BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned politicians, particularly Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers state, against undue involvement with matters of discipline in the army.
Olisa Metuh, spokesman of the party, who said this on Wednesday, maintained that such matters are within the purview of military authorities.
He urged politicians not to make comments that encourage indiscipline and disobedience.
Metuh said that during the campaign period, PDP would refrain from commenting on issues of military discipline, its command and control procedures.
“We believe that it is dangerous to politicise issues pertaining to the country’s armed forces,” he said.
“We will not join anyone or political party in the unpatriotic act of trying to subordinate national interest to any politically and selfishly motivated interest.
“It is in the light of this that we view the statement credited to the director-general of the presidential campaign organisation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, as not being in the overall interest of the military and the nation.”
Metuh called on Nigerians to condemn what he described as the dishonourable tactic of the opposition to gain political capital by dragging the internal affairs of the military into the arena of politics.
“Across half-a-century of our nationhood, the Nigerian military has remained the major catalyst and the last defence line in the unity and oneness of the nation,” he added.
“This sacred role, which it has successfully been playing, must be jealously guarded and its integrity not made subject to the vagaries of political interests.
“One of the major visions of the founding fathers of the PDP, which its leadership has successfully fulfilled, is the return of professionalism to the military and the re-channelling of its efforts to squarely face its constitutional roles. Nigeria’s democracy and the people have been beneficiaries of this insulation of our armed forces from politics.
“This painstaking process, in which we have been involved, has been responsible for the rebuilding and re-equipping of the military to confront the current security challenges.”
At a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday, Amaechi criticised the decision of the military court martial to execute 54 soldiers found guilty of mutiny, saying the soldiers acted within their rights by protesting against the authorities that under-equipped them and blaming the inability of the military to quell the insurgency on corrupt management of security funds.
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