Alex Badeh: Metaphor For A Failed State

INTRODUCTION

Nigerians woke up few days ago to the horrific news of the cold
blooded murder of Air Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh. Badeh had risen
through the ranks to become Nigerias’ Chief of Air Staff and Chief
of Defence Staff. But in a most grisly, horrendous and chilling
manner, his body, from pictures circulated on social media, was
completely pumped with lethal hot lead on 18^th December,
2018, along Abuja-Keffi road, while returning from his farm in
Keffi, Nassarawa State. He was returning from a farm, not from a
cinema house or government contracting firm.

Badeh’s death is one death too many. It certainly shocked an
unshockable nation the more, because of the high profile of his
personality. Otherwise, it is common knowledge that hundreds of
Nigerians that are not so prominent are mauled down daily in an
orgy of violence that defies sociological analysis.

THE METAPHOR 

It is the metaphor of a failed State that a man who once
commanded the entire Nigerian Airforce, bombarding Boko Haram, and
heading all the Defence Chiefs, could be plucked down like a common
orphaned chicken. A four-star flag officer of the Nigerian
Airforce, Badeh served as the 18^th Chief of Air Staff
and 15^th Chief of Defence Staff of Nigeria’s Armed
Forces. The native of Vimtim, Adamawa State, Badeh was an amiable,
easy going, kind hearted personable Nigerian patriot who was highly
detribalized.

It is remarkable to note that Badeh was the Commander of the
Presidential Fleet during Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure. He flew
around the world so frequently that by 2002, Badeh was said to have
logged over 6000 flying hours, shuttling Heads of State, top
Government functionaries, and other VIPs. The US CIA allowed him to
fly former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton on different
occasions, after carrying out extensive checks on him. Indeed, Kofi
Annan, former UN Secretary General actually gave him a commendation
letter and an autographed pen for his professional dexterity after
flying him on an official trip.

It was this fiery warrior who established the Mogadishu
Cantonment Armed Forces Radio broadcast station on 107.7 FM and the
Armed Forces DNA Laboratory that hoodlums massacred in cold blood.
It is clear to all that Badeh’s case was not ordinary. It was one
of assasination, having been killed few kilometers from Abuja, the
nation’s capital.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

This opaque and hazy scenario has thrown up series of conspiracy
theories: was Badeh provided full complement of security
apparatchik that he was ordinarily entitled to as a former Chief of
Defence Staff (CDS)? Were ordinary soft body cars (rather than
armoured ones) supposed to be his official car? Did he voluntarily
drop his security guards who were expected to protect him and opted
to travel solo? Did he have an armoured vehicle, but dropped it
voluntarily to use an ordinary SUV? How come Badeh was the only one
targeted and clinically slaughtered in the ambush attack, while his
driver earlier presumed killed, was alive (but, reportedly
recuperating in an Airforce facility) and his farm manager,
kidnaped? Why was none of Badeh’s personal effects removed from him
or his car?  How come the allegation that Badeh was allegedly
killed by men in uniform at a road block, but that same was
hurriedly dismantled after gun shots were heard, heralding his
demise? Was it a case of accidental discharge, deliberate
assassination, normal armed robbery operation, what? The brutal
execution became more topical because Badeh had been undergoing
trial by the state on allegations of diversion of public funds and
was not in the good books of the present administration.

Is Badeh’s case simply the case of the witch crying last night
and the child dying this morning?  Was Badeh seen as a threat
to certain vested interests that wanted to make easy incursions
into the Middle Belt, but could not, because of his stumbling
larger-than –life image and influence? Did Badeh know too much, as
he once allegedly threatened to spill the beans, over capturing on
camera, some purported powerful government functionaries allegedly
emerging from a meeting with Boko Haram leaders held at a Nigerian
Army Underground Armory? What measure of security was accorded
Badeh by the state after raising an alarm in November, 2018, that
two hooded men had attempted to break into his Asokoro, Abuja
residence?

NOW THIS

 This gruesome murder, coming shortly
after that of Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli, Fleet Commander of Western
Naval Command, and ex-Military intelligence Chief and former
Director of Administration of Defence Headquarters, General Alkali,
has put a beleaguered Nation on tenta-hooks. Nigerians are worried
that the nation is being systematically turned into a killing
field, a theatre of crimson blood, smouldering and crying to high
heavens for justice. The conspiracy theories are simply
bottomless.

IS NIGERIA A FAILED STATE?

Has Nigeria really become a failed State? What is a failed
state, anyway? A failed state is one whose political or economic
fabric has become so weak that the government loses control. In
such a state, basic responsibilities of government that make the
state sovereign are absent, as they no longer function properly.
Such a state is so fragile that it can collapse anytime, because it
becomes incapable of exercising authority over its peoples and
territory, nor protect its national boundaries. Such a state merely
provides minimal public services, since it lacks organizational and
administrative capacity to control its people, territory and
resources. Suffering from crumbling infrastructures, poor utility,
educational and health facilities, a failed state loses legitimacy
both in the eyes of its citizens and the comity of Nations. State
institutions collapse; control over internal security deteriorates.
Indeed, such a state is divested of a monopoly of the legitimate
use of violence; whilst it loses capacity to protect its citizens,
fundamental rights, and defend civil, political and economic rights
of its populace. It manifests in lack of observance of rule of
law.

Most failed states are in Africa; a handful in the Middle East
and Asia. An example of a failed state at some point in time was
Somalia (now one of the fastest developing nations in Africa), when
rival warlords ravaged the land. Another is Afghanistan, which
harboured the deadly terrorist group, Al-Qaeda, under the Taliban.
Thus, a failed state can be determined by all or some of the
following indices: her weak economy, porous defence capability,
lack of transparency and poverty-stricken workforce; high
infant/maternal morbidity and mortality rate; high level of
illiteracy; malnourishment, orphanage,  child labour,
congestion; where organized crime and  black market control
reign supreme; where a country is largely dependent on imported
food;  where it cannot respond to natural disasters; and where
there is no clear order of business and commerce, with a weak
currency dominating.

 AND
THIS ADIEU, THE PEOPLE’S
MARSHALL

In my condolence message at Badeh’s Asokoro home on the
20^th of December,
2018, I wrote:

“My dear friend and brother, this is what Nigeria has turned
into. You served her with everything you had. Yet, they killed you.
Only your body they killed. Your spirit, they could not touch.
Shame on your killers. Shame on the country that cannot protect her
citizens, from the highest to the lowest. But, will they also not
die? They will. No one is immortal. Only God is. So, while your
killers celebrate their “achievement”, angels jubilate over your
coming to paradise. So, soldier on, brave warrior.

Adieu, patriot. Farewell, Pan – Nigerian. Rest in perfect peace
in the Lord’s bossom, till we meet to part no more. Chief
Mike A. A. Ozekhome, SAN, (Still weeping
for Nigeria and Nigerians) 20/12/2018”.

I am quite saddened by the untimely death of this fine gentleman
and officer.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
(Marcus Tullius Cicero).

LAST LINE

Nigerians, as you celebrate Christ’s birth, relax, pray to God,
but remember to engage me later in the national conversation in my
Sunday Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian Project by Chief Mike
A.A. Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, Ph.D, LL.D. Merry Christmas and a
prosperous new year ahead.

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