The Military Mischief Politicians Wanted To Grow Before 2023 Election

The swiftness of the Nigerian military authorities prevented them from being dragged into the controversial propaganda that the military officers did not want the forthcoming election to hold.

For an election both potential winners and losers are licking their lips and fantasising about, a military overthrow, anarchy, or interregnum is the least satisfying outcome.

In contrast, Nigerians want a free and fair election devoid of violence that will produce “the cream of the crop” into office.

Nigerian people want the best candidate out of the 18 potential winners prepared to sabotage the efforts of economic hardship, declining national trust and insecurity, becoming energetic in Nigeria’s story daily.

Sources told AllNews Nigeria that the publicity of an imminent coup d’etat was a firm attempt to scare off some voters on Election Day.

“What they wanted to do was to reinstate the old-fashioned votes don’t count narrative more scarily.

"Both the ruling party and the main opposition parties are guilty", a military source said only under the condition of anonymity to our reporter.

But the authorities of the Nigerian military acted swiftly to disown the propagandists.

The propagandists are of two forms

The coup advocates are of two lineages—one coming as an attacker and the other as a potential saviour.

Propagandists are pushing an agenda that Nigeria is inching very close to a bloody overthrow. 

They cite the debilitating living standard of citizens and the pockets of protests that stare the government in the face every now and then as the reason for the attempt.

They are the devil’s advocate gang.

Inside the circumstance, there are self-acclaimed messiahs making Nigerians believe that the coup would have taken place if not for their intervention.

Both sets of false alarmists have made Nigerians agitated and vulnerable over a fake coup plot.

The coup rumour, indeed, was the handiwork of some desperate politicians with vaulting ambition.

The propaganda 

Fact-checkers and news verifiers are confronted with the reality that news consumers hardly receive fact checks and the authenticity of doctored stories after initially digesting and sharing inaccurate information.

The unscrupulous elements alleged that some officers within the Nigerian military met with a Presidential candidate they did not name to conspire against the forthcoming general elections to drag the country into chaos.

The claim could be inciting and demoralising judging by how smoothly the Nigerian military, in collaboration with other sister security agencies, has been working relentlessly with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure security for the successful conduct of the 2023 general elections.

Undoubtedly, military mischief is another political game political actors are using to gain sympathy and national appeal at the expense of the military’s efforts.

The military gallantly speaks

While debunking the rumour, the Defence Headquarters, through the Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Tukur Gusau said, “Those who made the false claims were agents of destabilisation and violence seeking to heighten tension in the polity and would be made to face the wrath of the law.”

In a statement obtained by AllNews Nigeria, Gusau stated that the Armed Forces of Nigeria is a professional military loyal to the constitution of the Federal Republic it would not want to scuttle.

The military maintained that it is neutral and unmoved by any political structure grappling for power in the coming election.

It distanced itself from any despicable plot to truncate Nigetia’shard-earned democracy and the people’s voice.

The purveyors should be punished

Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi, a profound author of a book on “National Security Strategies”, opined that the government must punish those that orchestrated the false narrative to prevent future occurrences.

“The military high command should ensure that those who fabricated and spread the unfounded report are cautioned by making them face the wrath of the law”, Madobi said without remorse.

Coup isn’t a child’s play

Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has experienced bloody and palace military coups.

But since 1999, it seemed to have left the military government story behind and ready to embrace constitutional government while the military men undertook their mandates of ensuring security.

When the insinuation of an imminent coup broke, AllNews Nigeria made a short renaissance of the unpalatable experiences and the unforgivable loss of innocent lives because of political power.

In January 1966, a group of mostly Igbo officers distorted the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

The government did not last because, by July 1966, there had been a countercoup overflooded by northern soldiers.

In 1975, General Murtala Mohammed overthrew the government of General Yakubu Gowon and established a new military regime.

In 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari took power forcibly from the civilian government of President Shehu Shagari and established another military rule.

Also, in 1985, General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew Buhari’s regime and ruled until 1993, when he was forced to step down after annulling the presidential elections.

In 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over from Sani Abacha and handed over power to an elected civilian government in 1999. Since then, there have been no successful military coups in the giant of Africa.

Why inciting the most functional Nigerian tool?

Arguably, the Nigerian military has been the most vehement government apparatus standing up to its duty gallantly to some extent. 

Day and night, the apparatus works relentlessly to repel internal insurrection, including insurgency in the northeast and banditry in the northwest.

They work hard even though has not achieved maximum success to realise the country’s core national interest, one of which is safeguarding Nigeria’s territorial integrity and protecting the lives and properties of the citizens.

Anyone who tries to mix the Nigerian military with his cheap political game instead of working alongside them in whichever way possible to foster national peace is, by no argument, a national saboteur because a coup d tat is not a hide-and-seek game.