By Mahmud Jega
I was startled at the weekend to see the announcement by retired Air Marshal Saddique Baba Abubakar, former Chief of Air Staff and former Bauchi State APC governorship candidate, that he was retiring from active politics. Who gave him permission to quit? In his old line of trade in the military, if a person quits the job without permission, is that not what soldiers call AWOL, Absent With Out Leave? But because politics is so open, you think you can quit with only a press statement?
All our newspapers, airwaves and online news sites have been taken over in recent weeks by political stories, of party primaries, consensus, rifts, party factions, unending court cases, congresses and conventions. There is this story of a diminutive political aspirant in Kaduna State who told the screening panel that he was 30 years old, only for his NIN and international passport to show that he was born in 2010. However, the only story I read of anyone deserting the political field was of Saddique Baba Abubakar. If former civil servants, former paramilitary men and women, small time businessmen and even itinerant politicians can stay and wither the storm, how can a whole Air Marshal take flight at this stage, when politics is yet to get even hotter?
It was French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau who said, at the start of World War I in 1914, that “War is too serious a business to be left to the Generals.” In Nigeria here, I haven’t seen any politician clamouring to take over the functions of soldiers [who will like to be deployed in the field against Boko Haram, ISWAP, Lakurawa, bandits, IPOB or pipeline vandals?]. But many ex-Nigerian soldiers have flooded the political space since our return to civilian rule in 1999. They seem to be saying, “Politics is too serious a business to be left to politicians.” In fact, in the 27 short years of this Fourth Republic, retired Army Generals headed it for 16 years, or 60% of the time. Both former Presidents had once ruled the country through military juntas and decrees. No wonder this Republic is still reeking of military fatigues.
Saddique Baba Abubakar was one of the most daring of them. Within days of his retirement from Nigeria Air Force as a three-star Air Marshal and Chief of Air Staff in 2021, he returned to his native Bauchi State, jumped into the political fray, grabbed the governorship ticket of APC, ran against the PDP incumbent, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, in the 2023 elections, but lost. APC was ruling at the Federal level at the time [still is], and the Air Marshal even strengthened his hand politically by marrying a serving Minister.
I wondered at the time: which power was Saddique looking for? A man who commanded the entire Nigeria Air Force, with its Principal Staff Branches, six major Operational Commands [Tactical, Special Operations, Air Training, Ground Training, Mobility and Logistics] plus several Direct Reporting Units [DRUs], lots of fighter jets, bombers, helicopters and intelligence platforms, a man who directed the dropping of bombs and firing of rockets at countless forest and tumbun targets, which power was he looking for in a governor’s office, apart from signing contracts and appointment letters of civil servants and traditional rulers?
In structural arrangement, bearing, language, culture, mission and operation, the military is the polar opposite of politics. One has a closed recruitment system while the other is severely open to every Tom, Dick and Harry to enter; one requires long intensive training while the other has on-the-job training; one requires votes while the other is based on orders; one wears uniforms while the other floats agbadas; one is licensed to carry firearms while the other has unlicensed thugs carrying knives and clubs; one has a strict system of respecting seniority while in the other, anyone can stand up and abuse anyone. There was this audio on the social media recently, of Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago in a hot exchange with a political thug; the governor was struggling to assert his seniority in age and office but the thug kept interrupting him, saying they were the ones that suffered to get him into the office. In all the years that Saddique Abubakar was in the Air Force, did any lowly Aircraftman shout at him and say they were the ones who made him Chief of Air Staff?
Why did the former Service Chief choose this weekend to announce his departure from politics? It could be that the conduct of party primaries all over the country frightened him. There is this video of a House of Representatives aspirant who was addressing his supporters; he broke down in tears and accused his state governor of manipulating things against him. There was another aspirant, drenched in sweat and tears, swearing that he had been a loyal party member for years and had carried out every assignment given to him, but that he was still schemed out in “consensus” talks. Even though he issued a statement denying it, there was this very widely circulated social media story alleging that Cubana Chief Priest said party elders betrayed him despite all the money he gave them. He however said in his denial that he indeed tried to contest but that his state governor persuaded him not to because of zoning arrangements; was it before or after he spent a lot of money?
One of the most widely circulated stories was about the prominent Muslim cleric and former Minister, who was rejected by his state governor in consensus arrangements. He was all over TV, radio stations and newspapers protesting. Gen Z lads dug up an old video of his, sermonising in a mosque that clerics should not wade into the arena of politicians. At some point he apparently decided that politics is too serious a business to be left to politicians. What if politicians now decide that religion is too serious a business to be left to clerics, and they jump onto the pulpit with their campaign messages? The confusion will be complete.
All over the country, stories of party factions struggling for control caused confusion, but the situation in Air Marshal’s native Bauchi State is even more so. Three years ago, he flew APC’s flag in governorship elections, but this time around, the fact that Yusuf Maitama Tuggar dropped the very senior cabinet post of Foreign Affairs Minister and arrived in the state to seek the same ticket, must have filled the air with talk of presidential anointment. The outgoing governor’s political actions have created further muddle in the state; Governor Bala, together with his Oyo State counterpart Seyi Makinde, the only two remaining governors in the Turaki-led PDP faction, jumped ship and went over to the little known Allied Peoples Movement, APM. This, while many of the governor’s supporters in Bauchi had already bought PDP nomination forms.
In his statement announcing his retirement from politics, Air Marshal Saddique said it was based on personal grounds. Personal grounds? Was participation in politics ever based on public grounds? Every person decides for himself whether and when to wade into politics. In Nigeria, it is better not to consult friends and family members before making such a decision; every friend and family member will try to discourage you, so it is an intensely personal decision. Concerned elders will ask you, “Do you have enough money?”
But of course, a man like AM Saddique who returns home after many years in an elite service in which he rose to the top, once he returns home, political busybodies will rush to his house and tell him, “All over the state, they are talking about you. They want you to come and contest for governor. People are really praying for you to come; they will support you wholeheartedly.” What they are really praying for is for you to open your wallet and bank accounts for them to chop.
Air Marshal Saddique also said, “I sincerely apologise to all my supporters and well-wishers over this difficult decision, and I wish everyone the very best.” Difficult, yes; apologies, certainly, because in his few years in politics, tens of thousands of party members had pinned their hopes on his clinching the governorship so that they, in turn, will grab major appointments and feast on contracts. He has left them in the lurch, will be their conclusion, “because he has food to eat, plus his fat Service Chief’s pension, while we wasted out time, abandoned our trades and followed him around, only for him to now go away and leave us stranded.”
Air Marshal Saddique is so far the first this year, but he will not be the last aspirant to flee from Nigerian politics. Alhaji Garba Isa of Yekuwa Communications told me the story of an elder in Jigawa State who sat morose after many years as a failed aspirant. He then counselled some youngsters, “Anyone who has not had enough heartache, should enter politics.”
Ace syndicated columnist and wordsmith, Mahmud Jega, is Publisher of 21st Century Chronicle and former chairman of Daily Trust Editorial Board
