The struggle against corruption must however be an all-inclusive one in which citizens must maintain pressure to ensure that all public officers with a corrupt past and/or present must be prosecuted and appropriately punished if found to be guilty. Contrary to Nzeogwu’s belief, however, the method cannot be military, it must be based on democratic principles and the rule of law.
Fifty years ago, on the January 15th, 1966 to be precise, a certain Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu addressed Nigerians through Radio Kaduna announcing martial law and the takeover of power by the Supreme Council of the Revolution. Their aim, he said, was to “establish a strong, united and prosperous nation free of corruption and internal strife. Our method of achieving this is purely military”, he arrogantly said. By the end of the day, a significant part of the political class in the North and the West had been wiped out and the military had taken over the political system. In his column in Daily Times (3/2/1966), the late anti-corruption crusader, Tai Solarin blasted the civilian political class for destroying Nigerian politics through their twin evil practices of corruption and election-rigging. He confidently boasted that “Now we have been saved – and we want to stay saved”. On October 4th, 1974, Tai Solarin returned to the theme in his famous declaration: “The Beginning of the End”. The occasion was the announcement by General Yakubu Gowon that the armed forces were no longer ready to handover power back to civilians in 1976 as had been programmed. Tai Solarin, seething with anger, wrote that: “There was nothing whatever today to justify the elongation by a single day, of the army regime over this federation.” His reason was simple; the military had become more corrupt than the civilians they overthrew for corruption.
At the time of the coup, the military had a good reputation. Following the publication of Samuel Huntington’s book The Soldier and the State in 1957, the political science establishment in the United States and Europe had been pushing the idea of the military as the most modern, disciplined and organised institution in Africa that could play the modernising role that the Turkish military had played in their own country. Huntington, who died in 2009 after a long career of supporting militarism, was very influential in creating the ideological basis for supporting military rule. He created the myth of the military as the African Cincinnatus. In Roman mythology, Cincinnatus was the model par excellence of human selfless service and civic consciousness. He had been invited by the representatives of the people in a period of national decay to carry out a fundamental civic responsibility – repair and reconstruct the decomposing political institutions and structures. Having brilliantly carried out his civic duty, he scorned the glory of power and the appeals for him to remain as ruler and left the scene.
As successive military regimes were transforming themselves into “natural rulers”, the responsibility fell on what we now call Nigerian civil society to oppose military rule and fight for a return of democratic rule. Those in the forefront were anti-corruption crusaders, human rights activists and their organisations. Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi, Wole Soyinka, Alao Aka Bashorun, Baba Omojola were part of the first generation of such activists and many others followed them.
In contrast to the mythical Roman hero, the soldiers in power in Nigeria and elsewhere were unwilling to relinquish power. In January 1966, General Aguiyi Ironsi declared that he was a temporary impartial arbiter accepting the responsibility of power only for the short time. He promised that his sojourn in power was necessary to reorganise the world of civilian politics, which would then take back the power that belongs to it. It was the memory of the betrayal of that promise that pushed Tai Solarin to make the declaration of the beginning of the end.
As successive military regimes were transforming themselves into “natural rulers”, the responsibility fell on what we now call Nigerian civil society to oppose military rule and fight for a return of democratic rule. Those in the forefront were anti-corruption crusaders, human rights activists and their organisations. Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi, Wole Soyinka, Alao Aka Bashorun, Baba Omojola were part of the first generation of such activists and many others followed them. The struggle against military rule was not completely unproblematic. It appeared that a certain form of political ethical code was thus imposed on the Nigerian military by civil society in the 1970s and 1980s. That the military could organise occasional coup d’états for the resolution of acute political crisis, the reorganisation of structures and institutions and the organisation of elections but they should not try to perpetuate their rule. That code is broken today; there can be no excuse for military rule.
As we reflect on the meaning of January 15th, 1966 for our political system, it is clear to me that military rule ultimately impacts negatively on society by generalising its authoritarian values, which are in essence anti-social and destructive of politics.
The military, however, has ruled Nigeria for almost thirty years and has impacted strongly on the country’s culture and institutions. As we reflect on the meaning of January 15th, 1966 for our political system, it is clear to me that military rule ultimately impacts negatively on society by generalising its authoritarian values, which are in essence anti-social and destructive of politics. Politics in this sense is understood as the art of negotiating conflicts related to the exercise of power. Military regimes have succeeded in permeating civil society with their values – both the formal military values of centralisation and authoritarianism and the informal lumpen values associated with “barrack culture” and brutality that were derived from the colonial army. If today, our political class are as crass, crude, violent and corrupt as they are, it is not unrelated to the fact that they have been acquiring a lot of “barrack culture” over the past few decades.
The height of this crass political culture and predatory corruption reached its apogee under the Goodluck Jonathan Administration. Nigerians were so alarmed at the downward slide that they looked for a retired General, Muhammadu Buhari to return to power to deal with the problem of corruption. The numerous revelations of mega corruption coming out almost on a daily basis over the past few months are such that we can no longer say that the military were more corrupt than some of the civilian regimes we have had. The sign of hope we have is that it was not the military that returned Buhari to power, it was Nigerian citizens who came to the conclusion that after over twelve years in politics, he had been sufficiently indoctrinated into civilian politics to play a positive role. The key consideration however was that he had retained the determination to combat corruption at all levels and on all fronts, civilian and military. The struggle against corruption must however be an all-inclusive one in which citizens must maintain pressure to ensure that all public officers with a corrupt past and/or present must be prosecuted and appropriately punished if found to be guilty. Contrary to Nzeogwu’s belief, however, the method cannot be military, it must be based on democratic principles and the rule of law.
A development consultant and expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development and Chair of the Editorial Board of Premium Times.
