Action not words matters

By most accounts, the engagement with the insurgency that has festered in the North East for about six years has been a public relations disaster for the men and women in uniform. It got to a level that neighbouring countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger have to contribute troops to clean up the mess that […]

By most accounts, the engagement with the insurgency that has festered in the North East for about six years has been a public relations disaster for the men and women in uniform. It got to a level that neighbouring countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger have to contribute troops to clean up the mess that poor leadership, both in the military and political spheres, has created over the years.  The assessment, and a full accounting, of what is responsible for this sorry state of affairs may take some time to finalise.
 But of immediate concern are the apparent politicisation of the military, and the deployment of its personnel to do the biddings of politicians, under the current dispensation. No one needs to be told what the proper role of the military should be, which is the protection of Nigeria’s territorial integrity and deterring external aggression.
In rare cases, the military may be called upon to assist the civil police in quelling domestic security challenges that the police may not be equipped to cope with. Such times have been when the military was sent to put down a rebellion in the former Eastern region that culminated in the 30-month civil that ended in January 1970 and the Maitatsine riots in Kano, Yola, and Bauchi states, at separate periods. All these occurred when the military was the government.
There were also internal security operations that the civilian administration of Olusegun Obasanjo ordered to put down insurrections in Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki-Biam in Benue State.
In recent years, military personnel have increasingly been deployed to purely law-and-order challenges that should be handled by officers of the Nigeria Police Force. The fad is the creation of joint task forces comprising personnel of the army, air force, navy and, sometimes including the police, to undertake security surveillances and interdict suspected cases of civil crime.
This has degenerated in recent months to deploying soldiers to guard duties in the homes of politicians and as act as bodyguards to politicians, almost solely ruling party officials and their cronies.  Many of them are also on guard duties at some public institutions and the numerous roadblocks around the country.
A year ago, when the administration sought to intimidate media organs, particularly independent publishing houses, it was army personnel that were sent to seize newspaper copies or delay deliveries of the day’s edition, and established menacing presence in the premises at production times.
The egregiousness of the involvement of the military in non-martial issue is their role in the postponement of the 2015 general elections, which were due to start tomorrow with the presidential poll. According to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, military chiefs wrote to the Commission asserting that they could not guarantee security of electoral materials and personnel if the elections went ahead as scheduled. The national and international reaction has been swift, harsh and condemnatory. If this trend continues, the military runs the risk of being perceived, not as guardians of Nigeria’s territorial integrity, but as part of the nation’s multifaceted problem of governance, impunity and leadership deficits.
That is why last Wednesday’s statement of the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), pledging to support Nigeria’s democratic process is both timely and reassuring.  The Director of Information at DHQ, Major General Christopher Olukolade, also said in the statement that there was no truth in insinuations that the military was planning to install itself as an interim administration as part of an alleged plan to prevent the elections from taking place, and warned its personnel against taking action capable of compromising democratic governance.
But the military needs to go beyond words and demonstrate good faith by resisting political pressure to use its personnel to harass opponents of the government and cause general anxiety among the populace.