BUHARI IS NIGERIA’S VERSION OF CHARLES ANDRE JOSEPH MARIE GAULLE AND DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER In 1982 the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari, was the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There were Four Divisions of the Nigerian Army: 1. The 1st Division of the Nigerian Army was headquartered in Kaduna. The 1st Division was designed to cover and take care of any threat to the territorial integrity of the country in the North Western part of the country. 2. The 2nd Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army was headquartered in Ibadan and was scheduled to take care of any threat to the territorial integrity of the country in the South Western part of the country including Lagos. 3. The 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army was headquartered in Jos to address any threat to the territorial integrity of the country in the North Central part of the country. And 4. The 4th Division was located in Enugu (82 Division) to take care of the South East/South South part of the Country. The then General Officer commanding the 3rd Armoured Division of Nigerian Army was a 41 year Old Major General Muhammadu Buhari. He had a reputation of no nonsense, was Spartan in disposition and an embodiment of discipline and integrity. He had attended the prestigious United States War College and graduated with distinction in 1979/1980. He had seen action as a Company Commander in the then 1st Division of the Nigerian Army deployed to Ogoja in the defunct South Eastern State (now Cross River State) during the Nigerian Civil War. It was a period of civil turmoil on the neighbouring Republic of Chad that straddles the North Eastern part of Nigeria, the operational area of the 3rd Armoured Division. The Republic of Chad was plagued by an internal rebellion by dissident soldiers under the leadership of former Defence Minister Hissene Habre that were poised to topple the Chadian Government headed by Goukouni Oueddei. However these dissident troops from Chad did not restrict their nefarious activities to Chad. They occasionally made incursions from their bases in Chad into Nigeria in a mission to menace, harass and pillage the local population in the areas in Nigeria lying close to Chad that constituted a threat to the territorial integrity of the country. Major General Buhari being a courageous, brilliant and patriotic Military Officer; decided to take on the Chadian Rebels without waiting for clearance from the then Commander in Chief, President Shehu Usman Shagari. He took on the Chadians head long. In a lightening military operation that was unprecedented in the annals of the Nigerian Military history he invaded the Chad with a brigade of weather beaten soldiers and dealt a fatal blow to the Chadians to the extent that his forces were just 15 kilometres to the Chadian Capital, N’Djamena, before he withdrew. Again 1988 when the Maitaisine, violent group of religious zealots, reared its ugly head after President Shagari had quelled it in 1982 in Kano in the then Bauchi State; it was Buhari as Military Head of State that dealt a fatal blow that exterminated it. In the history of any Nation they are sometimes periods or eras where they fall into despair, turmoil or totter on the brink. Where a nation falls into turmoil or hovers on the brink of disintegration occasioned by economic hardship, internal insurgency or external threat and aggression the necessity of such a nation recovering becomes a matter of searching for a leadership that is patriotic, strong and courageous to stem the drift and bring it back to normalcy. The Nigerian Military that used to be a Regional Force to be reckoned with, under President Jonathan’s Government has become spent and reduced to nothingness by a rag tag insurgents and largely illiterate terrorist group known as Boko Haram. Soldiers inexplicably complain of not having uniform; not having fuel to power vehicles and contending with obsolete military hardwares despite the fact the Federal Government has appropriated more than Three Trillion Naira as budget for the Military since 2011. Presently about 20 Local Government Areas out of the 26 in Bornu State of Nigeria have been occupied and taken over by Boko Haram for the past six months, thereby compromising the territorial integrity of the country. Nigeria today is on the brink. It has been weakened and brought to its heels by a deadly insurgency in the Northeast that has claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives that the Federal Government under President Good luck Jonathan has been unable to stem. Three weeks ago, the town of Baga in the shores of Lake Chad in Bornu State (in the troubled North East Region) was invaded by marauding terrorists who in an orgy of blood bath killed more than 2000 innocent Nigerians (though Government says 150 lives) that was kept out of national attention by the Government until Amnesty International released satellite imagery of the horrendous incident that shocked the world and seared the conscience of its leaders. When the Republic of France found itself enmeshed in intractable crisis that shocked its foundation and brought it to the precipice it found a leader in General Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle. He was born on the 22nd November 1890, and died in November 1970. He graduated from the famous French Military Academy otherwise known as Saint- Cyr in 1912 and fought valiantly in the First World War and became the leader of the French Resistance against Nazi Occupation of France during the Second World War. He founded the fifth Republic in 1958 and was elected the 18th President on the 18th January 1959 and remained in power until 28th April 1969 when he resigned. He resuscitated France and brought it back from the brink to national stability and prosperity. Another leader that brought his country from the brink and great economic turmoil was General Dwight David Eisenhower (1890 - 1969). He was a great American Military Leader and the 34th President of the United States of America. During the Second World War he was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe (1939 - 1945). He commanded the Normandy landing that became a turning point in the history of the Second World War. As President he ended the Korean War in 1953; launched the Inter State Highway System; built the American nuclear armament and aggressively pursued the policy of containment of Communism. Undeniably Nigeria is in dire need of a President Gaulle and President Eisenhower that saved France and the United States of America from the throes and stabilised their countries and restored national pride and prosperity. Our own President Gaulle and Eisenhower is General Muhammadu Buhari. Let’s together make him one, come 15th February, 2015. God bless Nigeria!
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:49:21 +0000
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