money meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram and take care of soldiers and maintain or build new barracks. So, why will reasonable military men want to topple such a leader?
What’s more, it is common knowledge that coups are no more popular in the world. The President of the United States and the leaders of European and Asian countries are firmly behind President Buhari because of his war against corruption. So, any soldier that moves against him will incur their anger and would be given a tough time by them. Ditto the Nigerian hoi polloi (the masses or common people) who are happy with the war he is waging against people milking the country and making filthy wealth. Their opposition may even lead to a revolution that would consume the coupists and all the corrupt leaders in the last 30 years. That is from the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida up to the government Dr. Goodluck Jonathan (i.e. from 1985 – 2015).
Thus, for me, if soldiers go to militants, it is not to carry out a coup to oust the government, but to assassinate President Buhari. So, he needs to tighten security around himself. Because through his policies and activities he has offended many people and groups, like Boko Haram insurgents, Niger – Delta militants, crusaders for the Republic of Biafra and corrupt ones, who will be after him.
To be continued next week Wednesday
Igbo, Hausa or Fulani, not Yoruba, are Nigeria’s problem (6)
From my extensive travels by road in Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe States in the 1990s recounted in last week’s column, I do know that contrary to the claim of Fulani – born Attahiru (080 – 3588 – 7800), that the Hausa and Fulani are the major ethnic groups in the North – East, not the Kanuris and the other minorities in the zone. As a matter of fact, this was confirmed to me with figures penultimate Friday by one of the ardent readers of this column, who is from a state in the North – Central and has been living in the North – East in the last 19 years and travelled widely in all the six states in the zone.
According to the man who has been working in Yola, Adamawa State for years now and had been on relief duties in Maiduguri in Borno State and other towns in the zone, the Hausas and Fulani are 55% of the people in the North – East. Although the Hausas are the most populous in the country (21%) and the Fulanis (8%), my source, who is a Muslim and an Alhaji, says the Fulani are more than the Hausa in the North – East.
He puts the Kanuris as 20% of the people in the zone, the Margi 3%, while each of the Jukun, Babur/Bura, Kare Kare, Bata and Bachana have 2% (making it 10% for the five tribes). And says each of the Chibok, Tangale and Waja ethnic groups have 1% (a cumulative of 3% for all) with the other over a hundred nationalities making up the remaining 9%. So, Attahiru can see that he cannot absolve his Fulani people as the major force in the Boko Haram efforts to secede or take over the whole of the country and proclaim Nigeria a Caliphate or Islamic Republic.
Continues next week. The rounding off of the Yoruba/Benin ancestry dispute will return after the conclusion of the coup against President Buhari.