President Tinubu, 38 soldiers, and the need for justice

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

There is no doubt that President Bola Tinubu inherited monumental assets and liabilities from his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, as the burdens associated with presiding over the affairs of over 200 million Nigerians are not for the faint-hearted. However, Tinubu has stated on many occasions that he is ready to tackle, head-on, the challenges arising from ruling the most populous country in Africa.

It is on record that Tinubu has been doing his utmost since May 29, 2023, when he assumed office, to continue from where the previous administration left off regarding assets and liabilities, as the government is a continuous process.

But one particular liability inherited by the Tinubu-led Federal Government is a gross injustice meted out to 38 senior officers who were prematurely retired by the Nigerian Army without cause. The situation was further exacerbated when the then leadership of the Nigerian Army refused to comply with valid court orders and the resolution of the National Assembly directing their reinstatement.

One of the founding fathers of the United States, who was also a philosopher and the most influential intellectual in the US during his time, Benjamin Franklin, must be thinking of the unjust treatment inflicted on the 38 soldiers when he said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are outraged as those who are.”

For the record, the 38 soldiers were forced into premature retirement on June 9, 2016, in an unjust exercise that affected nine major generals, 11 brigadier generals, seven colonels, and 11 lieutenant colonels. Incidentally, the news of their retirement on June 9, 2016, sent a wrong message, suggesting that it is an offence to offer meritorious service to Nigeria, as such patriotic officers can be dealt with by an overbearing leadership without due process. This is the fate of these 38 senior officers, who are now seeking justice and reinstatement from the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Bola Tinubu.

It is worth noting that about seven of the 38 soldiers who were unjustly retired during the era of impunity that characterised the previous administration have secured court rulings ordering their reinstatement. However, the Nigerian Army has ignored these court verdicts.

So, what were the reasons for their premature retirement from the Nigerian Army? The then spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Brig. Gen. SK Usman claimed that the officers were compulsorily retired on “disciplinary grounds, serious offences.” According to Army authorities, these “serious offences” included partisanship during the 2015 general elections, involvement in arms procurement fraud, and jeopardising national security.

The then Defence Minister, Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan-Alli (rtd), and the former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai (rtd), supported Usman’s statement, asserting that due process and a fair hearing were granted to all the officers, who were purportedly found guilty by a competent legal procedure.

Buratai reportedly claimed, “It took us a painstaking procedure to ensure we did not pick innocent ones. We started with one inquiry from One Division GOC to the other. After that, we subjected it to legal review. After the legal review, we forwarded our recommendations to higher authorities for consideration. So, it took us time; we have our own process also; our administrative process dovetailing into legal review and so on.”

However, it was later discovered that the 38 officers were never queried, charged, tried, or found guilty of any offence; they did not appear before any court martial. To further validate the claims that the officers were innocent of the allegations against them, it was reported that several of the affected senior officers were not even in Nigeria when they were compulsorily retired without a fair hearing.

For instance, Lt. Col. Thomas Arigbe was a Directing Staff on a two-year Exchange Programme with the Ghana Armed Forces at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. He was lecturing in a class in Ghana when an SMS was sent to him about his premature retirement. Col. MA Suleiman, a national merit award winner for the safe rescue of several foreign hostages, was in Chad as a military attaché, where his experience in fighting insurgents was being utilised when he was also retired. This was also the case with Col. Hassan, who led the troops in recapturing Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram in August 2014.

But eight years after their unjust retirement, the 38 soldiers continue to hope for a better outcome from the country they had served with their lives on the line. They have also adopted constructive engagement with some stakeholders on the way forward, convinced that justice will prevail in their case.

One such move was to approach a legal luminary and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), to take up the matter with the Federal Government. Falana has written a strongly worded letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Fagbemi (SAN), urging him to urgently intervene in the Nigerian Army’s refusal to comply with court orders regarding the wrongful compulsory retirement of 38 senior officers.

Falana also, in a recent interview with journalists in Lagos, appealed to President Tinubu to intervene and reinstate the 38 soldiers without further delay. Incidentally, Falana is not new to this matter. He had previously intervened in the ordeal of certain soldiers and ensured their reinstatement.

Regarding the need to reinstate the 38 soldiers, Falana said, “As the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, I wish to inform you that what happened to the 38 Army officers under the previous administration is incredible and unfortunate. I’m also using this medium to inform you that the infamous action on the 38 officers is patently illegal and unjustified.

