GENERALS are not faceless people; they are known, not only by their spurs but their charismatic and leadership traits. Officers do not become generals overnight, they earn their stars through hardwork. Hardwork, as we all know, is not easy. Midnight oil is burnt and daylight is also well utilised.
A general is a General Officer Commanding (GOC). A whole Division is at his command, with men and materials. He has to lead by example as he instils discipline to his men. The military itself is a disciplined force. Its officers and men are reared on the regimen of discipline, obedience, command and structure.
Of all these, discipline is the greatest. An undisciplined soldier has no place in the armed forces. An undisciplined officer is corrupt, incorrigible and a bad influence on others. Nations celebrate their military. They do so because they know the worth of having a military that is on standby and alert to answer the national call at the snap of the finger. The might of the military cannot be overemphasised.
A mighty army is the pride of its nation. A general leads that army. A general has troops at his beck and call, where a priest cannot boast of such. No wonder, Joseph Stalin once asked: The Pope? How many troops does he have? The Pope may not have troops, but he has the force of moral authority. Moral authority is akin to discipline, which is the bedrock of military training.
A disciplined general cannot preach one thing to his soldiers and do another thing. He cannot tell his men to abhor corruption and be the anti-thesis of his own preachments. What kind of general is that? When a general does wrong, he brings shame not only to himself and his family, but to the uniform, the symbol of authority of the army, that he dons. When in 1966, the military first came to power in Nigeria, it spoke of the corrupt 10 percenters stealing the country blind and vowed to root them out.
Unfortunately today, the military, our ‘holy’ military, which gave us high hopes of redeeming our country in 1966, has become the very opposite of that it ‘honest’ self. I do not have anything against the military. I hold the armed forces dear because of their crucial role in protecting the territorial integrity of the country. Today, the generals and their soldiers are more interested in territorial pocketing (stuffing their pockets with stolen funds).
They feel no shame being linked to graft, but they want to be protected from being exposed. They cannot eat their cake and have it, too. If you can do the crime, you should be ready for the public backlash that will come if you are caught. If judges, governors, bank chiefs and industrialists can be named and shamed after being found guilty of stealing, why should the case of generals be different? Do they have two heads?
A general cannot lay claim to his rank once he demeans himself. He can only hold on to his big rank and office as long as he conducts himself well. Once he crosses the line, he deserves no more respect and must be treated like the common criminal that he has become. On February 15, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) issued a statement on a general’s forfeiture of N10.9 billion worth of properties to the Federal Government.
It obtained the order from a Federal High Court in Abuja on February 14. This goes to show that EFCC had been in court with the general for sometime, without public knowledge. It had been treating the case, for reasons best known to it, secretly. If EFCC is serious about fighting corruption, it would give nobody, no matter how highly-placed preferential treatment, in their prosecution and conviction. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
If governors, judges, bankers, ministers, oil marketers and industrialists can be named in EFCC statements issued after being convicted, in the absence of reporters in court, why should generals be treated differently? According to EFCC, the general forfeited 24 properties scattered across Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Cross River states, comprising land, shopping complex, gas and petrol stations.
How did a general acquire all these properties? By unlawful means, of course. This is why he forfeited them in the first place. The punishment should not have ended there. EFCC Chair Abdulrashid Bawa should have directed that the general and his command be named in that statement. By so doing, the general and others like him would have learnt that nobody is above the law when they tamper with public funds.
EFCC has done the nation a great disservice by not naming the general. By its act, it is condoning corruption, the cankerworm that it was established to kill. You do not fight graft by shielding those convicted for corruption. You name and shame them after their conviction, if we really want to rebuild our nation and rid it of corruption.
A general, who is mindful of his rank, should have thought of the dire consequences of stealing before getting involved in it. He should not enjoy any consideration like leaving his name out of a statement issued after his secret trial.
EFCC should stop this kind of practice which can never aid the anti-corruption crusade. Next time, such a general should be paraded with a placard hung around his neck, indicating his name, offence and sentence, as we saw in the recent case of a former minister.