JUSTICIA on The Southerner Newspaper 

Sunday, November 9, 2025

To deny that Nigeria is a thoroughly divided society and that this division is real is to live in self-denial and delusion. Events in the last three weeks have once again highlighted the depth of this division.

Division is normal in a diverse society, but it becomes frightening when the elites that have benefited more from the society, begin to behave like a serial rapist who, after his indulgences, dispenses with his victims. It is even worse if the rapist invites a renowned bully to continue his nefarious exploit.

I must confess that my interest in social media is becoming an intolerable obsession, which, for the sake of my mental health, I must curtail.

I have recently noticed that videos eulogizing the exploits of General Sani Abacha were popping up on social media. Then, as in the past, there were reports of a foiled coup plot against the two-year-old administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

As in the past, the military denied that there was such a plot, even as the names of sixteen senior officers said to have been arrested and their civilian sponsors have appeared in the public sphere.

Apparently, in response to the plot, President Tinubu, a politician with a rare strategic instinct, cracked the whip. The service chiefs were fired, signaling an imminent purge of a military that has been fighting asymmetrical war for over a decade, with virtually no evidence that they are winning the war.

Wars are supposed to be won, and great commanders become great for battles won, not for contracts awarded for infrastructure in the barracks or for the various degrees acquired from various military institutions.

General T.Y. Danjumah, who has commanded the Nigerian Army as Chief of Army Staff and Later Defense Minister, cried out, even at the winter of his life, that the military was colluding with the insurgents and then jihadists; President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration pointedly ignored him. General Danjuma enjoined Nigerians to defend themselves. And this is the time to listen to him.

Several reports of this collusion have never been investigated or addressed, and no officer has been brought to justice. There have been several reports that traditional rulers, village heads, local government officials, and even imams in the Northern States have been publicly fraternizing with the bandits and insurgents. At the same time, some state governors are known to be gleefully paying ransom and taxes to these criminals, thus fueling the war against the Nigerian people.

When the report of the alleged coup plot came out, rather than the military owning up to their shortcomings and being transparent, they reverted to the old ways of hiding the truth.

Some of the grievances emanating from the military high command range from disciplinary issues involving officers who have been failing promotion exams to other unmentioned facts about a military that is failing to enforce discipline, disgustingly corrupt, and lacking in effective leadership.

At the same time, the public square is rife with reports that some senior officers with more loyalty to their ethno-religious origin than the nation which they swore to defend, traditional rulers, and politicians from the Northern states have been aiding and abetting the onslaught on the Nigerian population by Boko Haram, Fulani herders, bandits, and other sundry jihadist networks from the Sahel and the Middle East.

There have been reports of so-called reformed Boko Haram commanders still revealing military information to the terrorists. And because the commanders under whose watch these treacherous acts are happening are not made to face military justice, or at least, named and shamed because of their connections and privileged background.

I see this phenomenon as frightening, depressing, and palpably depressing. As a person who can claim to be a patriot and would do anything to defend Nigeria, I dare to say that the threat by President trump to invade Nigeria and the response of Nigerians welcoming such imperialist audacity, is like members of a family laying the red carpet to welcome a rapist to their household.

I do not see any justification for it, nor can it be justified in any sovereign nation, irrespective of its internal divisions and political contestations for power and control. My experience during the struggle for democracy convinced me beyond a doubt that when Nigerians are faced with a common enemy, even in mundane situations like challenges to our national football teams, on the field, Nigerians pull together and give our best shots.

The Nigerian spirit of resilience and boldness to challenge and fight what is wrong and for what is right must be unleashed at this time. The average Nigerian is bold, confident, daring, and conscious of his dignity as an African. If we lose these traits, the second enslavement of Africans could be a possibility. We Nigerians believe that Africa’s future is tied to ours, and that, as the giant of Africa, Nigeria must strive to excel everywhere and in all fields. Suppose the North or those who harbor jihadist tendencies anywhere in the country challenge the resilience and resolve to keep Nigerians together as a home for all. In that case, other Nigerians should come together, as they fought Biafra, to fight the North and the jihadists.

If the enemies are the Sahel and the Middle East, we should fight as ferociously as possible. The same should be visited on the Edo People that I belong to if they threaten the unity of Nigeria and oppress other Nigerians. By the same token, if United States President Donald Trump, a racist, narcissist, and a xenophobe whose MAGA political agenda has just been rejected at the polls by the American people, dares to invade our country, it must be the duty of every Nigerian to defend our nation.

In that case, I expect my two sons and two daughters, who are adults, to join me in defending our fatherland. I will not stand aloof or sit on the sidelines.

I have said in this column before that for President Tinubu to prevail in his bold economic and social reforms, he has to take the necessary and painful steps irrespective of the toes he would step to do his duty to God and country or do whatever it takes to restore peace, prosperity and justices in this country, before the renewal of hope and the capacity as a nation to do great things can be meaningful.

The strength of every nation is measured by the capacity of its people to defend the nation and their loyalty to that nation. The decision to fire the service chiefs and its swiftness show the hallmark of leadership. I think he should follow up by firing the Minister of Defense and the Minister of State for Defense.

All the bureaucrats who are making it impossible for our soldiers to get the wherewithal to fight effectively should be weeded out and promptly replaced.

Times like these call for effective political control of the military to ensure accountability and transparency, instill discipline, restore the fighting spirit—the ‘I can do’ Nigerian spirit—and strip the armed forces of involvement in direct procurement and financial management. The Ministry of Defense should have the teeth to bite, the brains to think strategically, and the muscle to enforce discipline.

The Commander-in-Chief and the new service chiefs should know that history will be harsh to them if they don’t lead their troops effectively to win this war and erase Trump’s insult on Nigeria as a disgraced nation. Coming from a disgraced business person with a filthy pedigree, this is an insult we cannot ignore.