What do we do with our army?

Two reports affirmed that we’ve got a big problem on our hands as a nation with the Islamic Movement in Nigeria led by Sheikh Ibrahim Yaqoub El Zakzaky.

The first was the report that members of the movement said they would have dealt with our soldiers if they had guns and not just ordinary stones. The second was the faux pas by our loquacious information minister, Lai Mohammed, who revealed that it cost a modest N3.5 million to keep Zakzaky in a DSS guest house as “he must be comfortable” He said this to give the journalists at a briefing on why the Shi’ite leader cannot be released. Mohammed deviously referred to an ongoing case at a Kaduna High Court, which, this week, refused a bail application by the sheikh and his wife, conveniently forgetting that other courts had earlier granted him bail. Even at that, the Kaduna court asked that proper evidence be shown before it could grant the application.

One could hear a journalist at the background remarking that with half a million naira monthly, he will be willing to be detained at such a facility, a sentiment most Nigerians can relate with in this tough period. This column had written many times about Mr. Mohammed that it would be a waste writing about him again, especially since his principal still do not recognise the damage he’s doing to the Buhari brand. He has had many foot-in-the-mouth moments than necessary for an information manager.

But today, my concern is about our army, the Nigerian Army. The one that have brought accolades from far and near due to exemplary conducts which some of the officers are willing to throw away casually. We remember too well that a retiring army chief had described our army as that of “anything goes”, a name they’re wearing well like a garland now. For an officer to say publicly that soldiers don’t have rubber bullets and they will continue using live bullets on protesters is taking liberty too far. With a background in government offices more than battlefields, one can perfectly sympathise with such messianic complex or the fact that our army still battle with civil authority. A drawback of our democratic journey since 1999 is the fact we’ve had generals as presidents and they don’t just seem to understand that civil authority is important.

By the way, whoever came up with that joke of using a Donald Trump video to justify killing civilians should be relieved of his job in the public relations department. I mean we are talking of a department that had been led by fine officers like Chris Olukolade, a retired general; and others of his ilk, always polite and pushing gently until their point of view is acknowledged. What training do folks manning the department actually have in public relations these days? The army, of recent, have done more damage to its own image that what anybody could do. It got worse that a congress member in the United States had to call our army out over its senseless tweet trying to justify rights abuses. With our experience with Boko Haram, we must accept now that we cannot defeat an ideology with conventional warfare methods. The Shi’ites have been a tough nut to crack since time immemorial that we just have to thread carefully handling them. Sixteen or 17 years ago, many of my colleagues were worried about a trip to Zaria to interview Zakzaky but I found him a rather pleasant man who came across as deeply intelligent than many are willing to give him credit. Human beings change and so he could have changed for the worse, but serial disobedience of court orders on his release cannot help us in the long run as a country.

It is as if Emeritus Professor Bayo Adekanye, easily the leading expert in our country on civil-military relationship, should start his career all over again telling our soldiers on how to comport themselves in dealing with civilians. I think there is a lacuna in our laws for the National Assembly to explore and possibly fill. In United States, there is Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878, which, places strict limit in using the armed services as part of civilian law enforcement. We need to see the possibility of having a similar law here. Whoever believes the puerile lie that the army were moving ammunition and equipment when the Shi’ites confronted them needs a psychiatrist attention, what happened to intelligence?

And to those Nigerians who, most likely, in moments of sheer exuberance, justify the massacre of Shi’ites with such inane comments like: “Challenge soldiers and see what happens” “They’re trained to kill”, they need a crash course in civics and Nigeria history. In the late 80s and early 90s, my generation as undergraduates challenged soldiers not just through protests but also with arguments on the Babangida government romance with Bretton Woods institutions. A simple goggle search will shed more light on the anti-SAP protests of those years. Similarly, whatever form of democracy we enjoy now came about after we dared the military, there is nothing strange in doing such. We need to do something about our army.