By Adesina Soyooye
Danjuma Hamisu Ali-Keffi, a retired Nigeria Army Major General, has chided Defence Minister Christopher Musa over what he called the Minister’s unprofessional comments on a former Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai.
Not a few people were taken aback by Musa’s comments during a television interview. While some people said he was unguarded, others said it was unbecoming of an army officer of his status,, retired or not, serving in Government or not.
For Major General Ali-Keffi, “serving and retired military generals should not be drawn into partisan political disputes.
The Defence Minister had accused El-Rufai of very untidy behaviours when he was the Governor of Kaduna State, including personally paying bandits, divisive policies, and worse, planning, deliberately, the killings of Southern Kaduna residents.
Ali-Keffi, who was a former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, said Musa’s allegations boardered on “plain politics”. With that in mind, the former GOC urged senior military officers to mind their language when commenting on political matters. He asked them to show some restrains.
Ali-Keffii in the interview with SaharaReporters expressed deep disappointed that Musa, according to him, whom he described as his erstwhile friend, publicly criticised El-Rufai and argued that senior military officers should understand the influence and authority attached to their statements.
He said: “ We Generals should be very careful how we comment on political issues. We are not professional politicians. I mean, we should leave politics for Retired Generals remain influential figures whose comments can easily be interpreted by the public as reflecting the position of the military establishment.
“Our words carry a lot of weight. Our words are listened to by so many people, right? So we should be very careful.
He threw a direct challenge at Musa to provide evidence to prove his allegation that El-Rufai paid bandits, instead of making unsubstantiated claims.
Musa: “He alleged, CG Musa alleged El-Rufai paid bandits. How? You have facts? Present it! Why are you keeping it? Present it!”
Ali-Keffi also rubbished claims that El-Rufai negotiated with bandits or attempted to prevent military operations against criminal groups during his tenure as governor.
He dug into his experience as GOC 1 Division and said El-Rufai never instructed him to halt military operations against criminal elements in Kaduna State.
Musa: “El-Rufai never negotiated with bandits. El-Rufai never prevailed on us military people while I was the General Officer Commanding not to carry out operations against the Fulani. In fact, he said criminal Fulani person should not be spared!”
Military operations, he said, were conducted in different parts of Kaduna during his tenure as GOC, and added that the state government provided intelligence that supported security operations.
He particularly commended Samuel Aruwan, the then Kaduna Commissioner for Internal Security who he said maintained regular communication with military commanders and provided intelligence.
Ali-Keffi said he personally contacted El-Rufai before some military clearance operations to ask that civilians be warned to stay away from areas where troops would be deployed.
Initially, he explained, El-Rufai resisted the request, with the arguement that some people remaining in the forests were complicit in criminal activities.
But according to Ali-Keffi, the military had a responsibility to minimise civilian casualties and collateral damage. El-Rufai later after which the former governor cooperated with the military.
He said not for once did El-Rufai attempt to stop the operations, and questioned the basis on which the embattled former Governor is being portrayed now as an obstruction to military action against banditry at the time he was in office.
Ali-Keffi also questioned why Musa chose now to pounce on El-Rufai and suggested that his allegations are politically motivated because of El-Rufai’s current situation.
To Musa, he said: “Where’s your chivalry? The man is down. Why didn’t he say that when [he] was up? He didn’t have the liver, no stomach. The allegations are “far-fetched and “plain politics. Senior military officers should avoid allowing political disagreements to damage their professional credibility or drag the armed forces into partisan disputes.”
He pointed out that his defence of El-Rufai does not mean he agreed with all the former governor did while in Officer.
For the records, he recalled that El-Rufai demolished a property belonging to him at the National Eye Centre, Mando, but maintained that the personal disagreement did not justify allegations he considered unsupported by his own experience.
Ali-Keffi: “I would not have said these things I am saying but it is very unfair for the Minister of Defence Christopher Musa to have gone after El-Rufai, I don’t support some of the things that El-Rufai did, no..
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