Boko Haram and game of endless deception (4)

By Aliyu Musa


On August 20, 2008 the late President Yar’adua relieved General Andrew Owoye Azazi of his position as Chief of Defence Staff. He was also effectively retired from the military. Although no reason was given for the sudden decision it later emerged there had been a fraudulent arms deal in which he was implicated.

A report by Sahara Reporters in October 2010, based on a secret document it claimed accessing, said General Azazi, a man who moved three steps up the military ladder – from Major-General, Lieutenant General to General – within 13 months, had been privy to the deal which saw 7000 stockpiles of assorted arms and ammunitions looted from ordinance depots in Jaji and Kaduna and smuggled to the Niger Delta.

The report named one Sunny Okah as the main coordinator of the deal, which was financed by convict James Ibori and fugitive DSP Alamieyeseigha. Azazi, who was chief of army staff then, Major General R.O. Adekhegba, a former director of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Henry Okah, Major S.A. Akubo, an army officer and 10 soldiers working at the Nigerian Army Ordinance Corps were all indicted in the 35-page document, which Sahara Reporters said was a product of a 2007 thorough Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps investigation. The weapons were exchanged for N100 million, which the two former governors provided.

But why has the report been suppressed, especially given that it warned that the amount of weapons stolen and shipped to the Niger Delta and currently in militants’ possession was enough to cause a national catastrophe and hold the entire country hostage? Strangely too, some of the indicted persons were not only allowed to walk away without any serious penalty but were also rewarded with top positions in government, like Azazi who became President Jonathan’s National Security Advisor.

As I described in one of the earlier parts of this discourse Rwanda’s genocide was planned by people in President Habyarimana’s government, with his knowledge though. For example as early as March 1992 Hutu extremists under the sponsorship of the Akazu death squad headed by the president’s wife, Agathe Kanzinga, and two of her brothers had been campaigning for and systematically planning the extinction of Tutsis and anyone opposed to their so-called plan to purify the Hutu race. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, also a government minister, was said to have personally supervised the rape and murder of Tutsi women. So, it was clear the genocide was well-planned and executed with the active support of people in power.

The questions we need to ask ourselves are whether weapons have been, definitely, stolen and transferred to the Niger Delta from Kaduna and what those behind this national perfidy were hoping to achieve in the long run.

Daily threats by characters like Annkio Briggs, Dokubo Asari and a handful of disgruntled and paid anti-Nigeria ‘activists’ that if President Jonathan is not returned to power in 2015 they would crash Nigeria to crumbs are, left to me, empty and should not be taken seriously. But if several of the bizarre happenings in our once serene society are seriously considered a rethink is not only necessary but very necessarily urgent. If it, indeed, weapons have been carted to that region and people from the region are coming out to unequivocally threaten the rest of us in a manner not seen before then it would be foolhardy to ignore such threats.

Again, we need to ask ourselves why the president chose to appoint General Azazi his NSA if, indeed, he was indicted of such a serious professional misconduct. However, like all other serious questions asked in this discourse answers would remain elusive, for now, but not forever. Even the truth about the NSA’s death in a military helicopter crash, which was trailed by controversy, would one day surface.

In the meantime, conspiracy theories would continue to foster and, in my view, proponents of these ideas are not entirely to blame. There is a huge vacuity created by the state’s lukewarm, unwillingness and even tactlessness in tackling serious problems, including the Boko Haram menace. And into such continuum thoughts, including the most bizarre, step to give some solace to the discomforted. And the state must exist and persist, regardless of our feelings or desires.

(Concluded)