“The Nigerian Army cannot and should not be allowed to treat the valid and subsisting order of the National Industrial Court and the National Assembly resolution on the 38 officers with levity. Mr President, there is the need for you to intervene now because if you fail to intervene, the premature retirement of these 38 officers will send a wrong signal to serving military officers that it does not pay to offer selfless service to Nigeria.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, the National Industrial Court had directed the reinstatement of the affected officers who had gone to court to challenge the injustice against them.

“But the then military authorities and the present ones have continued to defy the court’s order. Several of the officers who felt the Army breached its extant rules and regulations in carrying out the retirements also took their complaints to the court to seek redress and clear their names, with the court ruling in their favour.

“The development was after their appeal to former President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking his intervention and reinstatement, but there has been no response from the Presidency or the Nigerian Army up to date.”

The seven officers who obtained judgments against the Nigerian Army are Maj. Gen. Ijioma, Cols. Hassan and Suleiman, and Lt. Cols. Thomas Arigbe, A.S. Muhammed, Dazang, and Mohammed. Two other officers also obtained National Assembly resolutions ordering their reinstatement.

Some of the affected officers, who are still in their 40s, are optimistic that President Tinubu will carefully look into their cases and reinstate them in the interest of justice, so that they can continue to offer their military service to the country.

Some analysts have also argued that if the Generals cannot be reinstated – because age and years of service have caught up with them – they should be paid their full entitlement, while the colonels and majors, who are much younger in age and years of service, still have a lot to contribute to the Force.

These are few decided cases favouring the 38 soldiers: On June 28, 2022, Col. Danladi Hassan’s lawyers submitted a letter on his behalf to the office of the then Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd), urging him to prevail on the Nigerian Army to obey the court orders that declared the retirement of their client illegal. The lawyers reminded Magashi that on January 25, 2022, they had forwarded to his office the judgment of the National Industrial Court that set aside the compulsory retirement of Hassan.

The letter also noted that Hassan had been subjected to extreme hardship and emotional and psychological trauma for no less than six years, and still counting, “in disregard of a subsisting and valid judgment of the National Industrial Court, affirmed by the Court of Appeal, ordering our client’s reinstatement and payment of his salaries and allowances.”

In 2018, the National Industrial Court in Abuja made a pronouncement in a suit filed by Col. Hassan, seeking N1 billion as damages against his compulsory retirement. The court ruled in favour of Col. Hassan and nullified his untimely retirement by the Army.

The trial judge, Justice Sanusi Kado, held that the Nigerian Army failed to convince the court about the disciplinary grounds for the compulsory retirement of Hassan. The Army authorities, including the Nigerian Army Council, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Armed Forces Council, decided to appeal against the decision of the National Industrial Court.

But in December 2021, Justice Stephen Adah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA—as he was then, as he is now in the Supreme Court Bench), read the lead judgment of the three-member Appeal Court panel, which vindicated Hassan again, saying that the appellants’ appeal was unmeritorious.

The appellate court also noted that “it was in that respect that the court now held that the compulsory retirement of the claimant was declared null and void; letter of compulsory retirement also set aside and he was ordered to be reinstated and a letter issued to that effect, reinstating him into the Nigerian Army with all rights and privileges.”

But the verdict, like others, has been ignored by the Nigerian Army.

This writer is also calling on the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, to call for the files of these 38 officers and review their matter for reinstatement in line with court orders and the National Assembly resolution. It is a fact that the incident happened before you assumed office, but you owe it a duty to correct the injustice meted out to fellow officers.

The time has come for AGF Fagbemi to do the needful as the Chief Law Officer of the country and ensure justice for the affected senior officers. The AGF should, as a matter of urgency, give sound legal advice to the President on the need to revisit the injustice on the 38 soldiers and reinstate them. In view of the avowed commitment of President Tinubu-led Federal Government to the rule of law and constitutionalism, concerted efforts must be made to put an end to the era of impunity that characterised the previous administration and give solace to the 38 soldiers.

Nigerians expect nothing less over the travails of these 38 senior officers. Mr President, this is the time to demonstrate that you are a listening President with a passion for correcting the injustices of the past against fellow Nigerians. The fate of these soldiers is in your hands, asking for similar treatment – for posterity and a legacy that will stand the test of time.

Amokeodo, a senior journalist and media consultant, writes in from Abuja.