Bequeathing a treasure and asset to Nigeria

At last, the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections have come and gone! The anxiety, the heat, the tensions and the very bitter antagonisms have ebbed out blissfully. The storm is over and calm has returned to every nook and cranny of the country. What has pervaded the air now is the euphoria of celebrations of victors of the electoral battles.

First, let me congratulate all Nigerians for trooping out en masse to exercise their democratic franchise. INEC, Nigeria’s electoral umpire has done a commendably great job for ensuring free, fair and credible elections. The commission dexterously managed difficult moments without bruising anyone.

I think every Nigerian should be proud for going through fruitful polls with very minimal rancor and acrimony, an indication of our maturity as a people and a nation. To this end, I congratulate both losers and winners for their contributions in strengthening and consolidating Nigeria’s democracy.

Our incumbent President and President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari is specially congratulated for his doggedness and victory at the polls, in spite of the forces amassed against his reelection. I profoundly appreciate Mr. President for midwifing and prosecuting a successful general election. Those who wished he failed have been shamed.

The President has disappointed the multiple prophets of doom on the prowl in Nigeria. These agents of darkness predicted a general election that would be discoloured by widespread violence, bloodbath and deaths. They spoke glowingly about the inevitability of postelection violence in chilling terms. But our God is alive and he has dismantled all their evil machinations.

But there is a special noticeable feature of the February 23, Presidential and National Assembly ballots, which has excited my heart. It is assailing and inescapable to all eyes that the just concluded presidential and national assembly ballots were almost 100 percent peacefully conducted. I commend all Nigerians for this decency.

The enemies of Nigeria and antidemocratic forces who armed their thugs and supporters to violently disrupt the electoral process in different parts of the country were forced into a retreat. There was so much apprehension in the land especially in the last days preceding the elections. And many thought Nigeria was going into war rather than an election.

And reflecting on the aftermath of the elections, it dawned on me clearly why President Buhari deployed soldiers to aid civil security. Initially, many did not discern the wisdom and even protested it. The evildoers complained more loudly, claiming over militarization of the electoral process. They haggled for the withdrawal of soldiers and condemned the President’s insistence on drafting soldiers to assist civil security.

It is clear to me that those who quibbled for a relaxed security in the country intended to violently perpetrate confounding electoral heist in mindless bloodletting. They plotted to unleashed anarchy on Nigeria in the guise of election. And in explaining their veiled satanic plots, the reputation of the institution of the Nigerian Army was dishonestly brought into disrepute. They falsely accused soldiers of partisanship and the likelihood of compromising the electoral process. But all has come to naught.

I am excited much like millions of other patriotic Nigerians that all the fears and anxieties about soldiers paled into nothing, judging from what transpired during the elections. I am sure, the wailers deliberately preferred to forget that the Nigerian Army has been reformed, re-oriented and repositioned into a disciplined, patriotic and professionally responsible army in the service of their fatherland.

Under Gen. Tukur Buratai, soldiers are no longer the stereotyped brutes and barbarians of the days of yore. My assessment of the conduct of soldiers in the last elections revealed these pleasant realities. I therefore, came to the inevitable conclusion that Gen. Buratai has done Nigeria a tremendous favour with the reforms he instituted in the Army. Army personnel have become shining examples of professional soldiers anywhere they are deployed to serve the nation. They are decorous, human and amiable.

When he promised that the army will be apolitical and neutral in their engagement in the electoral process, some Nigerians never believed him. But from the conduct of our soldiers in aid of civil security during the election, it has shown that Buratai is indeed a man of his words. He has stunned Nigerians beyond disbelief.

Soldiers were alert and ensured insecurity threats never lingered to the extent of scaring or preventing the electorates from coming out to exercise their civic responsibilities. The serenity throughout the election period and collation stages was palpable from the creeks of the Niger Delta to the forests of the Southeast to the plains of the Northeast.

Today, the nation has gone through an election that all international observers have applauded as generally peaceful or insulated from violence. What Nigerians feared most did not happen to the delight of opposing forces, as no innocent person was shot or manhandled by soldiers as alarmists predicted.

Those who engaged in electoral malpractices were arrested and handed over to the police for lawful prosecution. The dignity and human rights of citizens were really paramount and stringently observed by soldiers throughout the period. It rekindled my hope that truly, Nigeria is on the progressive path to redemption.

Once again, soldiers on election duty have stirred the spirit of pride in me as a Nigerian. They were courteous and tender to suspects everywhere they monitored the Presidential and National Assembly elections. The electorates were not harassed, intimidated or molested, unlike previous experiences. Army personnel did not connive with politicians to rig the ballot, but were passive sentinels and only intervened where there were glaring traces of threats to peace and security.

We are proud of Gen. Buratai and the new face of the Nigerian Army. He has repositioned the Nigerian Army in a manner that has proudly elicited our pride in the Army. We can heartily say, the Army is a treasure and asset to Nigeria.

Okanga wrote this piece from Agila, Benue State.