Jonathan has nothing to offer Nigerians —Inuwa Bawa, ex-MILAD

Former military administrator of Ondo and Kebbi states, Col Inuwa Bawa (rtd), has said that President Goodluck Jonathan has nothing to offer Nigerians in his second coming. He described his recent declaration to contest the 2011 presidential election as a charade. He spoke more on this and other issues. Excerpts:

Jonathan’s declaration
The declaration by Jonathan can best be described as the triumphant of sycophancy over decency. Even though a mammoth crowd tuned out for it, but I believe that 80 percent of those people were there for money and nothing else. The governors who were climbing the podium one after the other to declare their support cannot be blamed either because they have no alternative but to attend the ceremony. They are all in PDP and have to show some semblance of unity. It is a survival strategy on their part. They have to do it to get their own second term ticket.

What of that of the former EFCC boss?
The declaration by, Nuhu Ribadu is kind of funny. I was amazed by his decision. This is somebody with no pedigree of political inclination; and for him to wake up one day and to say he wants to contest the presidential seat. Let him start in his state and see how far he can go before aspiring to be a president. It is improper for him to come out now. Anyway he is just about to join the ACN and not even a member yet. Let us see how far he can go after joining.

Retirement of the Service Chiefs.
The tenure of service chief has to be for a given number of years, which could be renewable at the instance of the president. The recent purge of the Service Chiefs, Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the State Security Service (SSS) could ordinarily be taken as a routine event.

The alleged importation of arms may not be true because governance is divided into many segments. The President cannot, and should not claim to know every nitty gritty of government and that is why he has so many lieutenants. The procurement of arms is the prerogative of the Ministry of Defence. The services do not do that directly. There is no way any arm of the armed forces could on its own bring in arms into this country. If you are talking of individuals sourcing for arms, that could be possible. It is just not possible for the Service Chiefs to begin to import arms. I am not being naïve but that is the way I know it to be. Once the Ministry of Defence is in the know then the president is in the know of it. So let us dismiss that allegation.

The issue of coup should also be discarded because nobody in his right mind would think about it now because it is out of fashion. It is an aberration. The former officers should be praised. The time a coup could have been staged was when Yar’Adua was incapacitated and there was a lot of wranglings here and there. But the armed forces kept their cool. It is to the credit of the former service chiefs. They should be praised for that. There is no inkling of any coup right now. The only draw-back I see in this purge is the timing. It is ill-timed and not well planned, considering the fact that we are just about four months away from general election.

story by Mariam Aleshinloye Agboola, JOS

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