PART THREE

NIGERIA: A COUNTRY AT THE PRECIPICE
The ruling-class or the working-class
to the rescue?

By Dagga Tolar

We must not entirely dismiss the fact that the ruling elites, particularly the Northern section of it, which is the dominant section of the entire ruling class in Nigeria, has not or is not thinking of a military successor to the Buhari regime. If anything this would have been the easiest way out of resolving the question of a successor to the Buhari regime, in the face of their not preferring any of the two choices between an Igbo presidency and a Tinubu presidency, which the question of a southern presidency has brought to the fore, a consequence of the fact that with Buhari, the North has had its own share of the presidency.

But even this must confront the question of where the head of the military regime will come from, and all of the danger around the unresolved nationality question that can be brought to the fore by a successful coup and other yet unseen factors that could be unleashed on the polity, if such a coup is perceived has an attempt to prevent a particular section of the ruling elites from coming into power.

And if it chooses to nominally have a southern Military officer to head such a military regime, and it succeeds in mustering enough backroom muscle to win the support of the military hierarchy to dominate and control the polity and subsequently dictate policies or direction of such a military regime.

There are still too many booby traps around a military regime, even if orchestrated as a palace coup from inside of the regime that still makes it to prefer a civilian successor to it.

A palace coup, with the intention of saving face for the Buhari regime hinged on the agenda to rescue the country from the continued drift into anarchy offers a quick fix out for it. But then it comes with its own problems. Nigerians have not yet recovered from the series of coups and counter coups of the past, and the fact that a successful coup is in itself an invitation for another coup’s attempt, by other forces who think their interest is endangered; to resort to the same means of arms to effect a takeover of government in their own favour.

Added to the above is that a palace coup, going by it set up will certainly continue with the same ruinous neoliberal policies, and will in no short time earn the anger of the working masses against it. Without an immediate announced programme of hand over of government, for sure a lot of forces among which would be played up by the various sections of the displaced civilian wing of the ruling elites, could easily draw the country more closer to daggers edge that could either lead to another coup or embolden the already armed group of bandits to grow themselves up to an insurrectional armed group that seeks to dislodge the regime of course under the false pretext of liberating the country.

Already as we speak the armed groups in the North, Boko Haram, ISWAP and so called “bandits”, have all differently at one time or the other launched repeated attacks on military formation, recording success against the Nigerian military, carting away military hardwares with which to continue the attack on the military. A report made for the European Peace Facility (EPF), states between 2015 and 2020 the country had lost 1,952 military personnel from a total count of 500 attacks on military formations. (http://saharareporters.com/2021/09/09/revealed-terrorists-launched-500-attacks-military-base-killed-1952-nigerian-soldiers).

Even more embarrassing is the attack on the country elite training centre, the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna in August 2021, with two officers killed, namely Lieutenant Commodore Wulah and Flight Lieutenant Okoronwo. And one officer, Major Stephen Dantong kidnapped, followed by the demand for a ransom of N200 million for his release, by a group referred to by the military high command as “unknown gunmen”. (http://saharareporters.com/2021/10/17/shame-nation-how-nigerian-military-paid-bandits-n20million-protect-buhari-%E2%80%94-report)

A palace coup which would definitely fail in addressing any of the existing social contradictions confronting the working masses, will not garner support but anger and would invariably push the various armed groups to even go further than anyone can now imagined. It must be noted that the military coup of Jan. 15 and counter coup July 29 1966, helped unleashed a chain of reactions that directly and indirectly led to the civil war, and a coup today; with the country more divided than ever, there would certainly be no less consequence for the country, Karl Marx in one of his classic political treatise The Eighteenth Brumaire, states that “History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce”.

But the military establishment repeatedly assures us of its loyalty to the civilian authority, in May 2021 when Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, Acting Director, Defence Information had in a public statement debunked the idea of a planned coup, stating that the military “… shall continue to remain apolitical, subordinate to the Civil Authority, firmly loyal to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and the 1999 Constitution as Amended. We shall continue to discharge our constitutional responsibilities professionally, especially in protecting the country’s democracy, defence of the territorial integrity of the country as well as protection of lives and properties of citizens” (https://guardian.ng/news/plans-to-overthrow-buhari-abound-presidency-alleges/).

This position was again reaffirmed in November by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor, when he was quoted to have said that “… Nigerians are no longer in doubt as to the subordination of the military to civil rule; I believe that no one is in doubt that democracy has come to stay. … since the democratisation in 1999, that the military is well focused to perform its constitutional roles.” (https://dailytrust.com/defence-chief-why-nigeria-wont-experience-coup-again).

This assurances on the face value is enough to dismiss the idea and possibility of a coup as a phantom, but the fact remains that the successful coups and set up of military regimes in Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan have demonstrated that Africa is not in any sense immune from coup de tats, and nor is Nigeria. So it should not be unexpected that some officers would be endeared by the belief that the same measure of success in these African countries can also be attained in Nigeria if a coup is attempted, with the consequence of setting up a military regime here as well.

Not when four of the five coups that occurred in the whole of 2021 had four of its occurring on the continent, even when the previous last two coups occurred in 2013 in Egypt and Zimbabwe in 2017, leaving close to a distance of a decade before this new rush that António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nation has described as an “epidemic of coups” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/04/sudan-myanmar-mali-coups/)

Yes, the country is currently witnessing the longest reign of bourgeois civil rule, compared to the less than 6 years of the First Republic, 4 years 3 months of the Second Republic and a Third Republic that never fully kicked off with the annulment of the presidential victory of MKO Abiola in June 1993. Compared to the First, Second and Third Republics, the Fourth Republic is 22 years on and still counting, making this the longest ever.

And it is seemingly looking as if bourgeois civil rule has come to stay, and as posited by IBB a former military dictator who we have quoted above to have said that himself and his colleague – in the “military wing of the ruling elites” in configuring the fourth republic and projecting that power be handed over to the PDP in 1999 took it for granted that the civilian wing of the ruling class in Nigeria would be in power for a minimum of 60 years till 2059.

How correct is this prognosis that the Fourth Republic would go on unrocked for the next 60 years, do these set of past Military rulers and retired Military Generals still have the same influence they had in the military twenty-two years down the line since they handed over, to influence and dictate what the military top echelon would or would not do. “A coup or change comes about if there is frustration in the society. Just get that right. There was frustration in the society between 1984 to 1985. The ground was fertile for a coup.” (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/174561-interview-why-we-overthrew-buhari-babangida.html).

The above quote is from the same IBB, who was here referring to one of the important factor for the success of the August 27, 1985 coup that brought an end to the Military regime of Buhari in his first coming as a military head of state of Nigeria. We must next ask if the scenario in the country is not worse off, and if the “frustration” in the country is not more alarming ever than before.

