Army and approach to quelling protests

The Nigerian Army is the largest component of the Nigerian Armed Forces and is responsible for land warfare operations. The army, by rules of its engagement, has the responsibility of protecting the territorial safety, integrity and security of the country, and maintaining internal peace where necessary.

Given its considerable investment in men and material, the Nigerian Army has generally been perceived as one of the best equipped fighting forces on the African continent and it bears the brunt of the nation’s security challenges.

In terms of operation, the Nigerian army has, in many fronts, acquitted itself through the gallantry and successes recorded by its soldiers and troops who have gone out on peace missions in and across Africa, giving credence to the assertion that, in terms of personnel, it also harbours the finest crop of refined and intelligent officers who provide direction and intelligence for the various ranks and file.

In recent time however, Nigerians have been alarmed by the activities and disposition of this same army to its civilian brothers and sisters on whom it unleashes mayhem at the slightest provocation. These are no easy times in Nigeria. Many of the citizens have been suffering and experiencing dislocations, deprivations and maginalisation in their own country. Frequently, some of them take to the street in protests as a way of giving expression to the fire burning inside them. Frequently too, the government, apparently bereft of alternative solutions, have called out the army to quell such protests and, to the amazement of sane and civilized world, soldiers have descended on defenceless civilians in manners that is not only unprofessional, but also brutal and, in some cases, bloody.

Recently, soldiers were alleged to have ‘opened fire’  and killed some people suspected to be pro-Biafra activists who were celebrating the 49th anniversary of the struggle for the actualization of an independent state of Biafra in Nkpor, Onitsha, Anambra state.

Similar incident was reported to have occurred in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria where the natives were protesting the occupation and harassment of their people by soldiers drafted to contain militant activities in that region that have led to the destruction of some oil and gas pipelines.

We join other Nigerians in condemning these acts and advise that both the government and the army should rethink and reconsider their strategies in quelling protests when they occur.

We recall that the military was in power in this country for a long time and it seems to us that they are yet to come to terms with the fact that the country is now in a democracy, meaning that every action or utterance of any individual or institution must have democratic content and consideration.

Though we are not against government’s decision to send soldiers to restore peace when there is an uprising, especially since the police, whose constitutional duty it is to undertake any internal operations to restore peace, appear to be overwhelmed, we are nonetheless against soldiers using life bullets as against rubber bullets or tear-gas to disperse protesters.

For us, the use of soldiers to stop or crush peaceful protest is a democratic ante-thesis and runs against the current of democratic norms as seen in civilized societies where the police are a better option.

The preference of the army to the police in quelling civil and peaceful protests is an eloquent testimony by the government itself that the police as a branch of the country’s armed forces has failed and is in dire and urgent need of re-invention and re-organisation.

We urge the army authorities and President Muhammadu Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces to call the soldiers to order so that whenever duty calls and they have to answer, they should bring their professional training in arms handling to bear on their assignment.

These senseless killings of defenceless citizens by soldiers, who often claim to be acting on self-defence, speak volume of the weakness, not strength, of the army. They also show that professionalism in that body needs urgent rejuvenation. We advise that those bullets ‘wasted’ on civilians should be saved to serve better and more dignifying purposes another time in another place.