MILITARY POSTINGS:IHEJIRIKA MUZZLES COAS CONTENDERS

On the face of it, the recent
postings of top military officers of the Nigerian Army may seem a normal
exercise, but there appears to be a deliberate attempt to position some
favoured officers for a final onslaught on top contenders to the office of a
future Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

On favouritism exhibited by the Chief
of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Azubuike Ihejirika, the postings
deliberately posted junior officers above their seniors to be General Officer
Commanding, Corps Commanders or Brigade Commanders.

For instance, the Intelligence
Corps  commander, Major General Ahmed Jibrin, was appointed General
Officer Commanding, 2 Division, Ibadan, while there are two senior major
generals, Idris and DIG Ogah. Idris, who is the Deputy Commander, National
Defence College (NDC), and the newly promoted Ogah, who was posted to the
Defence Intelligence Agency as Director Operations, are senior to Brigadier
General L.W. Wiwa, who was posted from the office of the National Security
Adviser to the headquarters of the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps as acting
Director of Military Intelligence.

Also, while there are senior officers
who could be appointed as GOC, the COAS picked the newly promoted Major General
Umahi, who was posted to 81 Division as GOC.

A Defence source told Blueprint:  “Major General OS
Umahi was, until his promotion, the Brigade Commander of 4 Brigade, Benin. He
is a junior major general and junior to many other generals.

“Also at the Brigade Commander level,
there are senior brigadier generals who are competent to command but were
sidelined in the new arrangement.

“While newly promoted brigadier
generals are appointed Brigade Commanders, those who have been brigadier generals
for more than one or two years are still left in the cooler.”

Like in the retirement  exercise
carried out in December 2012, which was used  by the COAS allegedly to
weed out those considered a threat to his office,   the recent
postings were also seen as an attempt to further push top contenders to the
office of the COAS out of reckoning. Since the last retirement exercise, where
Major Generals M.D. Isah, SY Bello and J. Shoiboki  (all top contenders to
the office of COAS) were retired, the recent postings were used as the last
frontier to eclipse other promising northern officers, the source said.

Major General Babagana Monguno, who
was the Chief of Logistics at the Defence Headquarters, was posted to the
Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Minna, and Major General Shehu
Abdulkadir, who was  Chief of Army Standard and Evaluation (CASE) at the
Army Headquarters, was appointed Force Commander of AFISMI, Mali. Both officers
featured prominently on the list of likely candidate for COAS.

While TRADOC is considered  the
“last bus stop” in the career of most senior officers, Abdulkadir’s posting to
Mali is suspected to be a deft strategy to move him out sight.

The source said, “The recent postings
look like a normal exercise, but they are not. They are an orchestrated attempt
to finally silence top contenders to the COAS office. You know that both
Monguno and Abdulkadir were in contention for the office. Now, Monguno, who is
an engineer as the COAS, was posted to Minna.

“When a senior officer is posted to
TRADOC, it is like quarter to go. In the case of Abdulkadir, being a force
commander may seem a good posting, but in actual sense it is a strategy to keep
him out of sight.

“His case is like that of a top
politician who is posted to an ambassadorial assignment.”