Indeed the conditions and excuses for plotting coups are still ever present, a failed economy, with worsening living conditions for the working masses, if anything there are more grounds for a coup today than there ever was in the past. The north is up in arms with Boko Haram, the splitter group from it- Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), and many other unnamed armed groups engaged in banditry, kidnapping, rape, etc.

Indeed the spade of insecurity in the North is unprecedented, and you can be sure that a coup today to dislodge the Buhari regime and bring an end to the Fourth Republic will enthusiastically be applauded and welcomed on the street, even if initially, the same coup plotters would only in the end worsen the living conditions of the working masses.

This is the history of coups in Nigeria, better still the history of successful coups in Nigeria, if we were to go by history, the prospect of a palace coup is the easiest of coups that can be envisaged to succeed. But having highlighted the danger of a palace coup from inside of the Buhari regime, and endorsed by it, as way out of resolving the question of either not wanting to hand over to a Tinubu presidency or an Igbo Presidency.

We must turn to the military wing of the ruling class, as pose the question if they are capable of mustering the same strength to effect a change of the regime. We must state that like in 1983 coup all that is required is the willingness of military officers coming forward in the name of a “rescue mission”, and it will be faced with the simple task of uniting the military as a unit and launch out to dislodge its civilian counterpart from power.

Can history repeat itself in relation to the Buhari regime, are we in wait for a replay of August 27, 1985 for a coup to dislodge it from power before it completes its constitutional tenure in May, 29, 2022. Buhari more than anyone should know that he should not leave his guards open given the fact it was with a coup that booted out of office, in his first misadventure as a military head of state.

Or is there an esprit de’ corps at play among the top echelon of the military to not come out against one of their own. Will they therefore wait it out and employ the dissatisfaction over the conduct of the 2023 General Elections and the anger that would follow a new president in Aso Rock, who as expected would continue with the same ruinous neoliberal capitalist policies. This is the pattern employed to execute the coup of January 15, 1966 and that of December 31, 1983, which brought Buhari into power.

But the point must be made that the Generals and the entire top brass of the military are comfortable, if anything they have made more gains financially and are free from the blame they would have received if they were directly in power. This doesn’t mean that the quest for more wealth is ever satiable among all the wings of the Ruling class, and that the Military top brass even without being told would not overlook an over ripening opportunity to return back to power and directly have access to the country’s treasury like other Generals and military rulers before them.

However for now they are comfortable, with the pampering they are receiving from the civilian wing, who has given them a free reign to preside over the budgets of the military structure. They have gone unquestioned even when they have made business of the war against insurgency and terrorism. They have benefitted from it immensely, both financially and otherwise, at the very expense of the war and the wellbeing of the rank and file of the military, who are the cannon fodders. Left with no choice to continue a war with poor and weaker military soft and hardware compared to the insurgents.

And the civilian counterparts in power have never at any time displayed any tendency to question their conduct, or bring them to account on the basis of their obligation and military assignments, for fear that they could then turn their guns on them. So what we have is a military command chain that is completely left to itself in a world of their own, to act as they deem fit, guided by the principle to acquire as much wealth as possible, no less comparable to their civilian counterparts in power, with the only conditionality being a declaration of loyalty to the Buhari regime.

This in reality is what has defined the tactics and attitude of the Generals to the ongoing war on terror, resulting into the deaths of too many casualties on the part of the rank and file of the military, since there is no genuine desire to bring an end to the war, but to keep at it, ensuring that they can continue to place demand for more of the country’s finances to prosecute the war.

Under the tenure of Tukur Buratai as Chief of Army Staff (2015-2020), the country was witness to series of military exercise that in the end served no impactful purpose against the insurgency, but served to even open new theatre of confrontation with the military, except that as it is with the practice of members of the ruling elites, exercises like that in reality are only aimed to explain away allocated budgets that have already been fretted out into private pockets, since all of the exercises have not in any way translated to any advantage over the insurgent groups outside of the demonstration of superior ability against unarmed civilian groups.

Under him, the army came close to becoming not any different from the popular held view of the police, whose usual practice is that it is easily more combative when it comes to dealing with civilians, even in cases where it is unprovoked, so long as it is interpreted as loyalty to the regime. Indeed under Buratai, loyalty to the state was defined only through the narrow prism of loyalty to the Buhari regime.

And from it flowed the logic dictated by that singular vision of ensuring that any form of opposition to the regime’s policies and actions was interpreted to be a threat to the regime that must immediately be militarily dealt with, unmindful of the democratic right of citizens to dissent in a democracy.

This is exactly what played out in the #EndSARS protest by working class youths in their thousands against police Brutality in October 2020. For the Generals and the command chain of the military, the issue was that the rule of the Buhari regime was been threatened. The spokesperson for the Army, Col. Sagir Musa, Acting Director, Army Public Relations had signed and issued a public statement in this regard on the 15th October 2020 stating thus:
“The Nigerian Army hereby warns all subversive elements and trouble makers to desist from such acts as it remains highly committed to defend the country and her democracy at all cost.

“The Nigerian Army is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively. All officers and men are directed never to be distracted by anti democratic forces and agents of disunity.” (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/420898-nigerian-army-threatens-decisive-action-against-subversive-elements-trouble-makers.html).

As far as it was concerned, what was at play were “subversive elements”, trouble makers”, “anti-democratic forces”, and “agents of disunity”, the question of illegal arrest and detention, prejudicial executions of innocent Nigerians by trigger happy police officers was not an issue. The protest was pure and simply perceived as undermining the Buhari regime, a popular revolt was in the offering against the regime, and to save one of their own, they moved into action, to the Lekki Tollgate to militarily “deal” with the “situation decisively” with the maximum force necessary, shooting and killing peaceful flag waving protesters.

Close to eighteen months after the protest, no plan whatsoever to carry out the needed all round fundamental reforms in the police to effect the necessary changes that would ensure that it is civil as possible in dealing with the masses in carrying out its activities. No question of a Police Union to provide a democratic civil in-house opportunity for the rank and file of the police to legitimately take up the issues of their welfare and their poverty wages, and prevent them from engaging in illegalities as a means of increasing their earnings.

Also is the question of funding and training and provision of the necessary civil instruments and tools without having to resort to lethal weapons and live ammunition in cases of civil protest and disobedience by the working masses has nowhere been a point of discourse. The ruling elites are comfortable, we are gradually returning to business as usual situation, the road blocks and extortion points are reopening. If anything the rank and file of the police would continue in their ragtag manner, allow them a reign of terror of their own as rehearsals to turning them out loose on the working masses and youths to halt their expression and rejection of the ruling class and their neoliberal capitalist policies.

The same picture played itself out in Kaduna, in the early years of the regime, when the Buratai led army unleashed on the Islamic Movement of Nigeria led by Al-Zakzaky a hell of terror between 12 and 14 December 2015, when an official of the Kaduna State Government informed “the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that the bodies of 347 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)were collected from the hospital mortuary and an army depot in Zaria and buried secretly in a mass grave near Mando (outside the town of Kaduna) on the night of 14-15 December. The IMN claim a further 350 people who went missing during the incidents in Zaria remain unaccounted for.” (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/04/nigeria-military-cover-up-of-mass-slaughter-at-zaria-exposed/).

