Operation
code-names have been an important part of military operations since the
Germans first applied them in World War 1 but it may be said that the
recent (or ongoing)...
controversial military exercise in the South
Eastern part of Nigeria code named Operation Python Dance II is the first
major incident in Nigerian military history to draw attention to this
seemingly routine aspect of military operations worldwide. An
operational code name requires creativity, it is meant to be a cover up,
hide the real intentions of the operation, achieve a public relation
stunt if possible, and ease communication and strategic documentation
within the military hierarchy.
The
Nigerian military has never been so clever in coming up with operation
code names: many of them are dead give-aways (Operation Lafiya Dole,
Operation Pulo Shield, Operation Maximum Safety, Operation Crackdown) or
so stupidly incongruous they evoke instant suspicion (Operation Python
Dance, Operation Crocodile Smile). Pythons don’t dance. Crocodiles don’t
smile. Wars have been fought over the use of wrong codes; nations have
been sabotaged due to poor communication. Whoever came up with the code
name – Operation Python Dance- (sometimes a code name may be computer
generated) may have been aiming for irony, but it was strange irony
given the facts of the situation and the manner of operation. I make
this point to argue that the Nigerian military has messed up Operation
Python Dance II in the South East conceptually and operationally, and
the attendant arrogance does not serve the Nigerian state well in my
view.
A
dance is accompanied by music, it is celebratory in its kinetic and
spatial expressions, and it is probably one of the most ingenuous
explorations of the human frame. Accompanied usually by music and the
symbolism of movement and flexibility, a dance, vertical, horizontal or
earth-bound is one of the wonders of human creativity and the most
universal of human languages. There is something called snake dance. It
is of course celebratory. To say a python is coming to a community to
dance is a revelatory oxymoron. A python swallows, it cuts off blood,
constricts and suffocates, it is a pretentious animal that curls itself
up when it is ready to eat, and then strikes, employing the techniques
of velocity, ambush and surprise.
In
December 2016, the pythons of the Nigerian military went to the South
East on Operation (I) but they did not blow their cover. They said they
wanted to help reduce crimes during Christmas. In September 2017, they
blew their own cover, and revealed the absurdity of their cryptonym.
They did because they behaved exactly like pythons. If that was meant as
a covert operation to protect the sovereignty of the country in the
face of “seen and analysed threat levels” in the South East, the
Nigerian military got it terribly wrong. There is every reason for other
military authorities in the international community to laugh at
Nigeria.
The
military admittedly can conduct routine exercises to prepare its men,
to tune up or to check out the country’s territorial integrity. Before
and even shortly after the civil war, Nigerian soldiers occasionally
came out of their barracks and drove round the town. They used to sing,
march on the streets and dance inside their trucks and wave at the
people. The people waved back, and in due course, many children mastered
some of their songs. In our neck of the woods at the time, there is an
Alamala barracks in Abeokuta, one popular song was: J’amala n si ko, mo
ti j’amala ki n to lo s’ogun, j’amala n siko”.
Soldiers
were honoured in those days for protecting and saving the country, but
since the Nigerian military became politicized and greedy, soldiers have
lost so much respect. The proposed demilitarization of African
governments, long after the second wave of democratization in Africa has
not yet yielded significant outcomes. The soldiers tasting politics has
been like the tasting of the forbidden fruit. In and out of uniform,
they have retained their hold on power and when one of their own manages
to return to power in a civilian dispensation, they simply lose their
nerves. The Nigerian military has fallen victim in this regard on many
occasions since 1999. This is what we are dealing with.
The
latest instance is the bungled operation in Abia State. Operation
Python Dance II did not have to take place in the streets of Isiama
Afara in Umuahia, Abia State, close to Nnamdi Kanu’s father’s house. The
public show of force could have been done anywhere else in the South
East. Strutting military force close to the home of the leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra, who in the last year has been busy
mobilizing his people, and making demands on the Nigerian state is an
undisguised act of provocation with all the pythonic elements of
invasion, surprise and suffocation. It was the equivalent of the state
descending to the level of rabble-rousing. This happens when an
institution like the military opts for street politics, and our military
certainly exposed itself in ways that called its professionalism to
question in the last few days.
One,
the Nigerian military has consistently usurped police functions since
the return to civilian rule. The functions of the military are properly
spelled out in Sections 217-219 of the extant Nigerian Constitution. But
the leaders of the Nigerian military and their retired masters in
partisan politics like to behave differently. They’d rather do police
work in pursuit of a responsibility expansionist agenda. In a statement
issued by Colonel Sagir Musa, of the 82 Division, we are told that
Operation Python (II) is meant “to sharpen the skills of the
participating troops in the conduct of Internal Security Operations” and
these include challenges such as “kidnappings, farmers-herdsmen
clashes, secessionist agitations and insurgency of any form… armed
robbery and traffic gridlock.” Colonel, sir! There is no insurgency or
insurrection in the South East, and it is not the duty of the military
to focus on armed robbery and traffic gridlock!
