TY Danjuma: Matters arising

About two years ago when General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (retired) celebrated his 78th birthday, a magazine saddled me with the responsibility of writing a unique and ‘one of a kind’ feature to salute that milestone. After some consultations and research, I concluded that the man’s life, achievements and activities were so much public that you could hardly write anything unique without duplicating what many others are going to write. Eventually we had to agree on writing the same things anyone else will write about him but in as much a unique way as possible.

By the time I compiled some 10 things that many may not know about TY Danjuma and wrote the article, I had the Nigerian youths in mind, for they are mostly the ones who hardly know much of his history and that of the nation in general. We therefore agreed to prioritize its publication on the social media where many of these youths would have access to it. To our surprise, some of the reactions that followed the article were nowhere near positive. Infact, I was particularly disturbed by those appearing to come out from some Taraba youths. However, looking at the demographics of the responses, I quickly dismissed most of them as unfair especially as they had to do ethno-religious sentiments. Little did I know that many of them may have some element of validity in them after all.

Before that event, I had always given General Danjuma the benefit of the doubt concerning allegations of ethnic jingoism and religious bigotry that he has been constantly painted with for quite a while. My reservations about him notwithstanding, I used to believe that he is a victim of the Nigerian way of public judgement in which your bad deeds make the headlines ten times faster than any of your good ones. However, any critical observation of the socio-political terrain in the middle belt since after the return of democracy in 1999 cannot completely absolve the former Defence Minister of playing the wrong roles unexpected of a statesman of his own calibre.

The reports of how the 2015 gubernatorial elections became so controversial just to make sure a Muslim does not rule Taraba and the roles he was alleged to have played there-in were some of the events that made many to disturbingly give up on Danjuma. Prior to that, we have unprecedentedly witnessed how the incapacitated Governor Danbaba Suntai was allowed to rule for almost two years in an alleged bid to never allow any Muslim to ever become the substantial governor of the state. Before that, Danladi Baido, who supposed to succeed Ex-Governor Jolly Nyame who served for 8 years was controversially replaced as PDP candidate and replaced with Suntai. While allegations of Danjuma’s complicity in all of these have always been hypothetical, with recent events, the trueness of these allegations is now an unfortunate possibility.

In July last year, General Danjuma was among some so-called Northern Christian Elders Forum who declared that “the real problem with the country is that Jihad has been launched in Nigeria and Islamists have been interfering in the governance of the country in a disguised manner; Jihadist have taken over the education and security apparatuses of the nation to foist Islamic Rule.” These were apparently NCEF’s response to President Buhari’s lopsided appointments of security heads and the proposed merger of IRK and CRK into ‘Religious and National Values’ Subject in our education curriculum.

Now, let’s forget the gravity and the unsubstantiated nature of these allegations and deal with the fact that General Danjuma, a man at the centre of Nigeria’s history is prominently part of such a divisive organization. We should remember that his status is not different from that of people like Murtala and Obasanjo. Other forum members like General Joshua Dogonyaro, Major General Zamani Lekwot, Shyngle Wigwe, Elder Solomon Asemota are much more less of national stakeholders like he is.

Just as many were thinking all previous episodes were just unavoidable accidents, Danjuma was just yesterday reported accusing the Nigerian military of colluding with armed bandits to perpetrate violence in his home state and other parts of Nigeria. As a retired general of the same army, ex-chief of army staff and former minister of defence, this is the lowest point you wouldn’t have imagined him to descend to. “The armed forces are not neutral, they collude with armed bandits to kill Nigerians and you will all die one by one if you depend on them to stop the killings. The ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba and all states in Nigeria, otherwise Somalia will be a child’s play. I ask every one of you to be at alert and defend your country, your territory and your state. You have nowhere else to go.” He was reported as saying at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University.

Already there are too many unprintable allegations against Danjuma concerning the crisis in Taraba. As these allegations are yet to be adequately proven, the signals, body languages and utterances coming out of him are so much in contrast with the roles he ought to be playing in ensuring a peaceful and just Taraba and Nigeria. It is most unfortunate that his voice is heard condemning Fulani orchestrated attacks but never heard when they are attacked. It was in his home state that about 700 Fulanis including women and children were massacred last year and the passive nature with which the state and Federal Government approached the issue didn’t appear to bother the retired general. As citizens who ideally should be the ones learning from TY Danjuma, our major concern is not the ethnicity of the perpetrators or victims of violence, ours is to help ensure peace and security everywhere and for everyone as well as seeing the culprits punished. The truth is that everyone is a victim of violence and insecurity in Nigeria.

The issue is that, no one would say that dirty ethno-religious politics is not the norm in Nigeria, but the possibility of TY Danjuma being at the heart of it is enough devastation to a nation already in short supply of true statesmen. No one can deny the good works and sacrifices Danjuma has done and still doing especially in terms of historical patriotism, national unity and contemporary philanthropy, but why would the once revered general decide to end it all on a very low note, so low that even commoners find it disgusting.

It is also not a secret that ethnic and religious priority is imminent in anything that has to do with Nigeria. For instance, no one can say Obasanjo didn’t significantly favour his kinsmen when he ruled or even with the opportunities he gets now. The same is also true about President Buhari today. However, we see the likes of Danjuma as those who strike the balance between extremes.

May be one may say that, considering all the sacrifices TY Danjuma has done for this country, is he not entitled to a licence to do whatever he wants with the remainder of his life? However, we should remember that it was Nigeria that first made them whatever they are and it is because of the opportunities it gave them that they are still what they are today; the sort of opportunities their generation have never been able to make available for the youths of today. In contrast, they are contributing to make matters worse.

The bottom line is that rather than conquering Nigerian challenges, it is the challenges that appear to be conquering us one by one. If people of the highest status, historical significance and with the biggest stake in a country are falling like a pile of cards, imagine what awaits a vulnerable generation like ours. The threat of the situation finally condemning and consuming all of us is real.

In all of these, Nigeria is the biggest loser. This is a nation where its only major stakeholders at any given time are those in power, even the Council of State is populated by helpless, relegated and even questionable personalities. The idea of past leaders in virtually all countries automatically transforming into statesmen after leaving power, has since been heavily defeated in Nigeria. First, many of our leaders leave in unceremonious and even embarrassing circumstances with little or nothing to cherish.

Babangida, Obasanjo, Abacha, Jonathan were virtually forced out of office after overstaying their welcome. Besides, many of them were accused of things that make it difficult to be truly accepted as statesmen by the majority. Others like Murtala, ‘Yar’adua and those from the first Republic died. Shagari, Abdussalmi and Gowon appear to be much more relatively accepted largely due to their ability to stay away from active politics and partisan controversies after office.

Before now, Danjuma belonged to a rare category of the few Nigerians who entered the respected statesmen club without ruling the country and even hitherto appeared to be more suited to the role more than those who did. However, it seems it has all fallen apart as recent events apparently proves that he has since renounced his national statesmanship in favour of ethnic championship.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez