COUP: DHQ’S FRESH ALERT AND WARNING: MATTERS ARISING
Twice in less than one week, the issue of a military coup in Nigeria has been raised.
First to raise it is the chief of defense staff, General Christopher Musa, who alerted of a fresh call on the military to take over power.
He did not mention the names of those making the calls.
But the general, assuring that the military would continue to defend Nigeria’s democratic dispensation, warned those behind the fresh call that security operatives would go after them.
Days later, an online news platform reported that the presidential brigade of guards in Abuja had placed its key units on alert following a suspicious coup plot.
The publication went as far as alleging that the commander of the brigade of guards met with President Bola Tinubu and his chief of staff twice within hours over the issue.
Amidst apprehension in the polity, the defense headquarters swiftly dismissed the report, calling it fake news, while promising to initiate litigation against the publisher of the online publication.
The issue of the military coup in Nigeria always generated a strong mixed reaction, especially among Nigerians who are old enough to recall the prolonged military rule in Nigeria, which ended in 1999.
The development is scarier with the renewed surge of military coups in Nigeria’s neighboring countries.
With the growing economic hardships, hunger, and high level of insecurity in Nigeria, the chief of defense staff’s comment and the online report have again raised a fresh debate on the issue of coups.
Why is the issue that Nigerians have regarded as the dark era of their history as a sovereign nation cropping up at a time when millions are restive over the situation in the country?
Does the military even have the magic wand to resolve the emerging challenges in the polity, which are mostly traced to their prolonged hold on power before 1999?
Again, is a military coup even viable in Nigeria today, with pockets of armed men engaging security forces all over the country?
