A Curious Shake-up

Paul Dike: New Chief of Defence Staff.

The sudeen sack, last week of the country’s service chiefs by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua leaves analysts with varying postulations
By Chidiebere Oneymaizu
In one of his great hits, “Soldier Come, Soldier Go”, the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo- Kuti made allusion to the transient nature of power. In the music, Fela insinuated that no kingdom lasts forever. The unexpected quake in the nation’s top military echelon, courtesy President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, indeed, underlines the inherent message in “Solider Come, Solider Go.”
The “coming” of the quartet of Air Marshall Paul Dike as the new Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Abdulrahman Dambazau, Chief of Army Staff, Vice Admiral Ishaya Ibrahim, Chief of Naval Staff and Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, Chief of Air Staff and the "going” of former occupants of the offices – General Andrew Awoye Azazi, Lt. General Luka Yusuf and Vice Admiral G.T. Adekeye, took not only the nation by surprise, but also the sacked service chiefs.
The Source can authoritatively reveal that none of the affected officers had any inkling of their impending fall. Though they were aware that their appointments were political in nature and so could be removed by the president since he has the prerogative of hire and fire, source, within the military told The Source that the former service Chiefs were not expecting the end to their careers so soon. They, The Source further gathered, were confident that if President Yar’Adua would sack them at all, such move would come towards the end of his first term in office. This confidence. The Source was further told, was derived from two factors. One, some of them were still relatively new in their posts having been appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the dying days of his administration.
Secondly, having inherited them from the former president, the sacked service chiefs had reasoned that Yar’Adua would not be in a hurry to dispense with them so soon, so as not to be seen as brazenly undoing what his benefactor and predecessor-in-office had put in place.
Indeed, the trio of Yusuf, Azazi and Adekeye, in the last weeks of their stay in office exuded this confidence in discharging their official duties. For example, the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff, Yusuf was in Monrovia, Liberia two weeks ago where he lauded the Nigerian contingent in the UN peace keeping force there for their gallantry. He had capped his visit with a pledge to the Liberian government, seemingly on behalf of the federal government, that the Nigerian troops would stay behind and provide security in the country at the end of the UN mission. There was indeed nothing in his speech to indicate it was a valedictory one.
Thus when their sack came on Wednesday, August 21, 2008, the suddenness of the move left the officers with no time to embark on the niceties of farewell tours and valedictory speeches. Those who are in the know of the inner workings of the Yar’Adua administration told The Source that the rejiging by the president of the administrative structure of Aso Rock last week was a prelude to the sacking of the service chiefs. Both the restructuring in Aso Rock administration and the change of baton in the military, The Source gathered, were primarily anchored on the president’s desire to plant his own men in strategic areas of governance, having inherited the affected personnel from his predecessor, Obasanjo.
However, beyond the facade of the desire to surround himself with trusted aides, the president’s move against the service chiefs, The Source’s investigation further reveal, is also a function of the precarious security situation in the Niger-Delta and the tensed political situation in the country. President Yar’Adua is reportedly saddened by the alleged entanglement of some arms of the Armed Forces in the debilitating militancy in the Niger-Delta.
In fact, the decision of the federal government to try Henry Okah, leader of the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in camera for alleged gun-running, The Source gathered, was to protect the military from embarrassment as it was feared that the detained MEND leader will open a can of worms should his trial be conducted in open court. In fact, the nation last year received a shock when it was discovered that a syndicate within the army has for a long time been dealing in arms belonging to the service, estimated at over N200 million.
The arms-thieving syndicate whose arrowhead was one Major S.A. Akubo, a serving officer attached to 1 Base Ordinance Depot of the Nigerian Army, Kaduan, has as its main clients, the Niger Delta militants. In the course of investigations of the high profile theft, close to N100 million was allegedly found in the account of the said Major Akubo. The Ordinance Depot of the Army serve as the warehouse for the Army’s newly purchased arsenal and other military equipment including uniforms and kits.
Besides this, the Navy has often been accused of cashing in on the restiveness in the region to engage in oil bunkering. Indeed, former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, had three years ago, while inaugurating the senate committee on the Navy pointedly indicted that arm of the nation’s Armed Forces of culpability in the spate of oil bunkering in the Niger Delta.
