Arise Television on-air personalities, Reuben Abati, Rufai Oseni and Ayo Mairo-Ese on Friday expressed divergent views on the inauguration of the newly constructed barracks in Abuja named “Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks”.
The barracks, commissioned by President Tinubu, comprise 16 major generals’ quarters, 34 brigadier generals’ quarters, 60 major colonels’ flats and 60 lieutenant captains’ flats.
It also includes 180 senior non-commissioned officers blocks of flats, 264 corporal and below flats, worship centres, sports facilities and a power house in the barracks.
In his remarks, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, said naming the new army barracks after President Tinubu was a way of ‘giving honour to whom honour is due’.
Speaking on ‘What’s Trending’ anchored by Ojy Okpe, Oseni wondered why the president sees nothing wrong in everything being named after him.
According to him, the barracks should have been named after two former Chief of Army Staffs, Ibrahim Attahiru and Taoreed Lagbaja, who both died in active service.
“How many things will President Tinubu name after himself? I know there is a new polytechnic coming up in Abuja. I thought that the way it used to be done before was the fact that it is people that name things after you, not in your administration. It looks somehow to me”.
“This sense of his name is on everything and every Tom, Dick and Harry. We should have a point in this country where even if it was offered to you because a lot of people like eye-service in this country, you say I don’t think the optics look nice”.
“There are other top officers in this country that have laid their lives down. I would have thought that that barracks should be named after Taoreed Lagbaja. He conceptualised that idea but he didn’t live to see it. He died due to ill-health. I would have thought that as a befitting tribute, the barrack should have been named after him”.
“I would have also thought that probably if you don’t want to name it after Lagbaja, how about General Attahiru, the late Chief of Army Staff that died in a plane crash while on the line of duty for this country? These are people that we can name the barracks after to be able to bring about that legacy and furtherance of esprit de corps within the military” Oseni said.
In her reaction, Ayo said while it wasn’t President Tinubu that named the barracks after himself but was done by ‘sycophants’, the president should have rejected the offer and wait till the completion of his tenure and allow people honour him if he has performed well.
“A couple of things have been named after him. We have the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology and Innovation Centre (BATTIC); Bola Ahmed Tinubu Complex, National Assembly Library was named after him, Bola Tinubu Polytechnic and now this”.
“In fairness to the president, he is not the ones naming these things after himself. It is people and it is just a culture of sycophants but he does have a right to say ‘I don’t want to take it, name it after someone else”.
“After he is done with his tenure, whether one or two, what people will then judge is how well he served the people and in honour of that, then even if they want to build an epitaph in his honour, it is up to the people. But it doesn’t speak very well for almost everything to be named after him. It doesn’t speak very well at all”.
Expressing a different view, Abati justified the naming of the barracks after Tinubu, saying all former Heads of State and Presidents have barracks named after them.
“As to Bola Ahmed Tinubu Baracks, I just want us to note that virtually every former Head of State or President has Barracks named after him. You have Gowon Baracks in Abuja, you have Buhari barracks in Abuja, you have Goodluck Jonathan barracks in Ohafia, you have Yar’Adua barracks, I think that is also in Abuja”.
“After a fashion, the military establishment tends to honour every Commander-in-Chief and because you are the C-in-C, after a project, they name it after you. So, it is not as if President Bola Tinubu has done something wrong that goes against the precedent. All the former Heads of State have barracks named after them. However, the morality side of it is a completely different thing entirely”.
