By Odumodu Gbulagu
A Zombie is a frightening creature that is a dead person who has been brought back to life, by magic but without human qualities.
Persons who acts without thinking, who can’t make a decision without being told what to do, and who doesn’t notice what’s happening in their environments can be called Zombies.
Fela Kuti in one of his songs, likened Nigerian military to Zombies.
Here’s the excerpts of the lyrics of Fela’s song:
Zombie no go go, unless you tell am to go (Zombie)
Zombie no go stop, unless you tell am to stop (Zombie)
Zombie no go turn, unless you tell am to turn (Zombie)
Zombie no go think, unless you tell am to think (Zombie)
Tell am to go straight
A joro, jara, joro
No break, no job, no sense
A joro, jara, joro
Tell am to go kill
A joro, jara, joro
No break, no job, no sense
A joro, jara, joro
Tell am to go quench
A joro, jara, joro
No break, no job, no sense
A joro, jara, joro
Go and kill! (Joro, jaro, joro)
Go and die! (Joro, jaro, joro)
Go and quench! (Joro, jaro, joro)
Put am for reverse! (Joro, jaro, joro)
Nigeria military has proved to actually be Zombies with their recent activities, and killings in Nigeria, especially as regards the role they played during the just concluded elections.
They don’t have any standard operating procedures as obtained in elite and organized body like that in the rest of the world.
Elsewhere in saner climes, the military are not even seen.
They are confined to their barracks, and can only go to wars, or deployed to help in rescue operations in times of National emergencies and natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and the likes.
They enjoy massive respect from the masses.
In Nigeria, the military terrorizes the masses much more than the terrorists themselves.
They exercise all the techniques they learnt in training on the civilians they are meant to protect.
It started with the massacre of almost a thousand Shiite Muslims who were on a procession in Zaria, citing blockading of the Army Chief as the reason.
There was actually another gruesome murder of the same sect yet again by the same military, and the videos were all over the place.
They took a further step by also killing IPOB peaceful protesters for no reason.
They started series of operation python dances and mauled down innocent and unarmed citizens because they were told to do so.
Just like Zombies, they aided and abetted the killer herdsmen in their massacre, and even prevented reprisal attacks.
These are the people who constantly run away from Boko Haram, as the terrorists have on many occasions sacked military formations in the Northeast, and inflicted many casualties.
This is the same military that sacked UNICEF from Nigeria, and threatened Amnesty International for exposing their extrajudicial killings.
What was mind blowing was how Nigeria military played an active part in rigging the 2019 elections.
It was an eyesore that military were actively snatching ballot boxes, and even made way into the collation centers and forcing INEC to declare their preferred candidates as winners.
When they were not snatching ballot boxes, they gave political thugs adequate security to snatch ballot boxes, turn its contents into gutter, and or burn them.
These are people who have no role to play in elections, as clearly specified in the constitution, but just like Zombies without conscience, they are directed by the commander in Chief of the Armed forces who has absolute power over them.
They are frightening, and acts without thinking in unleashing carnage on the people, on the direction of the politicians.
They are Zombies just as Fela sang decades ago.
Nothing has actually changed, and they would continue, until we have a democrat in power.
Till then, the Chief Zombie Buhari and his lesser zombies have bastardized every known democratic processes and institutions in Nigeria.