ABUJA: The head of Nigeria’s Army has pledged his commitment to protecting democracy and promised to stay out of politics at a time when President Umaru Yar’Adua’s two-month absence has raised questions about who is in charge.
Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, chief of army staff, said the army had remained “neutral but absolutely committed to the survival of our nascent democracy” and would continue to do so despite attempts to drag it into politics.
Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment for a heart condition since late November but has not formally handed executive powers to his deputy, raising uncertainty about who is in control in Africa’s most populous nation.
“The barracks is not a political battlefield and our soldiers are not tools to be used for creating disunity,” Dambazau said in a speech late on Monday to mark the commissioning of an army base in the capital Abuja.
Dambazau made no direct reference to the absence of Yar’Adua, but did speak about unrest in the central city of Jos.
Christian leaders have accused the military of deploying predominantly Muslim soldiers to quell the violence and have called for an investigation of what they say were targeted killings, according to local newspaper reports.
“We ... noted that some persons who apparently do not value peace are hell-bent on creating disaffection between the military and the public, particularly with reference to the Jos crisis,” Dambazau said.