If
the issue is the country’s sovereignty, the simplest thing to do would
have been for the police to invite Kanu for questioning, or ask the
courts to revoke his bail, or declare him and his associates wanted if
they fail to cooperate. The continuous reliance on the military for
virtually every national security matter overstretches it and renders it
less efficient for its core mandate, and by the same token weakens law
enforcement agencies.
Two,
the military performed a political function and committed a procedural
error when on its own, it declared IPOB, a terrorist organization.
Senate President Bukola Saraki has already dismissed this as an ultra
vires act. The grounds for declaring a group a terrorist organisation in
Nigeria is already defined in the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011 (as
amended), and as outlined in Sections 3-15 thereof. I admit that IPOB
may have engaged in acts of provocation within the purview of these
provisions given the establishment of the Biafra Secret Service and the
Biafra National Guard, but it is not the duty of the military under a
democratic dispensation to act as judge, jury and executioner. What
exactly is the level of threat actually posed by Kanu and his followers?
The military talks further about “unauthorized blocking of access
roads, extortion of money from innocent civilians at illegal roadblocks
and militant possession and use of stones, Molotov cocktails, machetes
and broken bottles…” The Nigerian military is now looking for machetes
and stones? It is also in charge of the monitoring of hate speech?
The
Governors of the South East also announced that the IPOB had been
proscribed in all five states of the South East. They simply made a
pronouncement, without any legal backing whereas in a decided matter,
the IPOB had been declared legal and legitimate and that Federal High
Court ruling has not been vacated. The panic response by the Governors
can probably be excused. It must be clear to some people that with
Kanu’s increasing messianism and popularity, the South East was clearly
one step away from Operation Python Dance II to the declaration of a
state of emergency. But the Governors may just have been more interested
in their own political survival.
What
has been achieved in the South East right now is a profit and loss
situation for all the parties concerned. The military is certainly not
looking professional enough. The reported abuse of human rights in the
wake of Operation Python Dance II is bringing nothing but shame to
Nigeria in the international community, and many Igbos at home and in
diaspora who were aloof towards the IPOB campaign have suddenly been
woken up to express concerns about the politics of being Igbo in
Nigeria.
These
new members of the cause are already mobilizing international opinion
against the government of the day as can be seen in one contribution
that is being circulated online which has reduced everything to the old,
and problematic formula of religious and ethnic conflict in Nigeria.
Serving Nigerian military chiefs can beat their chest and claim that
they have helped the President and Commander in Chief to prove that he
meant business when he threatened to deal with anyone and anybody
engaged in “terrorism” in a recent speech, but they have also in doing
so, done great damage to his politics in the South East, if not the
entire Southern Nigeria.
Nnamdi
Kanu gains in losing and loses in gaining. I had argued previously that
by taking wrong steps and focusing too much attention on him, the
Federal Government has more or less turned Nnamdi Kanu into an Igbo hero
and symbol. They even helped him to run away before Operation Python
Dance got to his father’s house. The military over-dramatised their own
ambush tactics. Now that Nnamdi Kanu has been declared a terrorist, he
would probably have no reason to place himself in a situation where he
can be easily arrested, and with IPOB driven underground more or less,
that organisation has been made more potent. For all you know, Kanu is
most likely now in a neighbouring African country from where he can
conveniently find his way to Europe or North America and from that
distance, he can become a political refugee doing even far more damage.
The international community will listen to him, and he needs do no more
than complain about all possible ills in Nigeria and the rights of Igbos
to self-determination, even if the process of self-determination is not
as easy as he and his followers make it sound.
Other
Nnamdi Kanus will also emerge if fundamental issues at stake in the
Nigerian union are not addressed. Technically, this particular Nnamdi
Kanu’s job may well be done. He has awoken the ethnic nationalistic
consciousness in not only the Igbos, but all Nigerians, and whether the
powers-that-be like it or not, Nigeria would still sooner than later
return to and address the subject of restructuring and the same open
dialogue that has been resisted would still take place. Even if Nnamdi
Kanu is not part of that dialogue, the role that he has played will be
part of the story to be told.
I
speak in these terms because his decision to go into hiding or to run
away has been interpreted as cowardice. He had asked his followers to
stand up and fight for their rights, but when the Pythons headed towards
his abode, he and his parents opted for a rapid dialogue with their
feet. Not all revolutionaries run away…perhaps it is better for Nnamdi
Kanu to live, so he or others can fight another day.
This
is no time for the critics of Kanu and IPOB to heave any sigh of
relief. The Python does not dance. Nnamdi Kanu couldn’t dance either.
Those who leave fire on their roofs and go to bed will harvest an
inferno.
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