Below is Reuben Abati's latest article on the subject matter...
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 codenamed 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.
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.
Similarly, 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.
Indeed. He who runs away lives to fight another day.
Not my words.
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