August 25, 2021

A retired military intelligence expert, Commodore Kunle Olawunmi, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of dragging Nigeria 60 years backward by his inclination to nepotism and lukewarm attitude to fighting terrorism.

Mr Olawunmi said this while speaking on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Wednesday morning. He gave chilling details of how religion has weakened the nation’s military might.

While fielding questions on the recent attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, by terrorists which led to the death of two military officers and abduction of one, he described Buhari as the worst president ever in the history of Nigeria.

He said he worked for the making of Buhari as president of Nigeria including working with the American Central Intelligence Agency to convince the US government in 2014 that Buhari was the only person that can fix Nigeria.

He accused Buhari of damaging the psyche of Nigerians through polarization using religion, stressing that sponsors of Boko Haram in Nigeria are working with Buhari in Aso Rock, some governors and some in the National Assembly.

He said categorically that Buhari knows the persons behind terror in Nigeria, and advised that President Buhari should tag the insurgents as terrorists.

“They (the government) know. Of course, it is in the news. In April this year, the government said they had arrested 400 Bureau De Change (BDCs)-related people that were sponsoring Boko Haram. They told us, but months down the line, the long awaited list is yet to be made public.

“The government has developed cold feet in fighting the insurgency because some of those backing Boko Haram are now top-ranking government officials.

“Why can’t this government, if not that they are partisan, bring those people out for trial?

“I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in the government -that the boys (terrorists) that were arrested mentioned. Some of them are governors.

“Some of them are in the Senate, and some of them are ministers, some of them are in Aso Rock. The Department of State Service (DSS) knows them.

“I have interrogated a high-ranking member of this government on the issue of Boko Haram in 2007/2008 and he was found culpable.

“Why should a government decide to cause this kind of embarrassment and insecurity to the sense of what happened yesterday (Tuesday at the NDA)? You don’t attack the Nigerian Defence Academy and get away with it.

“In 2017, I carried out an investigation by the minister of defence that wanted me to check what was going on with the training and the security there (NDA). I remember I spent about a week in the NDA with the commandant and the staff but something struck me: every Friday, the gate of NDA is thrown open and everybody has access to pray in the mosque.

“On Fridays, you are going to see same thing happening across all military formations in the country…If you go to Defence Headquarters, I served at the Defence Headquarters as the Deputy Director, Defence Administration between 2015 and 2017, throughout my two years at the Defence Headquarters, I received visitors twice because of the strict security architecture there but every Friday, the gate of the Defence Headquarters is thrown wide open for everybody to come in and observe Jumaat.

“That is the time the terrorists have the time to profile our security environment. It has always been the case. I have served in the military intelligence for the past 35 years. Our problem is religion and socio-cultural.

“I told them that the centre of gravity of Boko Haram in Nigeria is the sponsors of the programme.

“It was beyond us because the job we needed to do was kinetic but we cannot resolve issues of sponsors of Boko Haram that were in Buhari’s government that we know of. That was why we couldn’t pursue that aspect that could have resolved the issue because we need to arrest people.”

He advised the minister of defence to intervene and stop the practice of throwing up the gates of military formations on Fridays for Jumaat which makes it possible for all manner of persons to access these formation and profile these military bases including barracks. He noted that this does not happen on Sundays, meaning Christians do not come into military formations from outside for church service.