When news broke some time last week that the nigeria Chief of Army staff, General Tukur Buratai owns two houses in Dubai , social media went into over drive. It wasn't necessarily the fact that a serving service chief owns those houses , it was the fact that the issue came to light at a time the present administration is presumably cleaning the Augean stables. At a time when past service Chiefs of the country are under investigation for the spending of the arms fund disbursed by the last administration. The present administration can ill afford the moral baggage of having a serving service chief smear the anti graft campaign with another unedifying scandal.
The response of the military in DEFENCE of their boss was predictably pedestrian, defensive, lacking in facts and characteristically but subtly ad hominem. The statement from the Army which was signed by the army spokesman , Sani Usman reads in part "the attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to another round of campaign of calumny against the Chief of Army staff Lt general Tukur Buratai and his family by some unscrupulous elements as contained in Sahara Reporters story titled "Revealed:BUHARI'S CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF , GENERAL BURATAI, WIVES OWN PROPERTY " alleging that Nigeria's Chief of Army staff General Buratai, General Tukur Buratai, and his two wives are joint owners of a Dubai property that was paid for in one transaction posted on the website this evening ". The statement continued; "it is important to know that these baseless allegations were not new . In March this year , some groups of individuals under the aegis of "Concerned Citizens", tried same smear campaign to their disappointment, it could not fly , because it is not true" . Continuing, the statement alluded to a totally unrelated matter when it states; " you will recall early this week, there was similar campaign of calumny by yet another online news medium the cable , in which among other things It alleged that wounded in action Nigeria -Army personnel were abandoned by the Army , government and the nation which is not true".
From the foregoing, The Nigeria Army must have have presumed, Quite wrongly that this is an attack on the army. In the first place, the properties are personal properties and were not acquired for and on behalf of the army to warrant this defensive approach to the statement. They were also acquired allegedly before the COAS's appointment as a service chief and therefore to that extent, personal to him . It is completely different if the allegation had been the issue of diverting arms funds and the statement intends to set the records straight by providing particulars of weapons acquired by the government with dates to show that the COAS has not failed in his duties. These were personal properties that the Army as an institution is not privy to in any way whatsoever. So it becomes baffling when an allegation of acquisition of foreign assets by the COAS is misconstrued as a campaign of calumny against the Army as the statement claims . If the army was privy to the information regarding the ownership of the said property as it claims, How come they didn't produce particulars of payment for the property as well as the title deeds of the property to ascertain whether indeed the property is jointly owned by the COAS and his wife as claimed by Sahara reporters ? It certainly begs the question to claim a property was acquired by an individual singly without more . Since the statement purports to be a refutation of an allegation the army claims is baseless , it must go a step further than Sahara Reporters to debunk the allegation in it's entirety. Rather what we have is a maze of thinly veiled rancid attacks on the media which indents on a lame Defence of the issues.
Curiously, the individual involved in the whole saga has not deemed it fit to release a statement. Whether this is as a result of a perceived satisfaction with the Army statement or a trivialization of the issues themselves is unclear. One thing remains clear though; Buratai has a case to answer . At a time the government claims to be conducting intensive house cleaning in the military , this is the last news any one wants to hear about a serving service chief. What is even more alarming is the Federal Government' silence on the issue. For a government that prides itself on anti corruption and zero tolerance for corruption especially for its own staff, the federal government cannot afford an avoidable distraction of having one of its own serving officers implicated in any illegal deal and unlawful enrichment. The least the government can do at the moment is at least to do a quick investigation of the said properties and to ascertain whether they were proceeds of unlawful enrichment.
The army statement claims that Tukur Buratai acquired the said properties from his personal savings . While I cannot confirm or challenge this statement , We need to quickly remind ourselves that Buratai was Director of army procurement sometime ago before his appointment. And so, his investigation in the light of all the revelations that have been made in the past few months within the military hierarchy is not not only necessary and expedient but just as well. It would certainly be unfair on the ex service chiefs who are standing trial over the diverted arms funds to languish in detention while another man who was in some way involved in the infamous arms deal walks free just because he is part of the government of the day. The anti graft war and stance of the government would lose its steam if not relevance If the giver is seen in any way to be sympathetic to its officers who have been implicated in corruption. In a country where unjust enrichment by civil servants is rife, a serving military chief cannot be allowed to ride roughshod on the anti corruption mantra of the government without consequences. Civil servants drive cars worth millions of Naira and stash four times that size abroad from illicit deals . With the recent developments in the army. One can hardly sweep this under the carpet.
The EFCC has made so much media fuss about its recoveries of stolen wealth by members of the last administration. We were appalled about the infamous discovery of millions of dollars supposedly belonging to an ex service chief in a soak away . We all shuddered in revulsion when expensive jewlries were recovered from the house of a former minister of petroleum. If Buratai indeed bought his houses from his private savings , questions need to be asked as to his net income earnings in a year and the payment plan he adopted in acquiring these properties as well as the duration of the payment plan since the army statement claims he paid in installments. It doesn't just end with releasing a statement without more. Nigerians deserve to know how an army chief acquired foreign property in the light of a well publicized graft in the military by the military hierarchy. Buratai himself needs to understand that being a service chief is insufficient to insulate him completely from probe. The government on the other hand should know that probing a serving service chief who has come under the radar is the only way to send a message of deterrence to potential erring officers who may be intent on committing such acts. The government indeed cannot handle the loss of face and goodwill from this latest discovery should it shy away from doing the needful. Regardless of the outcome of this probe, Both President Buhari and his fawning pack of anti graft gladiators would be doing themselves a world of good by investigating this matter. Because it is only then that the anti graft war would have a simulacrum of credibility. Contrariwise, he may just be on a mission for personal vendetta.
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