Another report stated that “193 children and 23 pregnant women were killed, while “23 families were completely wiped out of existence” by the Nigerian military” (http://saharareporters.com/2021/12/11/how-nigerian-army-killed-193-children-23-pregnant-women-others-during-%E2%80%98zaria-massacre%E2%80%99) inclusive of Al-Zakzaky who was witnessed to “how his three sons, including a fifteen-year-old Humaid, were gunned down before his eyes.” (https://www.thecable.ng/still-seeking-justice-six-years-after-zaria-massacre).

The situation in the east has not been any different; the same amount of unwarranted and wanton violence has been visited by the military against members of IPOB agitating peacefully for self-determination. Members have been hunted down, peaceful protest and agitations dispersed with all of the maximum of force resulting into early deaths for many youthful supporters of IPOB, with the most notably being “the extrajudicial killings of civilians in Oyigbo, a predominantly Igbo community in Rivers State while on a suppose reprisal mission” following the killing of a soldier. (https://gazettengr.com/exclusive-bank-documents-expose-how-tukur-buratai-cornered-nddc-contracts-as-nigerian-army-general/).

This is the show of shame that the military indulges itself in, which in all ramification makes it unfit to preside over the affair of any society, where civility and orderliness is expected to be what defines how the society will function. For Buratai and indeed all the Generals, the military were “carrying out their legitimate duties” shooting and mauling down innocent citizens, as part of its own part of the deal to demonstrate loyalty to the Buahri regime. For a regime with whom the Generals are well pleased, they would do anything, including killing and firing live bullets at innocent citizens.

“The Nigerian army exerted disproportionate and excessive force beyond reason against unarmed, defenseless civilians.” (https://www.thecable.ng/still-seeking-justice-six-years-after-zaria-massacre)
“The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a ‘massacre’ in context.” (https://punchng.com/why-nigerian-army-intervened-during-endsars-protests-lagos-govt/).

The Kaduna state Judicial Committee of Inquiry and the Lagos State panel of Inquiry say as much in relation to the Zaria Massacre and the #EndSARS protest in Lagos respectively in the above two quotes. We therefore are not drawing any conclusion here that is not independently verifiable by independent sources and even legitimate institutions of the states.
But the same military is however not expending the same equal amount of force against the insurgents. This was the thrust of the statement issued by the Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development, when they called on Buhari to sack the military leadership “ … ‘deploying massive strength against #EndSARS protesters in various parts of the country while leaving the zone (North East) at the mercy of Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists” (https://www.icirnigeria.org/for-the-nigerian-army-under-buratai-loyalty-to-buhari-comes-first-before-allegiance-to-nation/).

With the pressure becoming too much the Buhari regime had to falsely make a show of “collective responsibility” easing Buratai out of the way alongside other service chiefs “the Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok Ete-Ibas; Chief of Air Staff, Sadiq Abubakar, and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonishakin, all of who were appointed alongside Mr Buratai, by President Buhari, resigned their positions, according to presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina” (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/440351-analysis-buratai-a-legacy-blotted-by-massacres-extrajudicial-killings.html)

No one need be fooled that they resigned, if Buhari could manage it, Buratai would have been kept all through the tenure of the regime till the end, given the level of loyalty to the regime by the military. We must not soon forget that following the 27 August 1985 coup which ousted him out of power, IBB had succeeded a great deal to whittle or completely wipe out whatever influence or support or followers that Buhari had in the military. For a military that since then been completely dominated by the IBB boys, so Buhari finding one as loyal and committed to him like Buratai, everything had to be done to keep him in the military. But then the pressure on the regime had left it with no other choice than to ease him out alongside other service chiefs.

But what changes have now occurred, practically nothing, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru who succeeded Buratai, died after four months in office in a plane crash alongside 10 other military officers16, (https://punchng.com/updated-chief-of-army-staff-ibrahim-attahiru-10-others-die-in-kaduna-plane-crash/) for the current Chief of Army Staff Major Gen. Faruk Yahaya to assume office. While it cannot be entirely dismissed that it is an accident but then this is Nigeria, where any method can be employed to remove from office persons perceived to not be fully loyal and trust worthy by those in power (and as with us nothing will ever be heard about the investigation to the plane crash).

The military is so much a sensitive institution that any regime wanting to maintain political power whether civilian or military in the neocolonial world like Nigeria cannot afford to ignore or be insensitive to who would occupy the office, given its importance in the making or failure of coup, and the fact that it heads the command structure of the military both personnel hardware and software of the military infrastructure.

Guided by the need to keep the office under the thumb print of someone who can be counted to be loyal and other senior officers were unilaterally retired to make way for the appointment of Faruk Yahaya as the new chief of Army Staff, “about 20 Generals of Regular Course 35 and 36 expected to proceed on retirement” (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/05/20-generals-may-go-as-buhari-appoints-farouk-yahaya-as-new-coas/).

The question of security of job is always not counted or factored in the plotting of coups. The political consideration that comes into play in the appointment of a new Chief of Army Staff and other military command offices, either at the commencement of a new dispensation or a change of guard in the polity. This immediately leads to a spade of retirement/s, leaving officers with internalized resentments, disappointment of over their career and sudden retirement, and a permanent misgivings against the powers that be, which can easily be exploited in the execution of a coup.

We need state here that all is not well with the military, the wholesome retirement of a crop of officers for the mere reason of appointing someone that would be perceived to be loyal to the Buhari regime will surely ruffle feathers in the military. While examining the possibility of a palace coup and the character of the military command structure, why everything is been done to ensure that loyalty to the regime is uttermost, a command structure that puts personal interest of the ruling class up above that of the country and the wellbeing of the working masses is not one that would effect change in its favour.

Rather a military regime of these crops of Generals, will transform the working masses to its footstool to be dealt with as deem fit. Democratic right trampled upon, in its desperate bid to keep the status quo. How does any sane mind begin to envisage a military regime under any of these Generals, who even not in power can commit just wanton destruction of life and property, and remain unquestioned without any provocations.

The Myanmar regime under Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other military leaders who came into power in February 2021 is a clear indication of what could also occur here if a palace coup takes place in Nigeria today. A regime that would clamp down on the democratic rights, on organizations of the working masses, the trade unions and others would not be spared, may even be proscribed.(https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/01/myanmar-coup-a-year-under-military-rule-in-numbers).

It follows therefore that a palace coup that puts in place a government of the Generals would leave the working masses worst off than they are currently, deny them the right to have a say in their own affairs, or take any action in determining those who preside of the affairs of the country, its wealth and policies that would in the end continue to impact on the working masses. And without the working class coming into the arena of history with its strength of numbers and structure and organization which cuts through all of the dividing influences of religion and ethnic nationality, the drift into complete anarchy would be accelerated.

