25th March, 2018
By: Amir Abdulazeez
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bout two years
ago when General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (retired) celebrated his 78th
birthday, a magazine saddled me with the responsibility of writing a unique and
‘one of a kind’ feature to salute that milestone. After some consultations and
research, I concluded that the man’s life, achievements and activities were so
much public that you could hardly write anything unique without duplicating
what many others are going to write. Eventually we had to agree on writing the
same things anyone else will write about him but in as much a unique way as
possible.
By the time
I compiled some 10 things that many may not know about TY Danjuma and wrote the
article, I had the Nigerian youths in mind, for they are mostly the ones who
hardly know much of his history and that of the nation in general. We therefore
agreed to prioritize its publication on the social media where many of these
youths would have access to it. To our surprise, some of the reactions that
followed the article were nowhere near positive. Infact, I was particularly
disturbed by those appearing to come out from some Taraba youths. However, looking
at the demographics of the responses, I quickly dismissed most of them as
unfair especially as they had to do ethno-religious sentiments. Little did I
know that many of them may have some element of validity in them after all.
Before that
event, I had always given General Danjuma the benefit of the doubt concerning
allegations of ethnic jingoism and religious bigotry that he has been constantly
painted with for quite a while. My reservations about him notwithstanding, I used
to believe that he is a victim of the Nigerian way of public judgement in which
your bad deeds make the headlines ten times faster than any of your good ones. However,
any critical observation of the socio-political terrain in the middle belt
since after the return of democracy in 1999 cannot completely absolve the
former Defence Minister of playing the wrong roles unexpected of a statesman of
his own calibre.
The reports
of how the 2015 gubernatorial elections became so controversial just to make
sure a Muslim does not rule Taraba and the roles he was alleged to have played
there-in were some of the events that made many to disturbingly give up on
Danjuma. Prior to that, we have unprecedentedly witnessed how the incapacitated
Governor Danbaba Suntai was allowed to rule for almost two years in an alleged
bid to never allow any Muslim to ever become the substantial governor of the
state. Before that, Danladi Baido, who supposed to succeed Ex-Governor
Jolly Nyame who served for 8 years was controversially replaced as PDP candidate
and replaced with Suntai. While allegations of Danjuma’s complicity in all of
these have always been hypothetical, with recent events, the trueness of these
allegations is now an unfortunate possibility.
In July last
year, General Danjuma was among some so-called Northern Christian Elders Forum
who declared that “the real problem with the country is that Jihad has been
launched in Nigeria and Islamists have been interfering in the governance of
the country in a disguised manner; Jihadist have taken over the education and
security apparatuses of the nation to foist Islamic Rule.” These were
apparently NCEF’s response to President Buhari’s lopsided appointments of
security heads and the proposed merger of IRK and CRK into ‘Religious and
National Values’ Subject in our education curriculum.
Now, let’s
forget the gravity and the unsubstantiated nature of these allegations and deal
with the fact that General Danjuma, a man at the centre of Nigeria’s history is
prominently part of such a divisive organization. We should remember that his status
is not different from that of people like Murtala and Obasanjo. Other forum
members like General Joshua Dogonyaro, Major General Zamani Lekwot, Shyngle
Wigwe, Elder Solomon Asemota are much more less of national stakeholders like
he is.
Just as many
were thinking all previous episodes were just unavoidable accidents, Danjuma was
just yesterday reported accusing the Nigerian military of colluding with armed
bandits to perpetrate violence in his home state and other parts of Nigeria. As
a retired general of the same army, ex-chief of army staff and former minister of
defence, this is the lowest point you wouldn’t have imagined him to descend to.
“The armed forces are not neutral, they collude with armed bandits to kill
Nigerians and you will all die one by one if you depend on them to stop the
killings. The ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba and all states in Nigeria,
otherwise Somalia will be a child’s play. I ask every one of you to be at alert
and defend your country, your territory and your state. You have nowhere else
to go.” He was reported as saying at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University.
Already there
are too many unprintable allegations against Danjuma concerning the crisis in
Taraba. As these allegations are yet to be adequately proven, the signals, body
languages and utterances coming out of him are so much in contrast with the
roles he ought to be playing in ensuring a peaceful and just Taraba and
Nigeria. It is most unfortunate that his voice is heard condemning Fulani
orchestrated attacks but never heard when they are attacked. It was in his home
state that about 700 Fulanis including women and children were massacred last
year and the passive nature with which the state and Federal Government approached
the issue didn’t appear to bother the retired general. As citizens who ideally should
be the ones learning from TY Danjuma, our major concern is not the ethnicity of
the perpetrators or victims of violence, ours is to help ensure peace and
security everywhere and for everyone as well as seeing the culprits punished.
The issue is
that, no one would say that dirty ethno-religious politics is not the norm in
Nigeria, but the possibility of TY Danjuma being at the heart of it is enough
devastation to a nation already in short supply of true statesmen. No one can
deny the good works and sacrifices Danjuma has done and still doing especially
in terms of historical patriotism, national unity and contemporary philanthropy,
but why would the once revered general decide to end it all on a very low note,
so low that even commoners find it disgusting.
It is also
not a secret that ethnic and religious priority is imminent in anything that
has to do with Nigeria. For instance, no one can say Obasanjo didn’t significantly
favour his kinsmen when he ruled or even with the opportunities he gets now. The
same is also true about President Buhari today. However, we see the likes of
Danjuma as those who strike the balance between extremes.
May be one
may say that, considering all the sacrifices TY Danjuma has done for this
country, is he not entitled to a licence to do whatever he wants with the
remainder of his life? However, we should remember that it was Nigeria that
first made them whatever they are and it is because of the opportunities it
gave them that they are still what they are today; the sort of opportunities
their generation have never been able to make available for the youths of
today. In contrast, they are contributing to make matters worse.
The bottom
line is that rather than conquering Nigerian challenges, it is the challenges
that appear to be conquering us one by one. If people of the highest status,
historical significance and with the biggest stake in a country are falling
like a pile of cards, imagine what awaits a vulnerable generation like ours. The
threat of the situation finally condemning and consuming all of us is real.
In all of these, Nigeria is the biggest loser.
This is a nation where its only major stakeholders at any given time are those
in power, even the Council of State is populated by helpless, relegated and even
questionable personalities. The idea of past leaders in virtually all countries
automatically transforming into statesmen after leaving power, has since been heavily
defeated in Nigeria. First, many of our leaders leave in unceremonious and even
embarrassing circumstances with little or nothing to cherish.
Babangida,
Obasanjo, Abacha, Jonathan were virtually forced out of office after
overstaying their welcome. Besides, many of them were accused of things that
make it difficult to be truly accepted as statesmen by the majority. Others like
Murtala, ‘Yar’adua and those from the first Republic died. Shagari, Abdussalmi and
Gowon appear to be much more relatively accepted largely due to their ability
to stay away from active politics and partisan controversies after office.
Before now, Danjuma
belonged to a rare category of the few Nigerians who entered the respected
statesmen club without ruling the country and even hitherto appeared to be more
suited to the role more than those who did. However, it seems it has all fallen
apart as recent events apparently proves that he has since renounced his
national statesmanship in favour of ethnic championship.
Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez
