A lawyer and retired Captain in the Nigerian Army, Captain Casmir Nwafor, has said that the major reason he left the army was because of the actions of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nwafor in a statement said that he was in the army in 2015 when Buhari won the presidential election, saying that the president said certain things that didn’t go down well with him.
His words: “If you say, as Commander-in-Chief, that you are not recognizing my people, why am I in the army fighting for the country? I had to stay back because in short service you must stay 10 years. Then, I had three years. Immediately the three years ended, I left. By the president’s body language, by his appointments, he has shown the other parts of the country that they don’t belong. Then, they are killing people here and there, in Benue, Plateau, you don’t care. You are talking about Ruga.
“The president’s body language and actions are fuelling the tension in Nigeria. Under this government, Nigeria has not been so divided, just like in 1967 when we had the civil war. This is where we are heading. Nigeria is so divided because of the activities of one man, the president. The other day they had security meeting. Almost all the Security Chiefs there are Fulani, Hausa or Muslim. There was nobody from the Southeast. The Vice President who is from the Southwest has no say. In fact, most times, they don’t even call him for meetings. Anything you are discussing and you don’t have the major tribes together, then there is going to be a problem. Before, it was only Southeast. Now, everybody is becoming alienated and disenfranchised.”
Nwafor, who, at some point worked in the office of the National Security Adviser and took part in the probing of the alleged missing money, meant for the purchase of weapons during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, revealed that Jonathan was not in control of what the military was doing then.
“He would just release money, but nobody was following up. Part of the money was used to buy weapons because I know that Goodluck bought arms. But part of the money was used for politics. People were given money for prayers. People were given money for some funny, funny things that were not related to security issues. Part of that money was used for 2015 elections. All the people who were arrested, including military people, were all given pocket money. Nigerian money was used for welfare. It was not used for arms purchase. But they bought some equipment though. Maybe, what they needed from that $2.1 billion was $1 billion. They now made it $2.1 billion. That excess one was what they were now sharing,” he added.