This is why the working masses have no one else to turn to but themselves, by taking up the task of reclaiming the unions back as democratic organs of the working class, rid them of the labour bureaucrats who instead of providing the necessary revolutionary leadership for the whole of the working masses, would rather choose to be the brake and obstacle holding the working masses from fully coming into the arena of struggle to take up its historical task of confronting and defeating the ruling elites and the rule of capital.

But we need not leave it at that, from here and now it is important to state that the Generals must be brought to account for their reign over the military and the use of its organs. The MSA on this account demand that all of the actors including Buhari and the military command chain be brought on trial to face charges of crimes against humanity over all of the events in Zaria, Lekki Toll gate, Oyigbo and all acts of atrocities committed by the ruling class, be it under the civilian wing of the ruling class from the first through to the fourth republic, and its military wing from the first Coup of 15th January 1966 through of the military regimes from there till their exit in date in 1999.

It is clear that the so called Truth Commission panel under Oputa and the Judicial commissions in the states like that in Kaduna over the Zaria Massacre of 2015, the #EndSARS protest panel of inquiries in the states and other commissions of inquiry over similar atrocities were only but cosmetic measure aimed at playing pretense at addressing the issues without correcting any of the misgivings by victims of all of these atrocities, since in reality the ruling class will not come out against any of their member not when their actions were in defense of their oppressive system.

The military as presently constituted remains an organ structured but in command and action to defend the interest of the ruling class, it employs the monopoly of the instrument of coercion to dominate the working masses, suppress them as the case of the Lekki Toll gate shooting and killings exemplifies. Yet the rank and file of the military and police are first and foremost workers, they do not have any interest different from that of the working masses, like them they seek to improve their lot, but they are manipulated and fed a false consciousness to assume that they are not part of the working class, but their whole life dictates otherwise, what is clear to them is that the Generals and the entire command structure of both the military and the police live a lifestyle not different from that of the ruling elites, and they need no convincing that that they as the rank and file are not in any way the same with the Generals.

To go by the history of successful coups in Nigeria, only palace coups have succeeded, all others like the January 15, 1966, which was the first coup organized by seven Majors, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Adewale Ademoyega, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Christian Anuforo, Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Donatus Okafor, and Humphery Chukwuka. (Adewale Ademoyega; Why We STRUCK, Evans Brothers, 1981, p.73).

Even though it succeeded in bringing an end to the First Republic, it failed to the extent that the coup plotters were unable to set up a regime on their own terms and programme. The Aguyi Ironsi regime which came to power on the basis of the coup had in reality effected a counter action against the coup, pulling the rug off the feet of the plotters and on the strength of that counter-action birth the first military regime in Nigeria, and as the then General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army took upon himself to mount the saddle on behalf of the military “as Head of the Federation Military Government, and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces” (https://oldnaija.com/2018/11/10/first-speech-of-general-aguiyi-ironsi-as-the-head-of-state-of-nigeria/).

The coup had failed. Ironsi and those who took over the leadership of the country, didn’t see the power they now wield as having anything to do with the action of the coup plotters, if anything they have disrupted “law and order” and they were out to restore peace and set the country back on its track. And there was no better place to start than to deal with the coup plotters, who were all arrested and imprisoned. Nzeogwu who had been persuaded to hand over his command of the North on the pretext that he would “be coopted into the Military Government in Lagos, so that he would have a hand in the reshaping of the destiny of Nigeria,” (Ademoyega p.137).

He was simply arrested on arrival in Lagos, and clamped in prison alongside all others that have also been arrested. His arrest sealed the failure of the first coup attempt led by junior officers in the country, and that failure was on account of Senior officers in the same military. According to Ademoyega, “there were no less than seventy Nigerian officers in the rank of Major and above by October 1965, but less than ten were ready and willing to take part” in coup plot.

The command structure of the military is completely conservative and trained in the direction of defending the status quo and fend for the interest of the powers that be. This is the only politics it understood, a consequence of it colonial creation in 1863 by the British with the sole aim of suppressing resistance against colonial imposition and with the force of arms bring about the necessary “law and order” for the colonialists to have the peace to go on with the exploitation of the colonial people.

From the very beginning through its training in Britain, the Senior military officers are under the complete sway of their British overlords, this explains why in 1966, the British through her High Commissioner, Sir Francis Cumming-Bruce and the United States Ambassador Elbert Mattews could reinstruct the 29 July 29, 1966 Counter coup plotters from seceding the North out of the country, (https://guardian.ng/politics/july-29-1966-nigerias-accursed-day/) quoting all of the reasons why they had carried out the amalgamation of 1914.

The coup plotters led by Major Muritala Mohammed, were all junior officers in a certain sense too, following the advice of the British, they consented to having the most senior Northern officer in the military then in person of Yakubu Gowon, who was then the Chief of Army Staff as Head of state, and he was to addressed the nation thus: “You all know that since the end of July, God in his power has entrusted the responsibility of this great country of ours into the hands of yet another Northerner…”. Case closed.

The Gideon Orkar Coup of April 1990 was also another junior officers’ led coup that failed to wrestle political power from the then military head of state Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. Again the High Command of the military had rallied to one of their own. How much will they not do the same today, having tested power, and assumed the status of members of the ruling class, they even have more than they could have ever dreamed of in 1966, have as much to protect, since they are weeded to the very structure and make up of why the country is currently in its comatose state, a situation that they have all benefitted from, with amassing wealth for themselves and their cronies while presiding over the imposition of a rabid neo-liberal agenda that provided the worst of end for the living conditions of the working masses.

But all of this dismisses the working masses, whose existence in reality provides the tonic and energy on which the wheels of the country turns and functions, given the fact that it creates wealth, it is the labour of the working class and all of the working masses, including the peasant farmers, that in the first instances makes the wealth available for distribution.

It will be completely naïve to think that this force of humanity cannot and will not act; it is on this false assumption that members of the billionaire club and indeed the ruling elites both of the military and civilian delude themselves to think that the working masses cannot and will not bring their might to bear on history. If they so attempted, they will like they did with the #EndSARS protest employ the mighty strength of the state to maul them down and the bitter lesson of staying clear away from politics and continue to leave it as an exclusive pastime for the ruling elites alone is directly spelled out into the psychic of the working masses.

Yet for a layer of the working masses, whose consciousness has not fully grown to see the power and strength of the working class, and that it can in reality provide the leadership for all of the working masses, and all other strata of the oppressed in the country, and in coming into the arena of struggle with all of its superior numbers and strength take up the task to confront the ruling class, dislodge them politically from power, bring an end to capitalism, and with a workers and poor Farmers’ government in place commence the task of the socialist transformation of Nigeria.

