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Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, has condemned agitations for a military takeover following the hardship protest occasioned by fuel subsidy removal by the federal government.
Al-Mustapha insisted that there was no room for military intervention in Nigeria’s political affairs, adding that democracy has come to stay in Nigeria.
He, however, opposed both the parliamentary and presidential systems of government which Nigeria is practising, saying it was strange to the historical backgrounds of the people of Nigeria
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) stated this while speaking with journalists on Wednesday.
The retired Nigerian Army Major said, “My advice to them (coup agitators) is that military professionalism is what they should canvass for.
“Military subordination to democracy is what they should invest in and put all their energies there for.”
“In a debate, in our presentation in the past, I said I am against the presidential system in Nigeria and the examples I gave is the fact that two close countries, the closest to us, the United Kingdom and the United States, one is operating parliamentary system and the other is operating presidential system, all has to do with their historical backgrounds, with conveniences of the people and Nigeria is simply a copy card. We copied the parliamentary system, we changed it to the presidential system! All the two are strange to our culture, to our history, to our background, to 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 form 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 system of governance that is protective of immigrants? Who is an immigrant in Nigeria? We are all citizens. So, we need to chart our course, we have to have the 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,” he added.
