When the new Service chiefs’ news broke, some sniffed mischief. Some even yelled foul, saying “This is not fair. Where is the southeast?” They did not see Ogalla as Igbo. A case of self-unawareness. They met themselves but recognised someone else. They denied themselves in the mirror. Maybe it was an impulse to condemn before praise. Maybe they thought he was a cousin of Tunde Ogala, the ebullient SAN and Tinubu’s lawyer. Was it the double L that transmuted him from a son of a Kaaro Ojire to an Enugu native? Linguists have noted the ties of our languages in what is called the Kwa Group. Some writers did not figure this out before they whooped and wailed. Some impulsive columnists had gone to town with hubris, alleging bigotry.
Then they realised, that his middle name is Ikechukwu, that he is one of the best and brightest of any personnel, that President Bola Tinubu did his homework, that he is the first naval chief from that part of the country for how long? Folks from that part are jubilant not just for the person but also for its geopolitical endorsement.
Again, Ogalla is such a brilliant man that one wonders why he was in the shadows for so long. He lapped up distinctions in all subjects except English at his school certificate examination. Yet, my reporting shows that he was in a sort of doghouse in the navy’s dockyard. His car was derided as Kabu kabu by those who wondered why a general should suffer such shabby neglect. His last posting, as Commanding officer of a backyard position titled: Lessons Learned, only comes as a lesson to those who oppress the gifted. His announcement is not only an elevation but a vindication, if a picture of Tinubu’s fairness. Many claps for Ogalla.
The choice of Major General Christopher Musa is also potent. He hails from one of the fraught areas of the North, Zango Kataf. That makes him a native of Southern Kaduna, where kidnaps and barbarous raids have become routine. He is a Christian from the North with empathy for the besieged. Here is a text from Francis Damina, a Southern Kaduna rights activist and commentator on religion and society: “Immediately he was announced, the whole of Southern Kaduna, especially in the market places, were dancing. The social media is awash with videos of how market women danced at various markets…it is a map reading into the heart and mind of the president that he will not tolerate the killings. He has converted a one-time gentile territory to the APC … The message is that the same-faith ticket was only a strategy of winning elections.” Cheers to Musa.
The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja is a serious man. This Lagbaja will not be an entertainer but a safety Tower. If anyone should sing, it will not be Lagbaja but Nigerians who feel safe under his watch. His appointment, like a few others, breaks some taboo. He has played in theatres but only guns boom, no drum rolls or applauses or laughter. No post is a sacred spot for anybody or tribe. That is a message of his new job. No Yoruba has held that position since the debonair Alani Akinrinade in the military era. Lagbaja is known as a man of war, intrepid spirit, agility, the cunning and inspirational presence of a leader. Applause for him.
The new Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has elicited praise, and I learned he is a fair-minded person who does not pre-judge people and would make his own assessment of people. He knows the intrigues and cloak and dagger of the police hierarchy. A workaholic who can place a call at 3 am just to sort out a thorny issue, his appointment of Tunji Disu as principal staff officer testifies to his work ethic. When Disu took over from the disgraced Kyari, he was received at the Intelligence unit with resistance and even hostility. The staff had as Display on their phones, “We stand with Kyari” until the law locked the fraud in outer darkness. No longer recoiling, they reconciled with Disu, who gradually turned the staff to his virtues and they, in turn, discarded their phone screen vows. Egbetokum says he feels like a Tiger lurking towards the criminals. A growl for him.
Significant in the list is the national security adviser. Some had wondered if Malam Nuhu Ribadu would earn the respect of the Service chiefs. They forget we have had police in the past in that office, including Gambo. The job of an NSA is strategy and intelligence, and it is essentially an intellectual engagement. We need facts to fight the enemy. Napoleon noted that, “War is ninety percent information.” We need more inspiration than perspiration to overcome the bandit. That underscores Ribadu’s task. Ribadu has contempt for what many have identified as “tour of duty” corruption in the war against terror. The top brass is believed to enact rosters of personal plunder and enrichment rather than victory over the enemy. The U.S. has had NSA both from military and academic backgrounds from Henry Kissinger to Condoleeza Rice. Ribadu has been in intelligence for most of his career. His job as EFCC chief extended that task of tracking the wicked. He just resumed that endeavour. Plaudits for his epaulets.
Whatever their biographies, their success depends on the commander-in-chief. I recall the howls for Buhari to change Service chiefs. When he did, it did not change the story. The bandits still stalked the streets and home-owners met the morning dew in dens or dead. It is the vision of the president that will change the story. French leader Clemenceau said: “War is too important a matter to be left in the hands of generals.” It is the power of men over institutions. The generals do what they call “probing” when first appointed. It means they want to test the leader’s earnestness. If they laze about, are corrupt, or fail, and the leader looks the other way, everyone becomes delinquent. Hence, the detached and forgetful approach of Buhari led his generals to rest on their oars rather than roar.
Two things are essential. Morale. The armed forces, especially the police, need to walk in high spirits. Napoleon said: “In war, morale is to the physical as three is to one.” I asked a top police officer the other day why the war on terror crawled. I referred to claims in places like Southern Kaduna that accused soldiers and the police of doing nothing when attacks were launched. He said the officers were “soft targets.” They did not have armoured vehicles, bulletproof vests or enough arms to match the hordes.
Second, It shows the Lagos model is required on a large scale. We need the armoured vehicles all around the country as well as strategic areas to monitor movements across the country.
Technology exists to monitor every inch in this country. Americans use it. We can. Even now, satellite technology has advanced in this regard. You need arms for war, but better to arm them with vision and loyalty. You need to get the equipment first and the rest is intellectual and moral. As Oscar Wilde quipped: “When I was young, I thought money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know that it is.”
To show that the president shows the way, Abraham Lincoln made a point on the value of generals. “I can make more generals, but horses cost money.” We need to use the budget like a poor man with lots of money, to paraphrase Picasso. That is, spend with wisdom.
Everything, from picking the top soldier to mapping strategy, requires one thing: vision. The real gunman may not be the man who shoots but he who gives the command.
One of the major challenges is oil theft. It rankles all, with billions of Naira lost daily. I visited the U.S. State Department with a top government official over a decade ago, and the assistant secretary of state told the story of how ships wait on high seas waiting to load our oil. We knew the story. But it was odd that a foreign government could know our land and its seedy tale so well. In the Buhari era, U.S. treasury secretary Janet Yellin told top ministers that Nigeria was not poor. We just did nothing to stop subsidy. In oil, there were two subsidies. The president has tackled one, with that of PMS. The other is oil theft. It is a task for Egbetokun, Lagbaja and Ogalla. You can attack Asari Dokubo all you want. Some commentators have prized protocol over plunder and devalued the hemorrhage going on. They are after the messenger when the message is burying us in agony and loss. The fact is the military is supposed to guarantee our crude oil from the predation of shadowy gangsters. If the military did not steal it, they did not save it. Either way, they have failed. There is enough of that money to turn Nigeria into a thriving homeland but for some felons who have, in the words of the Bible, “enclosed themselves in their own fat.”
That is the theme, and that is what we should focus on.
NB: Sam Omatseye is a respected columnist with The Nation Newspaper
