By Dr. Tom Udenwa
This has been a burning matter especially on many WhatsApp groups. Several ethnic jingoists have postulated that this is an ethnic matter. They have missed the technical logic of setting up military bases.
The anger for many of them is that Kano doesn’t have waterbodies so why site a Naval base there.
But that is “base” thinking. A Naval base does not necessarily have to be a place where Naval officers carry out trainings in water bodies. Any location where Naval officers are housed is a base—for whatever purpose they are there for.
In Kano’s instance it is a logistics college being set up. The Nigerian Navy is currently engaged, like all other security agencies, in operations across the county and thus cannot be situated in only marine locations.
So this location would serve as both a training point and a logistic base to support other operations of the Navy.
Strategically, the Navy should in fact not situate all its assets in one location. This move is a deft one in reorganising its bases.
I hope our people understand this and put childish ethnic politics aside.
When we politicise security we end up with a polluted understanding of facts.
Dr Thompson Udenwa