This re-echoed two weeks ago when the Naval authorities alleged some Naval officers retired from service on account of their involvement in oil bunkering were plotting to destabilise the country through illicit activities in the Naval barracks which they have continued to live in despite their retirement.
According to the Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Navy Captain Henry Babalola, some retired Naval officers had been going round. some naval formations, particularly, Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos to in his words, “poison” the minds of other naval personnel – an action which he said could lead to a breach of security in the country if not checked.
In retrospect, on January 5, 2005, the sun set on the military careers of two senior Naval officers, Rear Admirals Francis Etche Agbiti and Samuel Kolawole when the military court-martialed and subsequently dismissed them from the Navy for complicity in the disappearance of an illegal oil bunkering vessel, MT African Pride.
The uncertainty of his presidency in the face of strident calls by a mélange of opposition parties for his exit and the institution of an Interim Government, as well as the impending Supreme Court ruling on the validity of his election, sources say, also played a huge role in the big stick which Yar’Adua wielded against the erstwhile service chiefs. It is, infact, being discussed in hushed voices that the president seemed no longer sure of the loyalty of the service chiefs. The president, The Source gathered, somewhat became convinced about his fears when amidst his efforts to persuade the National Assembly and aggrieved Nigerians to see reasons and accept the then impending ceeding of the remaining portion of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroun, in good faith, the Navy authorities under the leadership of Adekeye, during a senate committee hearing on the issue, severely criticised the Green Tree Agreement (GTA), where the former president signed away the peninsula on the ground that it compromised Nigeria’s security.
As if that was not enough, Azazi, also at the same hearing, alleged that the military was not consulted prior to the GTA and that the military was simply taken along as a mere observer to the signing ceremony. Apparently realising the damage such open comment might have done, the Military High Command later made a feeble attempt at damage-control measures.
In replacing the service chiefs, Yar’Adua, sources said, reached for officers whom he could call his own candidates. But in doing that, the president dislocated an ethnic equation in selecting service chiefs which his predecessor, Obasanjo employed throughout his eight-year reign.
It is on record that in his eight-year presidency, Obasanjo, apparently mindful of the life and death rivalry amongst the three major ethnic groups – Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani – as regards issues such as high profile appointments, elected to pick his service chiefs from minorities in the two halves of the country- North and South.
Thus, no officer of Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa/Fulani extraction became service chiefs. For example, his first Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi is from Kogi State. Chief of Army Staff, General Victor Malu, Benue, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Victor Ombu from Bayelsa State, while his Airforce counterpart, Air Marshal Isaac Alfa is from Kogi State.
Obasanjo’s second and third set of service chiefs also came from the minorities. These were General Alexander Ogomudia, Chief of Defense Staff from Delta State, his successor, General Martin Luther Agwai is from Southern Kaduna, just as Yusuf, the sacked Chief of Army Staff. Azazi is from Bayelsa State while the immediate past Naval Chief, Adekeye is from Kwara State just as his predecessor, Afolayan. Dike is from Delta State while the man he succeeded Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep is from Plateau.
Yar’Adua’s new Airforce chief is Yoruba from Osun State, the new Naval Chief, Ibrahim is from southern Kaduna, while the new Army Chief, Dambazau is a full-blooded Hausa/ Fulani, from Kano State.
In going for an Hausa/Fulani for the Chief of Army Staff (COA) position, Aso Rock sources who read Yar’Adua’s body language say that the president regards the Army as the core of the Armed Forces and had long desired that an officer from his ethnic and religious extraction occupy the COAS post.
Before his appointment, the new Airforce Chief, Petinrin was Chief of Defence Communication, Defence Headquarters, Abuja. Born on January 19,1955, Petinrin enlisted into the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) in 1974 and was commissioned pilot officer on January 3, 1977. His Army counterpart, Dambazau was before his appointment the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Second Mechanised division of the Army, Ibadan.
Ibrahim, the new Naval chief was until last week, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command, Lagos while Dike, the new Chief of Defence Staff was until his appointment the Chief of Air Staff. He joined the Airforce in 1973 and became Chief of Air Staff on May 30, 2006.