On 18 August 2020, elements of the Malian Armed Forces began a mutiny. Soldiers on pick-up trucks stormed the Soundiata military base in the town of Kati, where gunfire was exchanged before weapons were distributed from the armory and senior officers arrested. Tanks and armoured vehicles were seen on the town’s streets, as well as military trucks heading for the capital, Bamako. The soldiers detained several government officials including President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta who resigned and dissolved the government. This is the country’s second coup in less than 10 years, following the 2012 coup d’état.
Protests in Mali had been ongoing since 5 June, with protesters calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. Protesters were displeased with the management of the ongoing insurgency, alleged government corruption, and a floundering economy. 11 deaths and 124 injuries were reported during the protests.
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Reacting to the coup, President Muhammadu Buhari had said that the coup in Mali which saw the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was a setback for regional diplomacy in West Africa and called for a continental resolution to the crisis. He also said mentioned a stable political climate in Mali is important for the total stability of the region and lobbies the efforts of AU, UN and ECOWAS to come to a joint solution “until sanity returns to Mali with the restoration of Civil Administration”.
This is a stark irony compared to what is happening nowadays in the Nation-state of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been characterised by cruelty, corruption, and complete bad governance. Political corruption is a persistent phenomenon in Nigeria. In 2017, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over $800 billion to corruption since independence. In 2018, the country ranked 144th in the 180 countries listed in Transparency International’s Corruption Index (with Somalia, at 180th, being the most corrupt, and Denmark the least).
Nigeria has numerous cases of corruption: In 2016, Buhari was reportedly presented evidence that his Chief of Staff, Late Abba Kyari, took ₦500 million naira bribe from MTN to help it slash the $5 Billion dollar fine slammed against it for violation of Nigeria telecommunications regulations bothering on national security. MTN fired the staff involved in the bribery scandal. But Abba Kyari was left intact in his position as Chief of Staff to national outrage forcing Buhari to announce the probe of Kyari. The findings of the investigation were never made public. Abdulrasheed Maina was the head of the task force on pension reforms during the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration but fled Nigeria in 2015 after claims that he embezzled two billion naira ($5.6 million, 4.8 million euros). Despite the fact that an Interpol arrest warrant was issued, he still managed to return to Nigeria, where he was said to have enjoyed protection from the Buhari government. Maina had been fired from his position by Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and was put under investigation for corrupt practices but was reinstated and given double promotion by Buhari administration. This is just one of the many instances of Corruption among high officials in the Nigerian Government.
Right now, Nigeria is a good breeding ground for a Coup d’Etat as what happened in Mali is incomparable to the current happenings in Nigeria taking a reference to Buhari’s coup in 1983 which ousted Shegu Shagari. The Nigerian military coup of 1983 took place on December 31st of that year. It was coordinated by key officers of the Nigerian military and led to the ousting of the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari and the installation of Major General Muhammadu Buhari as Head of State.
Tensions between the civilian and military aspects of Nigerian government were escalating. One major incident was when General Muhammadu Buhari, the Commanding Officer of the 3rd Division, cut off fuel and food supplies into neighboring Chad, an action caused by border disputes between Nigeria and Chad that was opposed by President Shehu Shagari. Buhari disregarded orders by Shagari to avoid entering Chadian territory, and his unit pursued Chadian intruders around 50 kilometers into Chad. This incident was one of the major contributing factors to the coup, as it placed the civilian government and military on opposite sides of a highly divisive issue.
Shortly before the coup, the Director General of the National Security Organization, Umaru Shinkafi, detected communications that implicated several coup plots. However, the NSO was unable to intervene in these plots because of the tenuous and vague nature of the intelligence gathered.
Colonel Tunde Ogbeha was tasked by the coup plotters to negotiate the peaceful surrender of President Shagari’s Brigade of Guards army unit. Ogbeha was unable to reach Colonel Bello Kaliel, the Commander of the Brigade of Guards, and engaged in a Lagos-to-Abuja-and-back seeking game which made Kaliel suspicious. Brigadier Ibrahim Bako was given the responsibility of arresting President Shagari after Ogbeha’s successful negotiation of a peaceful surrender. Unknown to Bako was the fact that no such surrender had been negotiated. Additionally, details of the plot had not only been leaked to President Shagari but also to Captain Anyogo, and Lt Colonel Eboma of the Brigade of Guards mounted a defense of the presidential villa in anticipation of an attack. As expected, Brigadier Bako arrived at the Presidential villa to arrest President Shagari but President Shagari’s guards were not pacified as expected. A firefight ensued leading to the killing of Brigadier Bako, thereafter the villa was sacked and President Shagari arrested.
Declaring itself an “offshoot” of the Murtala-Obasanjo government of the late seventies, the Buhari regime purged the uppermost echelon of the Armed Forces, retiring all officers of the rank of Major General equivalent or above at the time of the coup. But that was not all. Some lower ranking officers, including Captain M Bala Shagari, the former President’s son were also retired. In time to come his junior brother, Musa, would also be thrown out of the Air Force Secondary School in Jos. Buhari detained most political leaders of the Second Republic, accusing them of indiscipline and profligacy. For the first time in Nigerian history, the country’s security organisations were actively used to track down alleged acts of corruption through the Special Investigation Bureau preparatory to formal military-style trials at Bonny Camp.
In countries with military rule, violence is often used by the government, however, the military rule may also involve attempts to achieve consent between the government and national communities. Sometimes, military leaders usually simulate the rule of law trying to implement their own rules.
Military rule features a high level of relative autonomy thanks to the means of coercion. Military rules are known to foster militarism and the glorification of war. Many military leaders prefer to continue war by all the possible means. Like many other African countries, Nigeria’s postcolonial history is quite checkered. Nigeria’s strive for democracy was ruined by military rule. After gaining independence in 1960, in Nigeria, there were 8 military leaders who led the country into a deep corruption. The overthrow of federalism not only suspended Nigeria’s progress but it has also started 50 years of traumatic experience. Military rule in Nigeria has significantly hindered the efforts to implement democracy as it ruined all the opportunities to establish and gradually institutionalise democratic principles through the conscious efforts of the elites and political leaders. Military rule caused a shift in the political, social, and cultural life of Nigerians. Military rule in Nigeria was overthrown in 1999 when General Obasanjo won a free and fair election. He had captured 61 percent of the vote after 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states. It may have been eradicated completely but there is no denial that the after-effects still linger in the Nigerian Government.
President Muhammadu Buhari is surely walking on thin ice if he continues leading Nigeria this way. The masses are not happy, there are a lot of disgruntled junior officers in the Military to who have a bone or two to pick with the Nigerian Government. These soldiers whose welfarism is neglected are not oblivious of the humongous salaries and allowances of legislators who are experts at bickering instead of legislating and also see how the men in the top brass of the Nigerian military don’t suffer what they suffer. It would only take a matter of time before the ‘cup gets filled’.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
