A COMPLETE NON-ISSUE.

A COMPLETE NON-ISSUE

The problem many are having is that they do not read or are simply held captive by their shameful ethno-religious sentiments. Fani-kayode has now turned himself into 'Adrian Monk' and watching too many episodes of 'Crime Scene Investigation' looking for patterns and establishing what can be termed as forgeries even without conducting one scientific experiment. What baffles me more is the calibre of press people that we have. It seems they just appear like zombies before anyone capable of distributing brown envelopes even if such a fellow's mental state is questionable.

The press has encouraged this distraction tactic by the PDP instead of using their resources to search things out for themselves. Is it that difficult to find information on the Nigerian army pre- and immediately post independence? Is it that difficult to find information that tells of how and when Aguyi Ironsi became the first indigenous General Officer commanding of the Nigerian Army?

I will just go through some points made by General Alabi-Isama in his book 'The Tragedy of Victory.' He pointed out that as at Nigeria's independence; most of the officers who constituted the Army were British with the Nigerian population made up of about 37 from the old Eastern region, 10 from the West and 8 from the North (4 of whom were killed in the January 66 coup). The British commanded the army until Ironsi's appointment as GOC in 1965 as the conclusion of the Nigerianisation of the Army. The gulf between the regions contributing to the Officers corp had to be narrowed hence the need to somewhat lower the standards to ensure that the Northern bloc could have more individuals able to apply to join the army. The academic and physical requirements had to be lowered to encourage applications especially from the few Northern colleges at that time. It is no surprise that young school leavers like Alabi-Isama himself joined from Ibadan boys High school; Yar'adua and Buhari from the Provincial College in katsina and the likes of Babaginda, Vasta, Gado Nasko, Abdusalami all joined from their school in Bida. 

Godwin Alabi-Isama who is technically a Northerner described on page 22 of his book the requirements for gaining admission into the army at the time and how his origin allowed an exception to be made in his case. He wrote about the school certificate examination requirement in 1959 (when he applied) which was four credits including English and the O'level GCE which was a minimum of 4 passes. He pointed out that the Certicate credit requirements were lowered to passes by December 1959 and as at May 1961; alternative qualifications such as Teachers' Grade II certificate or a Royal Society of arts stage II Examination were introduced into the advertisement. 

Alabi-Isama stated that meeting these requirements was followed by sitting for and passing the Army Entrance examination which included English, Mathematics and Geography before a final selection by the army selection board. All these were required just to gain admission into the Nigerian Military training College (now the Nigerian Defence Academy). The entrance into the NMTS age requirement also had to be adjusted to accomodate those older officers who were already serving in the army as Non-commisioned officers such as Samuel Ogbemudia. NMTS was thereafter followed by training at cadet schools in the United Kingdom, Austrialia, Canada, India, Pakistan, Ethiopia or the USA.

General Buhari applied to join the army in 1961 the year he sat for his certificate examination. His application was backed by a recommendation letter from his principal who I believe was not Nigerian. He sat and passed the entrance examination into the NMTS in 62 and began his training there. He went to Aldershot for further cadet training in October 62 and returned in January 63 when he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. The army spokesman Brig. Laleye told the press a few days ago that no one got commissioned into the army without filling a form and credentials verified. Xerography was introduced to the market in 1959 and I want to believe there were other means and methods of duplicating documents prior to 1963. It baffled me when the army categorically said that the only evidence that Buhari has an examination result was the form 199A he filled after he was commissioned as an officer in the Nigerian Army. Is Laleye saying that the British officers at the time did not follow that protocol or that the Army entrance examination conducted at the time was not utilized to determine who got entry into the Army at the same time Buhari did? Could there be a chance that Buhari's file was tampered with by someone within the ranks of the army? 

The present reputation of the army can best be described as tattered if one looks at it strictly from the angle of their conduct in the face of the current insurgency. The utterances made by their spokesperson(s) regarding the Chibok incidence and the many obituaries released about Shekau and his never dying clones have not covered the army in glory. The issues of weapons constantly getting into the hands of insurgents and the constant ambushments and killings of our soldiers especially young field commanders like it was nothing does not pacify my skepticism regarding the position of the army in this certificate super story. I watched the video of the President's visit to Maiduguri and he was captured asking two very young female army officers how long they had been stationed in Bornu and both of them replied "8 months." Where on earth is that done? Prior to that, he had asked a fully geared soldier in body armour and helmet if he was infantry. The insensitivity and partisanship exhibited by the top brass of the military is clear for all to see. I remember watching the report of the Goodluck campaign rally in Lagos and was shocked when a visibly upset president went on and on visciously attacking the opposition and its candidate. He got to points when he sounded like he was stammering and struggling to complete sentences; he needed to remember the number of years Buhari suggested as jail terms for corrupt people and then his ADC who is a Colonel in the Army said "300 years" rather arrogantly which the president picked up to finish his statement. When did it become the duty of a military ADC to complete the sentences of a politician during a campaign rally?

I have always felt that Buhari really had no reason to respond to this certificate issue but I may be wrong. Many who are clamouring for evidence may only be doing it to hide and reinforce their resolve to vote for incompetence again based on their inability to rise above the ethnic and religious 'supremacistitis' they suffer from. It is a complete non-issue and a futile attempt by the incumbent and his goons to distract the voting population from focusing on the failures of the past 4years 11months of the full presidency of the Jonathan Clan. They want to engineer a second term without meriting it, the boss is surrounded by hardcore Muslims yet they go around telling Nigerians in the South that Buhari's sole mission is to Islamize Nigeria. Are Mu'azu, Babaginda Aliyu, Sule Lamido or Asari Dokubo born again, demon chasing Christians? Yesterday on the news, a well known Niger-Delta militant Ateke Tom was leading the chants at the PDP rally in Rivers surrounded by his crowd and policemen. These are the exotic individuals who have been empowered by the state to turn common sense on its head and attempt to woo me to vote for Goodluck Jonathan whose PhD we do not even bother to contest. We await the new twist in the PDP propaganda plot.

We shall Overcome!!!.

Buhari and Yar'adua at the Katsina Provincial Secondary School. (culled from twitter)

Joa

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