Coup Call: Retired soldiers support DHQ, believe that democracy is best for Nigeria

Retired military personnel from the Nigerian military have urged citizens against calling for the Armed Forces to seize power, stating that democracy was the greatest form of government for the country.

The military high command had once more expressed disapproval of suggestions that it meddle in the nation’s democratic process.

The comment was made online in response to recent claims of poor soldier welfare and broad, widespread hardship brought on by the elimination of gasoline subsidies, among other things.

The Defence Headquarters had condemned the request as evil and disloyal in a statement by the Director, Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Tukur Gusau, on Friday night.

Gusau said, “We wish to state unequivocally that the military is happy and better under democracy and will not get involved in any act to sabotage the hard-earned democracy in our country.”

Maj. Gen. Ishola Williams (retired), responding to the calls for a military takeover, stated the military should dismiss the requests and stop making pronouncements on the subject.

Williams said, “The announcements by the DHQ have never led to any arrest. If it is true, the military should activate their intelligence to arrest those people calling for a change of government as a deterrent and warning.  In Sierra Leone, it was done recently. Some ‘coup mongers’ were arrested.

“The military’s loyalty is not to the president but to the nation. If they know that a coup would be detrimental to the nation, then, they should disregard calls for it.

“That is because of the system of governance in most African countries. In Nigeria, you have a president who is like a god. What do you find the opposition doing? In a presidential system, the president is both the head of the party, the head of the government, and the head of state. These are three roles in one person. This is not a good system.”

Bishop Johnson, a retired captain from the American Army, also gave a speech during which he claimed he could not understand why people were advocating for a military coup considering the numerous “sacrifices” made by Nigerians in order to gain democratic rule in 1999.

He said, “I do believe that democracies at their initial stages would have mistaken and difficulties but as long as one is learning from one’s experiences and taking steps to mitigate these problems be it institutional and citizens alike. Eventually, you would get to where you need to be.

“Democracy offers the best hope for an ordinary man to get to power. I have to emphasise that the fundamentals of democracy have to be there for democracy to thrive.”

He continued by saying that the lack of democratic underpinnings was the reason why Sub-Saharan Africa was experiencing so many coups.

Foluso Saka (retd), a retired colonel, cautioned Nigerians against responding to such appeals, saying that such outcries in the past had given the military the confidence to overthrow democratically elected governments.

In an interview he said, “This was the same way Nigerians did when (the late Sani) Abacha and (Ibrahim) Babaginda took over power. What became of them after they did? Human beings are insatiable.

“Looking at it, do we have the same problem with the Niger Republic? Our problem is internal while theirs is more of an external problem.”

Also reacting, a retired Colonel, Hassan Stan-Labo, stated that from past experience, military rule would not help in solving challenges confronting the country.

“We should not be calling for military intervention.  Given our experience with that, it will not solve any problem. Military rule in today’s world is an abomination this will be taking us years backwards.  If you call for one and if you don’t have the right person at the helms of affairs we would be back to ground zero.”