Yet we must acknowledge the fact that a larger layer of the working masses have arrived at the conclusion that change must be effected. In seeking for this change, it chases after the least point of resistance on its part, counts on a wing or a section of the ruling class to do this on its behalf. It yet has not drawn the fact that there is no fundamental difference between all of the wings of the ruling elites, military or civilian, and that unmindful of their ethnic nationality’s origin or religion, they all share in common; the philosophy of neo-liberal capitalism, with its programme of deregulation and privatization. They all subscribe to making the few members of the Billionaire Club richer at the very expense of impoverishing the working masses.

Indeed it was in pursuit of this “Change” that Jonathan’s PDP was voted out in 2015, and Buhari brought to power on the ticket of the APC. As things stand, the leadership of the organized Trade Unions is unwilling to come forward to provide the necessary revolutionary leadership to the aspirations of the working masses. The labour bureaucrats do not even pretend to want to lead the working masses into struggle against the ruling elites, if anything they have demonstrated over and again that they do not fundamentally disagree with the policies and programmes of the bourgeois government, they do not pose an alternative programme of the working class, as enshrined in the ideas of socialism. This is why the working masses do not trust them and cannot arrive into the full consciousness of their capability to independently organize to take on the ruling elites.

This weakness leaves the working masses with keeping the illusion alive that it is not impossible that a radical military regime can come to power and bail them out of their agonies and pain. And for a model they hold aloof the 1979 example of J.J. Rawlings of Ghana and of course Bukina Faso’ Thomas Sankara. Rawlings’ attraction to the working masses in Nigeria is in his first coming. For three months in 1979 that lasted for 112 days, with the greatest point of reference been the arrest, trial and “execution by firing squad of eight military officers, including Generals Kotei, Joy Amedume, Roger Felli, and Utuka, as well as the three former Ghanaian heads of state; Acheampong, Akuffo, and Akwasi Afrifa” (https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Jerry_Rawlings).

The same JJ Rawlings who in his second coming zigzagged between populism and the right, and ended up handing over Ghana for the first of experimental guinea pig in Sub Saharan Africa to the IMF and World Bank to be able to access loans. Ghana became the very bastion of Capitalism with massive job losses, devalued currency, and a complete betrayal of the expectations of the working masses, as Rawlings was to preside over the dismissal of his own promise in his 31, December, 1981 takeover of power, when the stated aim was to “transform the social and economic order” of Ghana, with the intention “to organise this country in such a way that nothing will be done from the council by God or Devil, without the consent and the authority of the people..” Emmanuel Hansen, Ghana Under Rawlings, p.14.

The Ghanaian working masses had gulped it all up, and took steps in the direction of Rawlings pronouncement to set up a network of people committee, organized independently from below by the working masses, but alas they were mere words, the logic of a revolution in the first instance cannot have power handed over to the working masses by the act of some few. The very logic of revolution in its coming to being finds the working masses in action in their names and in their own numbers to win power for themselves and for the programme of transforming society for the benefit of the working masses.

Yet for majority of the working masses and change seekers this aspect of Rawlings remains unknown, the one under whom “more of Ghana’s economy fell into foreign hands than under Britain’s colonial rule.” (https://www.theafricareport.com/51001/ghana-debates-life-of-jerry-rawlings-ahead-of-critical-elections/). JJ, Junior Jesus has he was to become known is largely figured in the image of his first coming, in his 112 days in government from June 4, 1979 to September 24, 1979, wherein the past rulers of the country were executed over various charges of misrule and corruption, making them an example to the whole of the ruling class in Ghana.

For a lot of the working masses this is their definition of a revolution, a young radical military officers’ in the mode of a Rawlings or a Sankara, on behalf of the working masses, effecting a coup. This continues to strike gold in the mind of the working masses in Nigeria, who share in the same fate that nearly of the rulers in the country from 1960 till date have seriously contributed to worsening their lot and that a cleansing is needed to set thing aright.

The point must however be made here that the working masses must at no time gift away their historical task out to an individual or group of individuals or institution, it is the working masses themselves, who must provide the leadership and programme. Of course they must welcome on board all manner of support from all other social classes, the poor farmers, middle class, rank and file members of the military and even middle rank officers, and even individuals from the upper class who are willing to commit class suicide, but at no time must they vacate the scene for any or all of these social forces no matter their colourations to usurp their own historical task, employing their own name to effect any manner of change.

History is littered with too many examples of the fact that such individuals or group of individuals, when they start on the path of acting and putting in place policies in favour of the working masses are incapable of sustaining the pressure to not hand over the reign of power economically back to the bourgeoisie and ultimately power as well. And if they are unwilling become the very surrogate to execute power on behalf of the very Ruling class they started against. The example of Rawlings above makes this point clearer ever than before.

The same point must also be made in relation to individuals like Thomas Sankara, and the lesson herein garnered by the working masses. For whenever the working masses are made to assume the status of spectators by individuals who birth a regime into being that claims to be acting on behalf of the working masses, as Sankara and co did, it will ultimately fall prey to the whip of reaction, if it consistently continue to act and fails to waver from its goal of transforming society in favour of the working masses, and when it does the working masses in their assumed role of spectators will only watch events as reaction launch attacks on their so call “revolutionary” and “messiah”, defeat and snuff life out of him and its government and return power back into the hands of reaction and reverse all of the suppose gains of the messianic rule, and leave the working masses lamenting even worse off than where they were before the coming to power of the so call revolutionary individual.

This was exactly the turn of events in 1987 in Bukina faso. That Rawlings survived and midwifed himself into power as a civilian ruler, was only possible that along the line, he made peace with neoliberal capitalism, and imperialism saw him as fit and capable like any member of the dislodged ruling elites in Ghana to rule in the interest of capital both in Ghana and internationally.

It is from the above reasoning that Marxists at all-time pride and premise the liberation of the working masses, only on account of the action of the working masses, moreso that a victorious takeover of power by the working masses in itself demands their full energies in all fields as well as in the field of politics, hitherto reserved for the bourgeoisies; deciding the direction of both society and the economy, through their various democratic organs that takes the place of bourgeois parliamentary organs.

A revolution so accomplished with the successful takeover of political power cannot survive and function to accomplish its aim of reorganizing society or transforming the social economic dynamics in favour of the working masses, if it continues to exercise its power through the very same state structures and organs of the bourgeois.

The point must also be made that the world scenario that produced the Sankara, and Rawlings of 1979, Menguitu regimes no longer exists. The conditions of the 1970s and 80s are distinct from today, a bipolar world order of the US at one end and the USSR at the other end has since ceased with the collapse of the USSR with its deformed workers state, which to a certain extent acted as a pole of attraction from afar, helping draw followers to the ideas of socialism even in its distorted form, which inspired junior military officers with the vision of a different type of society, no longer exists.

It follows therefore that if indeed there is to be a successful junior officers coup, it programme would ultimately not be different from that of the Generals, a programme to restore “law and order” for Big business to be peacefully allowed to continue with the exploitation of the working masses.

