As I stumbled with the so called "Army Officers" Open Letter
to President Jonathan in Sahara Reporters and in view of the allegations
contained in the report, I feel obligated to briefly share an aspect of my
operational experiences despite my academically crowded schedules. For the sake
of posterity, the senior officer whose name was specifically mentioned in the
report is the last officer to illegally and selfishly tinker with operational
funds. Majority of those who knows him, especially those who worked with him as
commander of the defunct JTF OPERATION Restore Order 1 in Maiduguri will
eagerly dismiss such accusation.------Call from Sahara Reorters
by Col. Sagir Musa Feb 06, 2015 
The practice of mysterious letters against the Nigerian Army and
unauthorised disclosure of information to the press allegedly by a few army personnel
operating in the North Eastern part of Nigeria is a matter of serious concern
to those in the security profession and indeed to well-meaning Nigerians.
This tediously repetitious practice is against military tradition, is
evil and gross indiscipline per excellence! The practice, portend great
danger to the cohesion, espirit de corps and fighting spirit of the
military as well as capable of further undermining the security of the nation.
World over, major organisations have internal mechanisms for dealing with
grievances or complains and seeking for redress through appropriate channel of
communication. Proper channel of communication has been and will continue to be
a standing, an in - house military tradition in the resolution of grievances.
All military personnel are very much aware of this opportunity and are
encourage to utilise it in presenting complains and in seeking for redress.
Nigerian
troops
Militarily, I, doubt, very strongly, if any officer of the Nigerian
Armed Forces - particularly the Nigerian Army can write an open direct letter
against his senior officers to the President, C - IN - C. It is unthinkable to
contemplate such a gross misconduct,since it is against our professional
formation and is extremely legally actionable in military law. As for those
astonished with the spurious letters, regard it as the handiwork of waggish
elements - gory actions that will do no good to anyone!
There appears to be a growing pattern, particularly in the social and
broadcast media targeted at distracting and undermining the efforts of those
who are risking their lives for the sake of the nation. The trend is not new
and does not come as a surprise to Nigerian military's tactical and strategic
thinkers as this is always factored in to our operational planning and
executions. As experts would want us to believe, - it is a known terrain! Most
of the publications in these media platforms are deliberately against the
Nigerian Army because the contents, context and outlook of the storylines
appear to be politically situated and motivated. Though, Buzan, Weave and
de Wilde (1998), theorised that "Security" - "is the move that
takes politics beyond the established rules of the game and frames the issue
either as special kind of politics or above politics. Securitisation can thus
be seen as a more extreme version of politicisation….. Depending upon
circumstances, any issue can end up in any part of the spectrum ".
As I stumbled with the so called "Army Officers" Open Letter
to President Jonathan in Sahara Reporters and in view of the allegations
contained in the report, I feel obligated to briefly share an aspect
of my operational experiences despite my academically crowded schedules.
For the sake of posterity, the senior officer whose name was specifically
mentioned in the report is the last officer to illegally and selfishly tinker
with operational funds. Majority of those who knows him, especially those who
worked with him as commander of the defunct JTF OPERATION Restore Order
1 in Maiduguri will eagerly dismiss such accusation. General JAH
Ewansiha is certainly a gentleman senior officer that is morally upright,
religiously sound and professionally inflexible. He is patient, at the same
time a choleric army officer.
In the North East operations, many officers have been relieved of their
appointments, some are court marshalled and jailed, while others are retired
and many are been tried on account of one infraction or the other. As a result,
there could be some that are psychologically and professionally wounded - (not
injuries of the battlefield). And it seems, some of those affected are nursing injuries
and trying to get back at the General whose duty as Chief of Army Training and
Operations is partly to ensure strict discipline and success of the operations.
In the course of executing these functions, many heads really trundles. No
wonder, the upsurge in the anonymous media campaigns against the operations in
the North East.
issues. 
At the moment, General Ewansiha is one of the most respected Generals in
the Nigerian Army. This testimony could be crosschecked any time not only in
the military but also with the present civil authority in Borno State who had
reasons to interact with him on many security
On The Putative Plot For Interim Government By Senior Army Officers
The report of the alleged plans by the senior army officers to hijack power
through the formation of interim government under Lt Gen Kenneth Minimah is
bunkum, insidious and further expands the freewheeling nature of journalism as
a profession. In Security and intelligence phraseology, there is what is often
termed as pre-emptive intelligence as well as over or under assessment of
intelligence and failure to correctly join the dots. If the Nigerian Army can
be mirrored or analysed within the intellectual hypotheses of these sources,
with specific reference to national security, political state of
the nation and current army leadership - than one wonders - what is the origin,
basis, intention and significance of the report?
I am not looking at the cracks of speculative journalism or
historiography of military intervention in Nigeria, but the characters and
commitment of the crop of top army officers in Nigeria today. Most of the
senior army officers were either Brigade Commanders, Field Commanders or GOCs
when the nation, somehow, had no Head of State occasioned by the ill health of
President Umar Musa Yaradua of blessed memory. The same officers, under the
command of Lt Gen Danbazau as Chief of Army Staff believe it unimaginable to
tinker with the political permutation of the nation. For officers with such
sterling professional disposition and unshakeable loyalty to the nation, I see
no reason why they should be accused of a plot to involve in any political
contraption called interim government.
For the avoidance of doubt, - General Minimah and his team are highly
professional, perceptibly apolitical and have been consistently allergic to any
form of military incursion in the political space of the nation. The 
Nigerian
Army is eager for the nation to have peaceful, credible, free and fair
elections as scheduled by the electoral umpire. And so, the issue of fictional
interim government or any form of political contraption is a plan by puckish
elements to drag the Nigerian military in to their political battlefield. It is
high time for the nation to rally round security agencies in contending with
the ferocious crisis and challenges of insecurity in Nigeria.
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