@@@@@@”How does the Nigerian Army remain neutral in a deadly conflict between villagers and an invading, occupying, destructive, and murderous herdsmen; yet, fail to see why such contrived neutrality can be interpreted as connivance and collusion? There can be no such thing as neutrality in a situation where local communities are invaded, their crops eaten up by cows, their women raped, and their kinsmen killed by armed and rampaging herdsmen”.@@@@@@
Green Nwadinobi wrote: Former Chief of Army Staff, Retired Lieutenant General Theophilus Danjuma, had yesterday, while delivering a commencement address at the Taraba State University, made what, on its face, was a wildly incendiary and seditious statement. General Danjuma had, in the light of day, in an open ceremony, and fully aware that he was being recorded, accused the Nigerian Army of complicity and collusion with murderous herdsmen in their attacks and mass killings of local Taraba farmers and villagers. With that as premise, General Danjuma called on the people of Taraba to take up arms and defend themselves.
A few points are worthy of note:
1. On its face value, and as matters of both personal responsibility and national security, Danjuma’s comments, and the circumstances of their making, would seem grossly thoughtless and gravely irresponsible. A man of Danjuma’s stature should have accessed his contacts and connections in the highest echelons of official and governmental networks to register those sentiments with considerations for discretion and national security.
2. That said, Danjuma’s comments are as clear, categorical, unequivocal, unsophisticated, and unambiguous. He left no room for word parsing or nuances.
3. With his enormous wealth and vast contacts, it cannot be doubted that TY Danjuma has access to vast intelligence, even of the most highly classified type. Therefore, as condemnable and reprehensible as his method may seem, the substance of Danjuma’s comments cannot be dismissed with a wave of a hand. Unfortunately, that is the mistake the Nigerian Army authorities have sought to make in their convoluted press statement in response to Danjuma (see further below).
4. In their clearly itemized, yet muddled, response, the authorities of the Nigerian Army, through their Director of Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, committed very troubling contradictions. In Item 2(a) of the said response, the Nigerian Army asserts the following:
“The Nigerian Army is constitutionally charged with the responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria and to aid the civil authority whenever called upon to do so. In this light, the authorisation for the conduct of Ex AYEM AKPATUMA was authorised and troops deployed to curb menace of the herdsmen-farmers conflict and other criminal activities in the North Central Region amongst others.”
If you ignore ‘authorization was authorized’, that will seem like a decent paragraph. But that should be the only thing you want to ignore, because a little further in the same response, Item 2(d), the same statement reads:
“It is noteworthy to state that at the inception of Theophilus Danjuma, the Taraba State Government, did not cooperate with the Nigerian Army due to the Army’s stance to remain absolutely neutral in the herdsmen-farmers crisis. The Nigerian Army will continue to remain as such.”
Now, this is where DY Danjuma regains credibility. This is where the Nigerian Army, perhaps unknowingly, admitted and corroborated Danjuma’s claims. If you can reconcile the obvious and palpable contradiction between Items 2(a) & (d) of the Army statement, send me your account details and I will cut a check for Ten Naira.
How could the Nigerian Army in one breath admit that it is “constitutionally charged with the responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria and to aid the civil authority whenever called upon to do so” and further admit that there is “authorization for the conduct of Ex AYEM AKPATUMA”, designed “to curb menace of the herdsmen-farmers conflict and other criminal activities in the North Central Region amongst others”, yet, clearly state that “at the inception of Ex AYEM AKPATUMA, the Taraba State Government, did not cooperate with the Nigerian Army due to the Army’s stance to remain absolutely neutral in the herdsmen-farmers crisis”, and that “the Nigerian Army will continue to remain as such”?
Clearly, those two positions are not just irreconcilable, they are unsustainable. And this may just be what General Danjuma is saying. How does the Nigerian Army remain neutral in a deadly conflict between villagers and an invading, occupying, destructive, and murderous herdsmen; yet, fail to see why such contrived neutrality can be interpreted as connivance and collusion? There can be no such thing as neutrality in a situation where local communities are invaded, their crops eaten up by cows, their women raped, and their kinsmen killed by armed and rampaging herdsmen.
Look, on the strength of the press statement issued by the authorities of the Nigerian Army in response to Danjuma, I am hard pressed to dismiss TY Danjuma as a rabble-rousing provocateur. The Army must do better than that ill-crafted response. But I’m afraid the genie is out of the bottle already. It has, perhaps unwittingly, admitted that it adopts a neutral posture as a rule of engagement while hundreds of villagers and farmers are butchered in their communities. So how is Danjuma wrong?
Like I stated earlier, Danjuma’s comments, on their face, smack of seditious incitement for which an arrest and prosecution should clearly lie. Why has Danjuma not been arrested and charged? To accuse the national army of colluding with murderers and to encourage local communities who are victims of such collusion to take up arms and defend themselves, is to encourage attacks on the national army. It doesn’t get any more seditious than that. So, again I ask: why haven’t the authorities of the Nigerian Army arrested Lieutenant General TY Danjuma? Is it because they know that Danjuma knows what they have just admitted? Maybe.
As an aside, where is Nnamdi Kanu? How is his crime vastly different from TY Danjuma’s seditious call on the local communities of Taraba to take up arms and defend themselves against the conspiring and colluding forces of herdsmen and the Nigerian Army? Just asking.
/Odenigbo
Below is the full text of Nigerian Army Press Statement.
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NIGERIAN ARMY PRESS STATEMENT ON THE ALLEGED MILITARY COLLUSION WITH MILITIAS/CRIMINALS MADE BY FORMER CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF
1. The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to the unfortunate statement made by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, during the convocation ceremony of the Taraba State University on Saturday 24 March 2018 in which he categorically asserted that the Armed Forces of Nigeria was colluding with militias and other criminal elements and was unable to provide security for the citizens of Taraba State. He further called the people of Taraba State to take up arms and defend themselves. The Nigerian Army views this statement made by the former Chief of Army Staff as most unfortunate at this critical time that the military has embarked upon demilitarisation of the North Central Region of the Country.
2. While Nigerian Army would not want to join issues with the Elder Statesman, however, certain facts need to be clearly stated in the interest of the Taraba People and the Nigerian public:
a. The Nigerian Army is constitutionally charged with the responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria and to aid the civil authority whenever called upon to do so. In this light, the authorisation for the conduct of Ex AYEM AKPATUMA was authorised and troops deployed to curb menace of the herdsmen-farmers conflict and other criminal activities in the North Central Region amongst others.
b. It is on record that the successes so far achieved in Ex AYEM AKPATUMA have been recognised and accepted by Nigerians.
c. The public is notified that Nigerian Army personnel have had to pay the supreme price for ensuring the sustenance of security in Taraba State. For instance, a gallant non-commission officer of the Nigerian Army was beheaded on 16 March 2018 in Takum Taraba State by criminal elements.
d. It is noteworthy to state that at the inception of Ex AYEM AKPATUMA, the Taraba State Government, did not cooperate with the Nigerian Army due to the Army’s stance to remain absolutely neutral in the herdsmen-farmers crisis. The Nigerian Army will continue to remain as such.
e. For avoidance of doubt, the Nigerian Army advises the people of Taraba State and indeed all other Nigerians to continue in their day-to-day activities and be law abiding as anyone caught with arms and ammunition will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the land. Every law-abiding citizen is assured of equal protection and security of their lives and property irrespective of his/her person.
3. You are please requested to disseminate this information to the general public through your reputable medium.
4. Thank you for your usual cooperation.
TEXAS CHUKWU
(Brigadier General)
Director Army Public Relations