This is the only “real” manifestation of reality that the triumphant of capitalism has brought into place and like the idealist philosopher Georg W.F. Hegel states, the task of the ruling class is to provide the continuous “rationality” by whatever means to ensure that this order subsists. Francis Fukuyama simple concludes that humanity has arrived at the “End of History” with capitalism establishing itself as the singular “common ideological heritage” (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/03/francis-fukuyama-postpones-the-end-of-history).

Language is also appropriated and employed to disguise the true nature of capitalism. So imperialism is redressed in the name of globalization to present a neutral and working system that would transform the economy with the inflow of foreign capital, nothing whatsoever of a country employing its own resources to develop and transform the means of production. It is a global world with a global market and all of the necessary division of labour already established that must not be breached, the neocolonial universe must continue to be markets for the Industrial west and China, no more no less.

The crop of military boys who joined the military under the pressure of the exiting colonialists, who led by Muritala Mohammed struck on the 29 of July 1966, are most likely enjoying the last possible reign under Buhari as President, they have dominated the polity ever since then, involved in every change over both military and civilian, returned back in power December, 31, 1983 and maintained their influence in annulling the 1993 June 12, election and by so doing aborting the Third Republic, only to ensure that one of their own in person of rtd General Olusegun Obasanjo, a former head of state the “one they can trust”, became the first of Presidents of the current fourth Republic. Adding Buhari, the military or men with military background have presided over the polity period a close to 44 years of the 62 years independence of the country since 1960.

But what we must now pose, is if this control chain is still strong and dominant in the polity, we can largely answer yes, given the fact that even the recruitment into the military’s elite training school today has become more of an exclusive affairs in the pocket of the powers that be, and allotted by Generals in the various arms of the military to wards of themselves.

But how long can they continue to exact their influence, would this not in itself attract a crop of new generation of boys in the military to want to exact the same influence and authority, and lord themselves over the wealth and resources of the country, as age and death make these crops of 1966s boys, or the first generation of military entrepreneurs into politics no longer active and no longer capable of exacting the same influence, would this vacuum not attract some other adventurists to want to fill it.

For, if anything that has been an underling factor in coups in Nigeria since the counter coup of July 29, 1966, it is the need to maintain the influence and domination of a section of the ruling elites in Nigeria. Indeed the 1966, counter coup was effected on the singular reason that the Nzeogwu led coup, was perceived by them to be ethnic driven. Buhari who was much around had this to say of it “You see, senior military officers had been killed and politicians, like Sardauna, Akintola, Oketie-Eboh. They were killed. And then in the military, Mamalari, Yakubu Pam. Legima, Shodeinde, and Ademulegun; so really, it had a tribal tinge.” (https://www.sunnewsonline.com/story-of-my-life-by-buhari/) (Daily Sun, Monday December 18, 2017. Vol 14. No 3821).

So simply carry out your own counter coup with a worst version of “a tribal tinge”. They completely ignored the fact that the coup plotters didn’t come to power and that Ironsi had had them arrested and imprisoned, and that they were not the ones in power. The plotters were therefore suffering themselves to a selective amnesia of the mind, this is usually the case in any society were a few impose their control and domination of the wealth and resources of the society exclusively to themselves.

They immediately perceive their wellbeing has endangered if any change not from them comes into being. This was the selective amnesia activated and put in operation by the July 29, 1966 coup plotters enabling them to forget that Ironsi was no coup plotter, and did not partake in the planning and execution of the January 15 coup. This must no way be taken or be mistaken to mean a defense for the Ironsi regime, we cannot here offer an apology on his behalf, for in the end it was his actions and inaction that provided oxygen for the reactionary forces to come all out against him.

This must not in any sense be taken for an endorsement or for sharing any of the sentiments and illusions of the working masses in the possibility of junior officers coup in Nigeria and that even if such was to occur that it will not fundamentally reverse the fortunes of the working masses. But then we must not now go to the extreme to conclude that the military must not be involved in politics.

This is a rule to prevent the rank and file of the military and police from acting along or coming on the side of the working masses and seeing themselves as one with the same fate of fortunes and misfortune with the working masses. When in the reality the Generals are acknowledged members of the Ruling class, they enjoy all of the priviledges of the civilian members of the ruling class, and defend and protect the status quo, and interestingly it is the same rank and file who are employed to carry out this dirty task on their behalf and for the whole of the ruling class.

Marxists must at all-time come to the fore to acknowledge the right of all to be involved in the process of decision making, in the production and distribution of the wealth of the country. This is why we have ever campaigned for the right to a union by the rank and file of the military and police. That they are members of the working class like the rest of the working masses and must be made conscious enough to refuse to turn their guns against the aspirations of the working masses, which they directly and indirectly will also benefit from if the working masses where to have their way and be victorious with their agitation for improved living conditions. So instead of bringing their guns up against the working masses, they should be bringing those guns to defend and protect the working masses, who in their majority should own the country, support the working masses and marching together can in reality free the country from the shackles of the oppressors.

But the above does not know in any sense change the status of the military, the fact that it bears arms does not provide it with any special status, Engels points out in Anti-During, the military “however, cannot make any money; at most it can take away money that has already been made…. In the last analysis, therefore, money must be provided through the medium of economic production; and so once more force is conditioned by the economic situation, which furnishes the means for the equipment and maintenance of the instruments of force.

But even that is not all. Nothing is more dependent on economic prerequisites than precisely army and navy. Armament, composition, organisation, tactics and strategy depend above all on the stage reached at the time in production and on communications. It is not the “free creations of the mind” {D. Ph. 43} of generals of genius that have had a revolutionising effect here, but the invention of better weapons and the change in the human material, the soldiers; at the very most the part played by generals of genius is limited to adapting methods of fighting to the new weapons and combatants.” (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1877/anti-duhring/ch15.htm).

This is still as valid as ever, it is the sweat and labour of the working class that in the end provides and define the type of military a country possess, its sophistication and strength is completely dependent on the level of the development of the means of production.

Yet there is still another sense in which a junior officers’ coup could occur, as directly linked to the insurgency; the increasing expression of displeasure through mutinies by the rank and file against their senior colleagues in the military in relation to how the war against the insurgency is been prosecuted and the neglect that they are suffering as a result, and the high handedness of the Military High Command.

On the 14th of May 2014, soldiers of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army, fired at the GOC, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed, an outburst over “the death of 12 of their colleagues” following an ambush by Boko Haram, after they were ordered to return back to Maiduguri by the GOC against even the position of the rank and file, who had insisted that it was dark, in terrain that they were not too familiar with, and that it will be proper for them to move the next day under the full cover of daylight. (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/218308-nigerian-army-general-lied-troops-mutiny-escapes-lynching-hungry-soldiers.html).

