Why Irabor's Appointment is Worth Applauding.

More than a decade ago, the position of Nigerian Inspector General of Police (IGP) was vacant. And IBB was the Military President at the time. What he did will amaze you. The next top four Police Officers to succeed the departing IGP were all from the same state - Bendel State. Out of the four was the light-skinned crack detective from, I believe, Irrua of the Esan Tribe, Mr. Omeben. The other three were all Lawyers. Two out of the three Lawyers hold the LLM (Masters degree) in Law. If I remember correctly, Retired AIG Casimir Akagbosu was one of them. What did IBB do? He retired the four of them and gave the IGP to someone outside of the Bendel region who was in every respect imaginable, not as qualified as the least qualified of the four officers from Bendel State. And that's how the leadership positions in our Armed Forces and Security networks have been skewed out of the reach of those who are much more qualified. And the rest is history. 

Today, the talk of the town is the retirement of the last batch of Service Chiefs and the appointment of new faces, headed by Major General Leo Irabor from the Ika tribe of the old Bendel State. By now you must have known a bit of his bio or some reading of who Mr. Irabor, the new Defense Chief is. According to Premium Times, he is from Delta State and a Regular Course 34 officer and was promoted to Major General in 2014. He is also an alumnus of the Ghana Armed Forces Staff College Ghana, the National Defence College Bangladesh, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Programme, USA. He has a first degree in engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and holds two Masters Degrees from the University of Ghana, Accra, and Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka." And that's outstanding.

I am not going to indulge in an unnecessary reading of President Buhari's mind or those of his chicken cabinet on why they picked Major General L. Irabor to be the new Chief of Defense Staff. President Buhari could have retired him in line with the existing ethnic-influenced "purging" culture prominent in the military and no one would have cared. And that's the way it has been, until this appointment. That President Buhari didn't traverse the confidence-killing path of the past, even though what he did was the right thing to do, deserves my praises. It is a new dawn. And Mr. Irabor must go about his job as if every new day is his last day on the job. 

With this appointment, the world now has a new understanding of the Nigerian top Military Officers, to wit, they cherish academic accolades like their counterparts from all over the world. And there is a lesson to be learned from his background, especially by the junior officers coming up the leadership ladder that indeed quality education does matter, and at the right time, the sacrifices will pay off. Laudable as that may be, the question at this juncture is whether his appointment will restore confidence in the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces and stop our beloved country from sliding into extinction.  

What I do know for sure is that Major General Lucky Irabor has a treacherous road to traverse ahead of him. If he must rescue the Armed Forces from sliding into self-annihilation and save the union from disintegration, his first task is to restore the disappearing esprit de corp and loyalty in the military. The institution has been massively infiltrated by the enemies and the trust factor, massively compromised. Thus, making the battle against bandits and the Boko Haram sect intractable. 

The rate of casualties in the ranks and files of the armed forces is alarming. How can you explain this: There was an attack against the military today by the Boko Haram set and three of our soldiers died and five members of the Boko Haram fighters also died. What happens to the training? Or are we saying that bandits and terrorist groups in Northern Nigeria have better training and better education than members of our Armed Forces in modern warfare and terrorism? 

And talking about training; some of the videos in the public domain depicting sordid pictures of brutality and gruesome beating of our young recruits in training camps must stop. They are hard to watch. How do you expect young men and women who are subjected to that kind of inhumanity to turn out to be civil when dealing with the general public? Above all the psychological orientation is not there to aid them in surmounting ambush or unannounced attacks from enemy combatants. And that explains the high rate of deaths anytime there is an attack between them and the Boko Haram terrorists. 

Also, the financial appeasement, whether by the state or federal government, must stop. You can never win or have peace if you create a vacuum for your enemies to occupy and negotiate from a position of strength. The solution is obvious. Do what Idris Debyy did about two years ago. And I called it President Barack Obama's model. It requires taking the fight to the enemies' bedrooms until they surrender. You disorganize them and make them uncomfortable. They will capitulate when they become the hunted. 

Finally, the institution under your control is called the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not the Armed Forces of one ethnic group. This is the time to repackage and restore total confidence a sense of belonging and equal rights across the ranks. What happened at the Ugwuneshi community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State a few years ago and the attack on a community in Ogun State a few days ago painted a story of a military institution without credible leadership. Deploying military trucks and personnel to every corner of the country to arrest the youths and beat up elders who feud with Cattle Herders will polarize the armed forces along ethnic lines toward a total collapse.

Therefore, if you must keep Nigeria from disintegration, take the military out of the crisis between the Cattle Herders and Host Communities. It is a political problem and not a constitutional issue. Let the politicians deal with it. The killer herders are cultured and indoctrinated to believe that they own the land, and if they have to kill to protect the land they acquired without the approval of the host community or state government, it is a fight worth fighting and bloodshed worth shedding. That mindset must first be purged and purified for any peace initiative to be sustainable. If you can bring the political leaders and the cattle merchants to that understanding, you are on your way to the remake of Nigeria as a great and peaceful nation-state. Good luck.