- Major Hamza Al-Mustapha condemned calls for a military takeover in Nigeria, advocating for military professionalism and subordination to democracy instead
- He criticized the current presidential system as foreign to Nigeria’s culture, urging for a domestic democracy that suits the nation’s needs
Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd) has condemned the recent calls for a military takeover in Nigeria, which have emerged amidst the #EndBadGovernance protests.
In recent days, some protesters have demanded a coup, even waving Russian flags and calling for foreign intervention. The military high command has labelled such actions treasonous and pledged to take action against those involved. Law enforcement agencies, including a combined team of Police and Department of State Services (DSS) operatives, have raided various locations and made several arrests.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Al-Mustapha, the Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State General Sani Abacha, stated, “I am, by definition today, a politician. I am looking at this country today from a democratic sense. We have invested in it, and we are investing in it. Our research is all towards the investment of democratic excellence in Nigeria.
“Military subordination to democracy is a clear direction as the world is today. But when you have democracy, the type that we are operating—a presidential system—in a debate, in our past presentation, I said I am against the presidential system in Nigeria. The examples I gave are that two close countries, the closest to us, the United Kingdom and the United States, operate a parliamentary system and the other a presidential system. Both systems are tied to their historical backgrounds and the conveniences of their people. Nigeria has copied both. We adopted the parliamentary system and then changed it to the presidential system. Both are foreign to our culture, our history, our background, and our understanding as a people. How can you bring the same system and adopt it as yours? It would not work; it would be repulsive.
“Some politicians came to me and said, ‘You need not say that in the open; allow us to continue to operate the way we are,’ but I cannot be part of cheating. What did I say? I said the United States is a country where immigrants who became citizens have laws protecting them, and the question I asked was, in Nigeria, who is an immigrant and who is an indigene? How can you have more laws and a governance system that protects immigrants? Who is an immigrant in Nigeria? We are all citizens. So, we need to chart our course; we have to have a domestic type of democracy that will suit us and suit our future. That is what I am calling for, but the issue of military, no.
“My advice to them is that they should advocate for military professionalism. They should invest in and put all their energies into military subordination to democracy.”