8-1-2025.

It was yesterday reported by the Punch newspaper that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has signed a proposal for a whopping retirement benefit for military generals in the country, with the benefit of retiring heads of the services, including the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), expected to be even higher.

According to the newspaper (report), “President Bola Tinubu has approved a retirement package that includes $20,000 for foreign medical treatment, bulletproof SUVs, and cooks, among other benefits, for service chiefs and generals.

“The package is contained in the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service (HTACOS) signed by President Bola Tinubu on December 16, 2024.

“In line with the package, the vehicles will be replaced every four years and maintained by the military. They will also receive a Peugeot 508, or a similar backup vehicle.

“Upon retirement, the generals will enjoy additional luxurious benefits, including domestic aides and local medical treatment worth up to $20,000 annually.

“Besides, each retiring service chief will get five domestic aides, including two cooks, stewards, and a civilian gardener, plus an aide-de-camp or security officer.

“The HTCOS also includes the retention of all military uniforms and accoutrements to be worn for appropriate ceremonies.

“Retiring generals will also have one aide-de-camp or security officer, one special assistant, who will be lieutenant, captain or equivalent or one personal assistant, who would be a warrant officer or equivalent.

“They will each have a special assistant, three service drivers , and a service orderly, with escorts provided as needed.

“They would also be allowed to retain personal firearms, although these would be retrieved by the relevant service upon their demise.

“The federal government also approved benefits for major generals and brigadier generals, including a Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle or equivalent vehicle, $15,000 for annual medical treatment, domestic staff and residential guards.

Meanwhile, one-star officers will receive $10,000 annually for medical care, a Toyota Camry or equivalent vehicle, and have domestic and security arrangements.

“Colonels and their equivalent would receive a Toyota Corolla or its equivalent, and free medical care within Nigeria.

“Benefits for serving chief of defence staff and service chiefs are not specified, but it’s most likely they will receive significantly more”.

Let me borrow from the Ordinary President to make the first three words of this sentence, ‘if you like’, promote all of the members of the military to the rank of full general (four stars), time will come when President Tinubu will still leave office of the President of Nigeria sooner or later, willingly or unwillingly, because money cannot buy all the Nigerian voters, and the conscience of God fearing military officers, with which the country is abundantly blessed.

Mr. President has provided a rope with which to HANG himself, because the God fearing officers would not be disgusted at the open attempt to bribe the military, since not all of them have the inordinate love for money, which, despite the fact that he is about 84 years old, the number one citizen still cherishes to accumulate, regardless of how.

By the way, the heads of the other security agencies would not just fold their arms meekly and expect a handout when it pleases the nation’s top man. Unless if Nigerians have yet to hear the last word about the matter.

Not long ago, the president directed his pliable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyeson Wike, to build fantastic houses for the judges at the Supreme Court in places of their choice in Abuja, in what is clearly an attempt to bribe them in advance for their favourable verdict during the 2027 inevitable election challenge at the Presidential Tribunal.

It was recently reported by the media that the present regime had paid billions of naira to the chambers of some prominent holier-than-though lawyers, for phantom jobs allegedly done by them to it.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, INEC National Chairmen, and INEC Returning Officers, would soon enjoy some of the president's our-of-this-world benefit, that is, if theirs has not already been announced, in a bid to also bribe them, ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Many of Mr. President’s actions since he took up the presidency of the country have been anything but  democratic. Sometime, he does not even bother to consult the National Assembly (NASS), because he is optimistic that the ‘elected’ members, most of whom have been corrupted by him so that they may be at his beck-and-call, would not hesitate to approve the request.

The approval of NASS was neither sought for, nor was it notified of the intention to spend hundreds of billions of naira to purchase a brand new airplane, a brand new yacht, a brand new Cadillac luxury jeep to add to the president’s fleet of air and road drives. The same thing happened when he single handedly awarded the multi trillion naira (N15.6 trillion) Lagos to Calabar Coastal Highway contract, to the company of his Paris based front, Gilbert Chagoury. It was the same company that bought the listed drives for the president.

As the Ordinary President would say, if you like, bribe everyone in the country, you will still FAIL the forthcoming presidential election, by the Grace of God. It is a known fact that a JUST unbelieving ruler can survive for long, but a believing UNJUST ruler cannot persevere on the throne. God LOVES justice, but HATES injustice, by anybody. 

Now, which one can you be judged upon by the world that declared you as the third (3rd) most CORRUPT person in the world, in the preceding year, 2024?

Your several unsavoury actions since you became Nigeria’s ‘elected’ president force us to revisit the famous Indra Ghandi of India, who once famously said that “if there is an idiot in power, it means that those who elected him are well represented”. Are the Nigerian voters that stupid to repeat the MISTAKES of 2023 in 2017?

Many people from the South West, who knew the president’s incapacity to govern, not only rejected his exhortation and money, but advised voters all over the country NOT to vote for him during the presidential election. They said all he knew was how to collect and make money FROM, not for, the people, and that his company, Alpha Beta, was behind the tax collection in Lagos state since the present democratic dispensation (4th Republic) in the country.

Then President Olusegun Obasanjo, also saw through Tinubu’s game plan when he ‘created’ new local governments in Lagos state, as he refused to pay the state and all the local councils within the state the monthly federal government due, until the self created contraptions called ‘local governments’ were cancelled. Governor Tinubu refused to do that, preparing to rename them  ‘local government development councils). 

When President Obasanjo remained adamant, Tinubu stubbornly refused to revert to the old system, and live the rest of his governorship relying on internally generated money for survival. All the backlog of the money was only paid  to the state and local governments after he left office, otherwise most of it would have ended in his bottomless pockets as private money, for which nobody could do anything about it at that time, because of the immunity that shields governors from prosecution. 

It is a therefore, a disturbing surprise that some people famously know for their decency, empathy, generosity, and fearlessness, are still working for the present corrupt, clueless, clumsy, incompetent, and incapable regime. Many of the president’s woeful outings as Nigeria’s number one citizen are legendary. One of them is the regular ‘collapse’ of the National Grid (15 times in 2024), but the power minister is retained in the cabinet as if regular collapse of National Grids is a normal thing in the world. 

This is only the president’s first term, but the nation is already experiencing the second (2nd) collapse of the National Grid in the month of January (2025), which at all time conveniently happens to affect MOST parts of Northern Nigeria. Only God can tell the degree and extent of the damage and hatred your second term would cause to the country, and the North in particular.

May God protect Nigeria from your ENCORE as her number one citizen.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.