By Godwin Onyeacholem
On the whole, the Nigerian military genuinely deserves no less than great applause and all the huge salute it can get since its evolution at different epochs in the past one and a half centuries and counting.
This should be the perfect reaction from the people to an armed forces which, in their primary duty of defending the country from external aggression and maintaining its territorial integrity in distinct geographical spaces, have continuously shown up in a most valiant manner despite the tons of challenges confronting them. And beyond the country’s shores on peacekeeping operations and other military duties, the Nigerian military are demonstrating capabilities for which they are persistently showered with praises by countries in which they serve, and by international agencies, security experts and other individuals.
In terms of upholding the provisions of Section 217 (2)(a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution from where their security mandate flows, there’s no question the country’s army, navy and air force have done well and have continued to perform creditably to ward off different shades of armed elements desperately trying to overrun the country. Amid their engagements on the frontlines, the armed forces have been forced to take on police duties on occasions. This is the honourable and praiseworthy face of the men and women who lay down their lives to protect compatriots from the enemy. And here is the farthest the commendation can go.
A further candid assessment of the institution leads inevitably to a more disturbing face of the military, an ugly and detestable one that inspires terrible disgust even at a most casual glance. It is the face of a military that wears the penchant for human rights violations, disobedience of court judgments as well as resolutions of the national assembly demanding that it acts one way or the other. The arbitrariness of the military leadership in dealing with human rights and legal issues involving officers and other ranks, including cadets undergoing training at the academy, is a cause for serious concern.
And progressively, the military seems not disposed to following the book on whatever the constitution has decreed in this regard to ensure obedience to democratic institutions. Save for Femi Falana, a revered human rights lawyer, the rest of society has been largely mute about this untoward behaviour of a highly treasured institution that never stops priding itself on inbred discipline. It’s almost as if people are scared of calling out the military for its frequent defiance to legitimate civil authority and whimsical application of even its own rules.
Across the three fighting forces, there are regular cases of lack of restraint in the use of authority. But the most visible and widely reported cases are in the army, which happens to be the oldest and the largest of the forces for obvious reasons. One case that is not likely to be forgotten so soon is the one the media rightly dubbed Army 38.
On 16 June 2016, 38 army officers comprising nine major-generals, ten brigadier-generals, seven lieutenant colonels and one major were compulsorily retired for what the army called “serious offences.” The army said the retirement was done to purge itself of corrupt officers indicted by either the Presidential Arms Panel or the Election Petition Panel.
However, on the grounds that they didn’t get a fair hearing and that they were not even aware of the offences nor queried or indicted by any panel before being retired, 21 officers took advantage of Paragraph 09.02(e) of the Harmonised Terms of Condition of Service for Officers and petitioned then President Buhari appealing for reinstatement. Buhari outrightly ignored the petition. One of the petitioners, Ojebo Baba-Ochankpa, a lieutenant colonel and former commanding officer 343 Air Defence Artillery Regiment, Elele, Rivers State, died seven months later while waiting for justice.
Confronted by a stony presidential rebuff, some of the officers then turned to the courts individually for redress. By the last count, at least seven of them had got judgment in their favour as far back as 2018. The courts voided the retirement and ordered their reinstatement, but the army, as is it’s wont to, have refused to comply with the judgments. Nor have they appealed any.
Not even intervention by concerned civil groups and strident appeals to relevant higher authorities including the presidency again by lawyers, especially Falana who stood for some of these officers in court, have yielded any positive result. The army has instead dug in, ignoring every voice of reason and acting as if it’s above the law. It certainly isn’t above the law. In fact, the army is under the law, and so are the navy and the air force.
Less than four years after the unfortunate retirement of the officers by the army in Abuja, a similar case of injustice played out in Kaduna. On the morning of 22 January 2020, 54 cadets of the Nigerian Defence Academy, 15 of them in the final year and on the cusp of being commissioned as officers in the armed forces, were herded into the office of Jamil Sarham, a major-general and commandant of the academy. And then their whole world came crashing down at that moment.
At the parade ground where all the cadets had gathered the night before, they were informed that some of them would be withdrawn from the academy the next day following an ill-timed “dossier review,” an annual ritual where cadets who had four punishments and more logged in their dossiers are only slapped with a “relegation,” that is, losing one training/academic year according to the institution’s 2018 handbook in operation at the time of the review. The names of the affected cadets were called at the ground.
As they all crammed in his office that morning, Sarham asked whether they read the handbook and told them straightaway that their time in the academy had come to an end. He ordered the regimental sergeant major to march them out. The cadets were shocked. Apart from the fact that “withdrawal” was not the punishment recommended in the handbook, many cadets argued that they never recorded up to four punishments in the diary to have even faced any sanction whatsoever, suggesting that many of the entries were fudged. As they filed out of the commandant’s office, they were handcuffed in pairs and marched off to where they were dekitted and signed out. That was the end.
Some challenged the “withdrawal” in courts in Kaduna and Abuja and judgments were returned ordering their reinstatement to the armed forces and restoration to the same ranks as their mates. Rather than comply, the academy chose to drag the process by appealing the judgment. Knowing Nigeria’s legal system, by the time the process runs its course it’s certain there won’t be any career in the military for the complainants to speak of.
Indeed, that the military has gained notoriety with the contemptuous treatment of the preponderance of court judgments that do not favour it is not in doubt. It is not only when the military executes a coup d’etat that it threatens the rule of law and undermines democracy; it also does so by its wilful disrespect for orders of competent court. Besides, the miliary sends a wrong signal in multiple ways when it treats orders of court as if they are of no consequence.
Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice has his work cut out for him. One of his main duties is to begin now to whip the armed forces into line by ensuring they comply with court judgments so as to sustain judicial authority and protect democracy. No doubt, this awful face of the military needs an urgent overhaul to conform with civilized practice and enhance its endearment to its many admirers at home and abroad.
Onyeacholem works in African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL)
