Politics Why Buhari’s Certificate Palaver Wont Go Away -The Guardian

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LATE in 1979 I was a fresher at St. John Vianney Seminary, Barakin Ladi, in the Jos Plateau. On a particular afternoon when we were observing siesta the deafening drone of a military helicopter flying at treetop threw us out of our narrow beds. From the sky dropped the Langtang-born Joe Garba, a general and Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA. He was on his way home, but decided to complete his journey by road to talk to our graduating form five students.

Within seconds of his arrival, military trucks spilled hundreds of cadet officers who took combat position in the football field. The heavy craft roared off again in a swirl of red dust and flying stones. Lithe, extremely tall with a commanding presence, Garba stood with both hands behind his back watching his men like any of us. We knew his calmness was deceptive because he saw nothing wrong in his instructors kicking and punching the cadets for the slightest mistake. Then he turned and began to pace up and down.

Garba told the graduating students to come to him at Kaduna for enrollment into NDA. The army needed them. What were the qualifications? Come with your WAEC results. Five credits? Five credits or their equivalent, he said. To the best of my knowledge our form five students, including Victor (Caesar) Walbe (We mourned when the lovable Caesar was killed shortly in a car crash), whose father William Walbe was among the northern troops that abducted and murdered JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi and Francis Fajuyi on July 29th 1966, avoided Garba like a plague. None wanted to be kicked on the buttocks in the name of NDA, ka ji?

The point is that the north implemented a militarization programme from 1960 to 2011. “Its equivalent” was the destructive weapon it used to decapitate other Nigerians in recruitment. While you struggled to make your five credits to enter NDA, an Aminu, crouching on a prayer mat plotted for a signed Koranic school certificate from the Mallam next door as his five credits equivalent. Times changed and holders of these cheap papers are ashamed of tendering them for public scrutiny. Never in their wildest nightmare did they foresee a Nigeria where they’d be subjected to the same rigorous scrutiny like other ‘lesser’ Nigerians born to be ruled. That is why Muhammadu Buhari, who was a beneficiary of this programme cannot bring himself to show Nigerians the credentials he used in joining the army and rising to the rank of a general and Head of State.

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SOURCE : #TheGuardian

#NDA #Buhari
 
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