Balarabe Musa, a former governor of Kaduna State, has said the military can take over power in no time owing to the current state of the country.
Balarabe said that increasing poverty and insecurity ravaging the country and soldiers being slaughtered by insurgents are factors that can lure the military to take over power.
Musa speaking with The Sun on Sunday, April 14, 2018, warned that the enormous supreme prize paid by the military to safeguard the country can push the soldiers to do anything, adding that the country is in the same situation that led to the 1966 coup.
He said, “I think if President Muhammadu Buhari does not take proactive measures against the negative state of the nation, the result will be total anarchy.
“There is every reason for the army to come back. People who are saying that the army will not come back are only being apolitical, stupid and deceiving people. There is one element, if we are not careful, that can bring back the army.
“When the situation gets to the worst, and I think it is as bad as it is now, the army will soon realize that they are paying more than the civilians, more soldiers die in the process of bringing about stability.
”The level of unity and consciousness within the Armed Forces is greater than that of civilians. The army may come out and say, ‘Look, we cannot pay greater prize for the unity and stability of the nation because of the actions or inactions of irresponsible civilians, lets us take over power and clear the road, we cannot rely on the parliament, we cannot rely on governments as far as we are concerned, we are powerless, let’s take over power so that we can bring about normalcy. Is that not what happened in 1966? For anybody to say the army cannot come back is ignoring the level of irresponsibility by civilians.
“It is stupidity of our media and our political leaders to say military rule is no longer in vogue.
“The factors that brought about military rule before are here again with us. Is it freedom of treasury looters that will deter the military from coming? Look, APC and PDP are accusing each other of treasury looting and their names are listed.
“Already we have bureaucratic anarchy, but it may transform into social anarchy, leading to a revolutionary takeover of the system.
“In other words, the present system is based on self-interest first, and public interest second, or incidental and the system will be taken over by self-interest through a constitutional revolution.
“The second alternative, which is public interest, can come through a peaceful constitutional revolution, and it is not impossible. You can see the relationship between the executive and the legislative arms of government. Both the presidency and the legislature do not have the respect they ought to have because they have performed below expectation of Nigerians.
“The judiciary is just there. Nigerians have leadership qualities, but to find the match is always the problem because of the leading role of moneybag politics that has made it impossible for quality leaders to emerge. But the decay in the system will make them to emerge, and we hope if they emerge, they will bring a constitutional revolutionary change.