The military, all over the world is not meant for the faint hearted. Male or female, one has to literally be made of steel to be able to serve in the armed forces. So tough are the requirements that women are exempted or prevented from being part of some aspects of military duties.
Though the restriction is gradually being relaxed, women soldiers are not allowed to take part in combat duties in the military in some countries for obvious reasons. But in spite of the restriction, the tough rules guiding the conducts of the men and women in uniform, particularly the officers and men of the armed forces have been largely maintained by all the armed forces of the world.
In every armed forces of the world, disobedience to constituted authority and/or not carrying out lawful orders which might be viewed lightly in any civilian setting is a grave offence in the military and most often than not attracts capital punishment.
So it was not a surprise when a couple of weeks ago a military court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital sentenced to death 12 of the 18 soldiers standing trial before it for criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, attempted murder, disobedience to a particular order, insubordinate behavior to constituted authority and false accusation.
The soldiers who were serving at the newly created 7th Division of the Nigerian Army based in Maiduguri, Borno State were part of the troops deployed in the north east to combat the Boko Haram insurgency that has been ravaging that part of the country for some time now and has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians.
On May 14, 2014, at the Maimalari Cantonment, the divisional headquarters of the 7th Div, the soldiers reportedly shot at their General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Ahmed Mohammed with intention to kill him. They were reportedly protesting what they termed insensitiveness to their safety in the fight against Boko Haram by the GOC.
For their act of rebellion, the soldiers were charged under Section 52(1) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap A 20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and 12 of them found guilty and sentenced to death by virtue of section 37(1) (a-b), (2&3) of the Nigerian Army Act. These aspects of the military law aptly captured their offence and prescribed death as the penalty.
Considering the nature of their calling and the provision of the armed forces law, the soldiers have indeed committed a grave offence and the law has been judiciously applied on them according to military tradition. So they are to die by firing squad subject to the ratification of the Army Council.
While it is very difficult to plead for the soldiers because they knew the implication of what they were doing before they went into it; and while executing them is the right thing to do in accordance with the military law, to serve as a deterrent to others who might be so likely minded, it might be necessary for the Army Council to take a second look at the circumstances of the soldiers stupid action before ratifying the death sentence.
They were reportedly protesting the inferior arms given to them to fight the insurgents and the lack of adequate intelligence before they were deployed to the battle front, a situation which led to the death of many of their colleagues. Though they were foolish to have taken up arms against their boss, their complaint was at the heart of problem militating against the success of our armed forces in the fight against Boko Haram.
It is criminal on the part of military commanders to send their men to war without adequate weapons far superior to that of the enemy. If what these soldiers were saying was found to be true then they don’t deserve to die for bringing it out. One is not asking for the rules to be bent but if there was any truth in their allegation, then the Army Council should not punish them with death. Long terms of imprisonment would suffice if through their stupid action we are able to address a problem militating against victory in the battle front in the war against terror.
The kind of humiliating defeat suffered by our military in the hands of Boko Haram in recent times is enough to get anybody annoyed at the way the military high command has been conducting the war. If at all the civilian populace has any sympathy for these rebellious soldiers it is because we are not impressed with the way our top generals are conducting war against terror. But while not condoning any act of mutiny, the soldiers must be properly trained, kitted and armed to fight Boko Haram before we punish any of them that failed to deliver on expectation or took the law into his hand as the mutinous soldiers did while protesting alleged insensitivity on the part of their commanders.
The way the military look at justice is surely different from the way of ‘bloody’ civilians. General Mohammed has been reportedly retired for whatever was his offence as a result of the soldiers’ behavior. But if the boys must die for taking up arms against their commander, while not the ‘oga at the top’ who sent the boys to war without adequate and superior arms and ammunition. Mind you I am just thinking like a ‘bloody’ civilian, but something tells me that what is good for the goose…
But beyond the issue of justice in the case of these mutinous soldiers, it is about time that we take another look at the recruitment policy into our armed forces. It has been said several times that most of the boys enlisting into our armed forces now are just there for the salary and are not committed soldiers. More worrying is the insinuation that some of them are there based on the influence of their godfathers and not on merit. If this is truly the case then we are in trouble. The soldiers that fled into Cameroon at the slightest of heat from Boko Haram were probably from this stock.
Another worry in our armed forces today is the alleged ethnic and religious bias being introduced into this last bastion of Nigeria’s unity. The day our soldiers begin to see themselves as and owe allegiance to their religion or ethnic group would be the beginning of the end for our military. It is incumbent on the leadership of our armed forces today to guide against this ugly trend because it could spell the doom for country. Let’s have a military that we can all be proud of. This is not the time to play the ostrich. Something is wrong with our military if soldiers could take up arms against their commanders. The earlier we fix the problem, the better.