They turned out to have been correct; the Generals claimed monopoly of all the wisdom and tactics of combat without in most cases directly involved.
There was also the background anger of the soldiers over “the unnecessary deduction of their allowances and subjecting them to harsh working conditions without proper equipment to carry out their duties and as a result, many of them were being killed like rats by the insurgents” (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/05/insecurity-angry-soldiers-open-fire-gocs-vehicle-maiduguri/).

The high command were united to defend their own, they set up a Court martial, having initially denied that nothing was amiss in a public statement signed by the then Military spokeperson, General Chris Olukolade, that the soldiers merely “registered their anger about the incident by firing into the air”. Eighteen of the soldiers were arrested namely 96NA/ 42/6235 Cpl Jasper Braidolor, 96NA/ 43/ 10277 Cpl David Musa, 05NA/ 57/ 3451 LCpl Friday Onun, 09NA/ 64/ 4905 LCpl Yusuf Shuaibu, 09NA/ 62/ 1648 LCpl Igono Emmanuel, 09NA/ 64/ 4214 Pte Andrew Ngbede, 10NA/ 65/ 8344 Pte Nurudeen Ahmed, 10NA/ 65/ 7084 Pte Ifeanyi Alukhagbe, 13NA/ 69/ 2898 Pte Alao Samuel, 13NA/ 69/ 2907 Pte Amadi Chukwudi, 13NA/ 69/ 2898 Pte Allan Linus, 93NA/ 36/ 1542 Cpl David Luhbut, 97NA/ 45/ 7423 Cpl Muhammed Sani, 03NA/ 53/ 816 Lcpl Stephen Clement, 09NA/ 62/ 1648 Inama Samuel, 09NA/ 64/ 5858 Iseh Ubong, 10NA/ 65/ 6912 Ichocho Jeremiah, 10NA/ 65/ 7343 Sabastine Gwaba, and given a 6-count charged of mutiny, attempted murder among other accusations. (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/164658-exclusive-nigerian-army-court-martials-18-soldiers-over-alleged-plot-to-kill-general.html).

Twelve of the soldiers brought on court martial were subsequently sentenced to death. Another group of soldiers numbering 59 of 111 Special Forces battalion in Maiduguri in the same year were again court martial for the same charge of mutiny and 54 of them sentenced to death. (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/54-soldiers-sentenced-death-mutiny-2/).

The soldiers all pleaded not guilty, Femi Falana who had acted as consul to some of these soldiers points out that the troop had “demanded for arms and armament from the military authorities. Instead of attending to such legitimate demand, the military authorities accused scores of the soldiers of sabotaging the counter insurgency operations of the Federal Government and proceeded to set up courts-martial to try them for mutiny.

“The demand for weapons by the soldiers was justified under section 179 of the Armed Forces Act, (Cap A20) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 which permits a soldier, rating or aircraftman to make a complaint to his commanding officer and that he shall not be penalized for having made a complaint so far as the complaint does not contravene any provisions of the Act.” (http://saharareporters.com/2021/09/01/falana-writes-buhari-again-seeks-pardon-70-nigerian-soldiers-convicted-mutiny).

The death sentence in no way deterred others to not mutiny for the same reason of lack of the necessarily equipment to go to battle against the insurgents. In September 2015, 3032 Soldiers so identified in this regard, were recalled from a total of 5, 000 who were dismissed for other various reasons. (https://www.thecable.ng/breaking-army-recalls-3032-dismissed-soldiers).

Why recall these soldiers, why did the military not continue in the same manner like it did in 2014, to bring them to trial for mutiny, and sentence them to death. Did they sense that they would have an open rebellion in their hands with the sheer numbers involved or they wised up to the fact that not recalling them back could have a spiral effect to encourage others to follow the same path as a safe exit to disengage themselves from the military as oppose to be thrown into battle to fight insurgent with weaker ill equip military soft and hardware, which in reality was as good as committing suicide.

In December 2016, the General Officer Commanding of the Nigerian Army 7 Division in Maimalari, Victor Ezegwu escaped lynching from angry soldiers who had no food supply. This was on the heels of another incident in April 2016 in Alagarno, the GOC again was taken on by troops for abandoning them and subjecting them to be without water for five days. (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/218308-nigerian-army-general-lied-troops-mutiny-escapes-lynching-hungry-soldiers.html).

The soldiers are increasingly drawing the conclusion that the war they are engaged in is literally but a death sentence on them. They have seen too many of their obedient colleagues die sheepishly. September 2018, another reported mutiny, arrest of an army Captain and 70 others who refused posting to go into battle against Boko Haram, who had the past three days killed 30 soldiers. One of the soldiers’ cries out: “We do not know why the Nigeria Army suddenly changed its mind and decided to deploy troops to the dreaded area after it had announced that it had pulled out of Gamboru, where Boko Haram appears to be operating from…” (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/09/maiduguri-airport-mutiny-army-captain-70-others-detained-for-trial/).

Such is the state of their equipments that they would not have a fair chance except to be killed by those they are asked to go and attack… Now forward to 2022, the same situation all over again, even more worse, and annoying is the need for “settlement” before arms can be allocated to prosecute the war. “The Nigerian Army has refused to release new arms to fight Boko Haram simply because our commander refused to pay money. “This always annoys me especially with regards to corruption in this country. The theatre commander in Maiduguri Headquarters refused to give locations including 5 brigade and 145 battalion new arms that were released by federal government.

“The government released the arms to them to share to locations in Borno to fight the insurgents. The 5 brigade and 145 battalion are among army bases at the boundary between Niger and Benin Republic. That is the place the insurgents usually bust out and enter Maiduguri. These places are key points they are supposed to equip with arms but because the commander refused to give them money, now they have refused to give him and his men, arms. Let the federal government and the world know what’s happening. “That’s what is going on now. The same corruption that is making them not to come and change over-stay soldiers is what they’ve taken into arms supply, that’s why they are still delaying. This is just because the commanding officer didn’t give money. It’s too bad.” (http://saharareporters.com/2022/01/24/exclusive-nigerian-soldiers-kick-army-commander-borno-delays-supply-arms-meant-fight-boko).

In a new book titled “Soldiers in Revolt: Army Mutinies in Africa,” written by Maggie Dwyer, a research fellow at the Center of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the point is made that mutinies is not necessarily a quest for power, but “to communicate their grievances to senior officers and government officials.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/15/four-things-you-should-know-about-mutinies/). This is however a prognosis that is not universal and not applicable to all of the recent coups in Mali and Bukina Faso.

But first Sierra Leone, April 1992, a 25 year Valentine Strasser had led other rank and file officers to the seat of power in Freetown to protest against their ill treatment, their lack of equipment and even basic items like boots to continue the war with rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front led by a former Corporal Foday Sankoh against the Government of Momoh in Sierra Leone. (https://talkafricana.com/from-worlds-youngest-president-to-worlds-poorest-past-president-the-unusual-case-of-valentine-strasser/).

