Nigerian General Buhari going to help Mozambique fight Terrorism at a time Nigeria is being torn apart and totally polarized and crippled by the same draconian tragedy is not only irrational and stupid, it is the height of idiocy and stupidity. Even worse than General Gowon wanting to spend money on promoting Arts and Culture in the early 70s rather than spending money wisely on basic infrastructures and roads for Nigeria.
The young man who became Head of State at 32 as a compromise choice because he did not have the fire in his belly to want to do something to lay a solid economic foundation for Nigeria by foolishly telling the whole world at one point that “Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it” I think General Gowon later regretted that statement.
I think it was that realization and the mistake that he made in Aburi Summit where the Oxford-trained rebel leader or shall I say freedom fighter Chukwuemeka Ojukwu had gotten him to sign on to an Agreement that he later realized he should not have signed when bureaucrats and a Permanent Secretary Solomon Akenzua the “Edaiken ” and the future Oba of Benin and powerful elder statesmen Obafemi Awolowo as Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council and Federal Commissioner for Finance had picked some holes in the Aburi Agreement and he did not waste time in telling Gowon that the Aburi Agreement was a trash that he had to walk back.
I can tell you that it was those two mistakes of the head and not of the heart that had persuaded General Gowon to quickly return back to school after he was taken out of power in a bloodless Coup in 1975 while he was away on a state visit to Uganda. He had retuned back to Nigeria years late with a Ph.D.
But he started a move in Nigeria where most of our leaders who came to office with little or no education had started going back to school in droves following the footsteps of General Gowon to acquire a formal education on in- service training in most of the Nigerian Universities close to where they worked. You can quote me on that because it is the truth
Many had gone to the Universities of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello and Universities of Ibadan, Ife and Nsukka to be precise. General Oladipo Diya and Rear Admiral Okhai Mike Akhigbe were among several of such officers I can still remember.
I also recall how I missed joining the Foreign Service in late 1967 because the same Pa Obafemi Awolowo had stopped the same Yakubu Gowon’s Regime from wasting money on opening more Diplomatic Missions abroad at a time that Nigeria was preoccupied and determined on fighting the Biafran insurrection and civil war without borrowing a penny from abroad.
My set was the last set recruited in 1967 as young Foreign Affairs Officers before the plan was put on hold because of Obafemi Awolowo’s objections and the new recruits were all redeployed to the Home Service.
That was how I had enddd up going to the Ministry of Defense as AS (Army) on January 3rd 1968.
My other contemporaries I can never forget were Pius Ayewoh and Isaac Ayewah both of whom later found their ways back to the Foreign Service from Home Service years later and they both became Ambassadors as I recall.
I expect either of them to confirm or deny the point I am making here.
My point before the very pertinent digression is that President Buhari going to help Mozambique fight Terrorists is a stupid move that ought to be quickly jettisoned as it made no sense at a time that Terrorists and Bandits and Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen are killing Nigeria and all the Buhari Government is doing to solve the problem is just throwing money at the problem at tax payers’ expense.
Buhari is going to do the same in Mozambique spending the money that Nigeria does not have on wild goose chase. It makes no sense!
Right now Fulani Bandits and Miyetti Allah Association of Herdsmen in Nigeria are demanding millions upon millions of Dollars and Naira from the Nigerian Government led by Buhari with no end in sight and now Buhari is going to add Mozambique again?
I don’t know about you. I am saying with all the emphasis at my command that Nigeria going to help Mozambique fight terrorists is a senseless move.
It is in fact penny-wise but pound-foolish and deserves to be jettisoned with immediate effect.
I rest my case.
Dr. Wumi Akintide.
