ABOLISH THE ARMED FORCES NOW!

Icheoku participated in the fight to deter Nigeria's hand-over of Bakassi to Cameroon without success. The Nigeria territory of Bakassi was eventually handed over to Cameroon by Umaru Yar'Adua on August 14th 2008 against all protestations by the Nigeria community and her leaders of thought. Icheoku now therefore takes the struggle to another area - the Nigeria armed forces and calls for it to be disbanded! The F-grade diplomatic blunder which cost Nigeria Bakassi was particularly encouraged by the Nigeria armed forces which does not want to fight Cameroon; - this much was discernible from the interview granted by the Navy Chief Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye! If the armed forces had wanted, a private threat to Umaru Yar'Adua's government would have put a stop to the madness of ceding a territory gratuitously. What Nigeria does then with an organ of her government which is no longer effective to serve as deterrent to predators of her territory is the subject of this discuss? Send them away. Nigeria armed forces, if they cannot stand up to little Cameroon, then what use are they? Why would the Nigeria tax-payers and oil revenue continue to service an armed forces which cannot defend the fatherland? Icheoku says such investment is money down the drain - a wasted effort which should hence be plugged from further bleeding! We are talking about Bakassi and the truncated judgment of the International Court of Justice at the Hague which provided the basis for an Umaru Yar'Adua's handover of Bakassi o Cameroon. Where were the ICJ when Britain sailed over seventeen thousand miles to South America to fight Argentina over Falklands? Where were they? Where was ICJ when America sailed to Midway to give the Japanese bloody-nose and thereby acquired possession over the island - the largest in the Pacific?

Bolaji Ajibola recently was pontificating on how Nigeria only maintained possession or exercised it and he forgot that possession is nine tenth of ownership? Otherwise where are the contrary ownership acts over Bakassi of and by Cameroon? If it means war with Cameroon, so be it otherwise disband the Nigeria Armed Forces and now! Bolaji Ajibola, the kinsman of the disgraced Olusegun Obasanjo is not telling Nigerians how Olusegun Obasanjo, Obafemi Awolowo and Yakubu Gowon mortgaged Bakassi to Cameroon to help them blockade Biafra during the civil war? No they wont tell Nigerians why their fuzzy math over who owns Bakassi did not add up? Yes because there is nothing to add up! Just the facts, ma'm. Trace the root of title!

Why should Nigeria continue to keep and maintain a now merely "ceremonial" armed forces which does not fight, loathes to fight and lacks the guts to fight wars. Their stock in trade has been coup de`tats and decimating little communities either in the Niger Delta town of Odi and presently Agge or Benue State's Zaki Ibiam. Are Nigerian soldiers now so cowardly they cannot stand ordinary Cameroon, it would seem? They are afraid of the French, may be? But the world cannot stand by and watch the French openly fight Nigeria in defense of Cameroon over Bakassi. It will not happen and Nigeria can invite the Chinese, the Russians, the Arabs, the Americans and even the British to provide support. After all it is all about politics of oil and Nigeria can guarantee unencumbered access to the that crude liquid. Also Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the need to maintain stability in the region might trump whatever interest the French might otherwise have had in the oil rich Bakassi for the French to be allowed to fight for Cameroon. Where are Nigeria's men of valor? Idiagbon and Buhari stopped the Cameroon gendarmes cold before, why can't these corrupt politicians at Abuja encourage the president to resist an international aggression on Nigeria national boundaries? Or are they too comfortable to be inconvenienced by little skirmish with Cameroon? According to Chief of the Nigeria Navy Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, we have to give Bakassi to Cameroon to buy their good-neighbourliness as we do not want to antagonize and make them mad (allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Naval Chief - Warships Not for Niger Delta)! Icheoku says what use is the armed forces if it cannot defend Nigeria from her external foes including little Cameroon? Their role is to defend Nigeria against all enemies foreign and domestic. Does Cameroon's present intransigence in Bakassi not eminently qualify them as such anticipated foreign meddlesome interloper? If they cannot do their job, then disband them and put their officers and men to a better use in the police service; that way, at least they can help to secure lives and properties of Nigerians which are presently under perpetual siege by men of the underworld.

Costa Rica abolished their military since 1949; Liechtenstein since 1868 same as Vatican city so why can't Nigeria follow suit in view of the present state of redundancy of her armed forces especially now that Cameroon has been bought over with the free juicy gift of Bakassi!

What is the use of a country which has no known "enemy", except previously Cameroon, maintaining such a large armed forces as Nigeria does? Now that the only "enemy" Cameroon has been finally compromised with the gift of Bakassi, no other enemy presently stares down Nigeria on the face; hence it is about time the Armed Forces is disbanded. Nigeria disband the armed forces as they are now merely redundant and constitute a continuous drain on the scarce resources; resources which could be re-channeled somewhere more useful. As for the other little neighboring countries of Benin Republic, Chad and Niger Republics they can be dealt with by the MOPOL as a police action. Thereafter, Nigeria can continue to maintain some naval presence in the Atlantic until Niger Delta attains her full and complete independence as their stated objective has articulated. Navy Chief Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye has spoken and he speaks the mind of the navy as well as the rest of the armed forces that they cannot fight and does not want to fight. Icheoku says, let Nigeria do away with this behemoth which serves them no good and reinvest the resources hitherto apportioned to them to the police and other security outfits with more meaningful job description to shore them up. So many countries in the world does not have a standing armed Forces, so Nigeria will not be lonely but become a member of the few elite armed-less countries of the world including Costa Rica, Vatican and Liechtestein! At worst Nigeria can sign a military pact with a world super power just in case of any emergency. It is a fad and Nigeria can trail-blaze it in Africa! Icheoku says, just send the khaki boys home and away for good!