What was originally an expression of discontent as to how they were treated and how they were not fully fortified to take on the rebels, saw Momoh fleeing from the state house, the soldiers were bold enough to transmute their protest to a coup and seize the reign of power. We could however say that Nigeria is not Sierra Leone and that we are too big for such an incidence to happen, given the point earlier made that no junior officers’ coup had succeeded here, the sheer numbers of high ranking military Generals with a lot to lose would work to put spanners in any such attempt.

To think that the conclusion cannot be drawn by the rank and file and that the problem is with the Generals, the government and the ruling class, why the same grievances persist, Chief of Army Staff, after Chief of Army Staff, Generals after Generals, government after government, since the war against Boko Haram started in 2009 would be completely naïve, while the Generals live in affluence, receiving commendations, and far from the theatre of operation, they see their ranks die in numbers, mauled down by insurgents that they are even more better trained than.

Not independently taking any action is not to mean that they do not constitute a ready-made material to be also exploited and that they would willing join in a plot against the regime, either as a means of freeing their colleagues, or as a means of visiting their anger on the Government and the Generals. The coups in Mali both in August 2020 were directly fueled by concerns in relation to the war against “militant Islamist violence”. And now Bukina Faso has joined the train with the removal of President Roch Kaboré and the coming to power of Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

Both Mali and Burkina Faso have followed the same pattern, discontent and displeasure of the necessary support from government so as to take on the “militants linked to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.” For President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali, it was a “series of deadly attacks on military and civilian targets was followed by mass protests sparked by a growing lack of faith in the government”, then the mutinies in the camps and barracks and then the coup. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60112043).

It is clear that the military is not free from the rottenness largely perceived in all other sections and institutions of the society, it is infected in all of its fabric and affair, to the extent that it is helping to define for the country a failure in its war effort against the insurgents, how do we begin to explain the situation wherein, a battalion must have to bribe another wing of the military for weapons already procured and allotted for the same purpose before it can be allocated.

This speaks to where we are currently, if anything it is in itself an indication of the failure of the Buhari regime, a complete reversal of the expectations of those who placed their hope in him that as a former military General, he was better position to inspire not just the military to end the insurgency but turn the fortunes of the country around for the better. This is to the point we share opinion with those who see no other way to end the debacle that the Buhari constitute than a coup.

“The current state of affairs under President Buhari, will one conclude that Nigeria was ripe for a coup, long due for a coup or shying away from its due worth of a coup? If the truth must be told, but for the fact that coups have lost their relevance in the world and military hijacks have proved to be incapable of solving democratic problems, the current state of hopelessness in Nigeria makes the country ten times ripe for a coup.” (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/460435-what-if-we-wake-up-tomorrow-to-a-coup-in-nigeria-by-festus-adedayo.html).

Nigeria cannot claim immunity from the same historical sequence and laws of how things happen in other societies and think that the same factors will not bring about the same consequences here and that the bug of coups cannot come the country’s way anymore. In the end it is just a question of time, without an organized movement of the working people spread all over the country to mobilize the working masses into action against the ruling class, and strong enough to commend the rank and file of the military to come all out supporting and joining them, helping to strengthen the working class and with its programme of socialism and in the name of the working class with its own independent political organization take on the ruling class, with the sole aim of ending the rule of capital.

The soldiers sentenced to death were later commuted to ten years in imprisonment which they have since completed; Femi Falana has now written a letter to the president, pleading that the officers be granted presidential pardon, since “the only “offence” proved against the accused soldiers was that they had the temerity to demand for weapons to fight the well-armed terrorists.” (http://saharareporters.com/2021/09/01/falana-writes-buhari-again-seeks-pardon-70-nigerian-soldiers-convicted-mutiny).

While agreeing with his plea, we in the MSA go further to condemn the very idea of a trial and court martial as a miscarriage of justice in the first instance, and insist that full amnesty be granted to all of the soldiers, and be reinstated back into the military without any loss of pay, with the necessary compensation due to them paid for the trauma caused them by their vindictive incarceration. However we think it is not correct for the Generals to have sat in council, when one of their own colleague is so accused by the rank and file, it is this military high command and all of those found involved in diverting funds for arms procurement and welfare of the soldiers that should be the ones who should directly be brought on trial, for creating the very conditions which directly lead to the mutinies.

Also is the incidents of bribery to senior military colleagues so has not to be posted to a war zone, even more scandalous is the request for a bribe before arms can be allocated to a battalion fighting the insurgency and all other incidents of corruption in the military be investigated, and officers involved brought to book. This is the only path of action that can restore confidence in the rank and file, and allow for a successful military prosecution of the war on the path of the Nigeria military. In saying this we do not in any sense think that, the insurgency is purely a military question, we make bold to say that even with all of the necessary superior firepower against the insurgents, without a social programme to address unemployment and illiteracy, which is only a question of time that the existing social discontent shall provide excuse for new forces to bear arms against the state.

We once again reiterate our opposition a coup, the whole history of humanity has in no way sided with military putsch has capable of taking hold of the reign of political power and on the basis of this develop the means of production and transform society ultimately in favour of the working masses. We have stated why this is so, the military with its command structure, is a readymade organ to serve the interest of the powers that be in any given society. From the point of view that an army is an armed group of individuals or institution put in place to serve the interest of the ruling class.

This is not to say that the rank and file of the military does not have any iota of progress in its genetic makeup. No; far from it. The rank and file of the military and police are workers, they share in all the aspirations of the working masses, in the same way they suffer their very fate, even worst off since they can loss their lives in direct combat as the first protecting shield of the ruling class and their interest, given the fact that they are the ones tasked to employ the arms of the state even against the working masses.

But the contradictions of the capitalist system are such that the very ones who do dirty jobs for them are like the working masses also discriminated against. Capitalism is not large-hearted enough to share its life of luxury exclusively reserved for the tiny numbers of the ruling class with any other social class no matter what role and function they perform to keep capitalism alive or to keep the fat cats of capital permanently living a life of affluence.

The very class and social stratification in the society is replicated in the military and police, with only the tiny numbers in the high command enjoying everything in the same manner like the ruling elites. The rank and file is cut off, left off in the same mesh with the working masses, with all of the difficulties they experience, with the exception that their occupation allows them access to bear guns. Even tiny privileges like retaining the old pension system came with streams of protest in the military for it to be retained. These little privileges amount to nothing, not enough to free them from the penury and misery that the working masses are all stewed in.

The point that the rank and file are members of the working class is why Marxists have ever raised the need for them to be organized and the need for society to recognise their right to be members of a trade unions, with which to take on their employers, and demand for an improved living conditions , we have ever stated that the Generals in all of the command structure of the military, and the Police Commissioners are all well positioned with their offices and connection with the ruling elites to get as much as they want to guarantee for them and their families the same status of existence and luxury as the ruling elites. The same is not true for the rank and file, whose working condition is no different from the working masses, indeed to survive they have had no choice than to turn to very sharp practices.