THRUST suddenly into national and international spotlight, Nigeria’s Armed Forces are looking rather flat-footed. While struggling to contain the terrorist insurgency in the toxic North-East zone and engaged in operations in most of the states, its personnel are unwisely being deployed for some purely political and civil matters by a short-sighted Presidency. It is a dangerous game that could well imperil the Fourth Republic.
President Goodluck Jonathan and his advisers are too fixated on politics to appreciate the dangers of immersing the military in partisan politics. No wonder that late last month, soldiers claiming to be acting on “orders from above” stopped the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, as he arrived for a function in Kaduna and insisted on searching his car despite protestations by the security aides of the country’s Number 4 citizen. Also in June, soldiers deployed in support of the massive security provided for the Ekiti State governorship election were reported to have stopped two state governors, Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) from attending a rally in Ado-Ekiti, two days before the poll.
In Lagos State, soldiers allegedly acting at the behest of the Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, invaded a building site of the state government, chased away the workers and occupied the premises. Ownership of the site is being disputed by the federal and state governments. When did armed soldiers become the arbiters in civil disputes between two tiers of government?