A Grand finale will hold on 1st October,2020 to wrap up the 30-day series of activities. This event will feature the first presentation of the play “Brittle- ing Diamond,” written by Prof Ahmed Yerima, as directed by Niji Akanni and performed by the youth-focused Crown Troupe of Africa under the leadership of Segun Adefila.
The Play BRITTLE-ing DIAMOND reflects the sacrifice of the Military in Nigeria in Nigeria’s political trajectory, spotlighting its role in helping to sustain and consolidate democracy. It was the military that rescued the First Republic from its descent into chaos. But for its intervention at that critical period in history, the entity called Nigeria would have disintegrated – barely five years into its attainment of self-governance from the colonial powers.
The Nigerian Army, like the nation it helped to rescue, has had its own plethora of challenges; much of whose arose from the nature and structure of the country and the idiosyncrasies of its military personnel. For instance, through its protocols and operations, its helped to stabilize the polity and preserve the unity of the nation, the Nigerian public, in the process experienced the good, the bad and the ugly effects of military rule, especially in those years when trained military personnel became overtly involved in partisan politics, and like politicians, became manipulative of the perceived weaknesses in the system and, participated in wasting or mismanaging the resources of the nation.
However, the military redeemed itself by returning the country to democracy thereby reinstalling our hard-earned independence. And by its continuous sacrifices in the theatre of war, the Military has helped to sustain and consolidate democratic governance in the last two decades.
