http://odili.net/news/source/2010/sep/9/835.html

hejirika: A TKO for marginalisation

Ademola Babalola


Four months after he assumed the office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, made a clean sweep, replacing his security chiefs with a new set of senior officers.


Chief of Army Staff, Major-General O.A. Ihejirika



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On the surface, the appointments appear routine. However, what makes it different from similar changes in the past is the President's decision to appoint an Igbo army officer as army chief.

He also appointed new Chief of Defence Staff and Director for the State Security Service, thus making a clean break from the security chiefs he inherited from the late President Umaru Yar��Adua.

While Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin becomes the CDS, Major-General O.A. Ihejirika, Rear Admiral O.S. Ibrahim and Air Vice-Marshal M.D. Umar were named the new Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff respectively. Also, the President named Uba Ringim as the new Inspector General of Police, while Ita Effiong was to take charge of the SSS.

Beyond whatever other permutations that may be read to Jonathan��s new appointments, the appointment of the new COAS is significant.

Ihejirika is the 22nd indigenous head of the Nigerian Army and the first Igbo to head the Army, post-civil war. Since the end of the civil war about 30 years ago, the Igbo who are the dominant people in the South East have consistently cried that their people were being systematically denied certain key positions in the country. The headship of the Army is one of such positions.

Curiously, while Ihejirika became the second Igbo to occupy the office of COAS, Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade had been the only Yoruba to head the Nigerian Army since 1965 when General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi became the first Nigerian to head the Army. Aguiyi-Ironsi was an Igbo and also Nigeria��s first military head of state in 1966.

But, the apprehension among the Igbo can best be appreciated against the backdrop of perceived marginalisation by the rest of the country because of the bitter 30-month Nigerian-Biafran war.

The umbrella socio-political organisation for the Igbo, Ohaneze Ndigbo, among other grouses, complained to the Oputa Panel in 2001: ��In the political arena, observed pattern of appointments suggest that the Federal Government is decided that no Igbo man should be trusted with a key sensitive command position for a long while. In the public service, our share of federal employments is far below the constitutional stipulations of the constitution and the quota chart of the Federal Character Commission.��

Jonathan has apparently answered one of the fervent prayers of the Igbo by naming Ihejirika as his new COAS. By the appointment, the Igbo, have therefore, at one time or the other, since the end of the civil war, sit atop virtually all security agencies in the land: Air Force (Paul Dike, Chief of Air Staff, 2006 - 2008); Police (Ogbonna Onovo, Inspector-General of Police, 2009 - 2010), Immigration (Mrs Rose Uzoma, incumbent Comptroller-General); among others.

No doubt, President Jonathan has scored a major point from the Igbo nation and he will definitely be seen as a friend. But, will the marginalisation battle cry of the Igbo now cease? Will the Igbo now accept that they have been adequately reintegrated? Or, will they, as Oliver Twist, ask for more by crying the more? The answer, as they say, is in the womb of time.

It sounds like something lifted from the politics section of NL.

And so? What if it was? I have said that many policy makers observe and participate in our threads, especially the Igbo threads, which are always very interesting.

komando.:

And so? What if it was? I have said that many policy makers observe and participate in our threads, especially the Igbo threads, which are always very interesting.

What's the reason for the agro?

Hey, it was Nairalander that lifted it from a news site. It was originally published in Punch of yesterday by their correspondent, from page, continued in second page.

Jarus:

Hey, it was Nairalander that lifted it from a news site. It was originally published in Punch of yesterday by their correspondent, from page, continued in second page.

I actually lifted it from punch. What I am saying is that it is similar to a post on e could find in nl.

agabaI23:

I actually lifted it from punch. What I am saying is that it is similar to a post on e could find in nl.

You are right. I have met journalists/columnists who admitted visiting forums regularly to get ideas on what/how to write their stories/columns.Nothing wrong there.Its research

I pity Nigeria as a country and pray it comes to an end quickly. Also, I must say that any Igbo extraction who is rejoicing due to the appointment of Igbo officer of Nigerian armed forces as chief of army staff is an indelible fool.

The same inglorious indictment should be handed to hacks and feel-happy journalists who had remote agenda of political treachery in attempt to equate the position held by Ironsi to the position of COAS. Ironsi’s position of GOC of the Nigerian Armed Forces could be likened to the position of CDS which an Igbo son had already held.

It must be recall when Ironsi was GOC of the Nigerian Armed forces; there were service chiefs such army chief of staff and naval chief of staff including IG of police. I wonder why an appointment of Dike as CDS did not generate this hot air. I guess it was probably an appointment made by northerner but a snitch from southern Nigeria.

Ademola Babalola, the writer of that rubbish article, MUST be a Nairaland member. Dumb!

why bother over a writer who isnt more popular than my village chief, sighs and moves to another thread

lol