Abstract
Amidst persistent publications of gangsters’ activities and personnel lawlessness in Nigeria, the paper examined the professional practices with the military processes and operational procedures for military institutions with a view to appraising military responses to personnel lawlessness vis-a-vis protection of institutional integrity in the Nigerian military. Adopting doctrinal approach, the paper employed both primary and secondary sources in its methodology. The primary source comprised international treaties and conventions, national legislation, judicial decisions and unstructured interview. The secondary source included scholarly text, journal articles, newspapers, and the internet. Data collected were subjected to content analysis. The paper found that, although the armed forces are supposed to be a haven for discipline, the deleterious impacts of gangsters’ activities and personnel lawlessness are noticeable within the Nigerian military. It further found that, although extensive provisions are available to enforce personnel discipline positively, institutional lapses encouraged social unruliness in the military. The paper contended that, unless collaborative strategies are directed against these unwholesome menaces, the public support needed for national defence might remain unattainable. It, therefore, concluded that military gangsters’ activities and personnel lawlessness constituted a huge source of embarrassment to the military institution and a source of concern to the Nigerian populace.
KEYWORDS: Military; Gangsters; Activities; Personnel Lawlessness; Combatting Strategic Responses
- INTRODUCTION
The military as a system charged with national defence in Nigeria is established by virtue of section 217 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered).[1] The Nigerian military is composed of the armed forces which comprise the Army, Navy, Air Force (and such other branches of the armed forces of the Federation as may be established by an Act of the National Assembly).[2] The enabling law for the military is the Armed Forces Act [AFA 2004],[3] by which the maintenance of order[4] with the enforcement of discipline is adequately ntrenched.[5] These, among other provisions, are giving details of a comprehensive legal ground for a system that is out to do justice to all its members vis-a-vis their relationship with other members of the larger society of Nigeria and beyond.
Against the seemingly formidable corpus of law forestalling indiscipline in the force, gangsterism, is a stock in trade of soldiers engaging in multiple scales of personnel lawlessness for a common purpose in one form of infraction or the other, ranging from simple social nuances to serious heinous ones. Gangsters’ activities strayed in, either by ingenuity of recruitment process or developed by way of attitudinal relapse occasioned by administration of stupefying substances. The traces of fragmented gangsters’ groups in the military critiqued the axiomatic belief that the military is a breeding ground for discipline and the building of sound mind in a sound body. The infiltration of bad eggs among its personnel has continually projected, not only the military but the entire nation as a whole, in a bad light, causing a reversal of respect, regard, confidence and public distrust in its process. The public template is replete with horrendous accounts of varying degrees of despicable activities from these gangsters’ groups.[6] This ugly trend has brought about some disquiet in public peace, whether at the instances of militarised constituted authority or an outright attempt at regime change.[7] Some of these happenings have also come by way of a gross invasion of public offices including sister organisations, and other civil institutions.[8]
Piqued by the negative impacts and the extent of damage which untamed gangsters’ groups could risk in a nascent democracy, the paper, therefore, traces the presence of gangsters’ groups and personnel lawlessness in the Nigerian military, and assess the potency of the established strategies put in place to combat the menace in Nigeria. In discharging its burden, the paper is divided into six distinctive sections, aside from its section one which is the introduction. Section two examines the conceptual definition of terms. The third section of the paper appraises the typology and traces of gangsters’ activities and personnel lawlessness in the Nigerian military, while the fourth section identifies the causes and impacts of gangsters’ activities and personnel lawlessness in the military. Section five evaluates the military responses for combating gangsters’ activities and personnel lawlessness in the Nigerian military. The concluding section, section six, proffers useful suggestions towards the realisation of the military’s noble objective in keeping faith with its constitutional role of defending democracy in Nigeria.
[1] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered) [CFRN 1999].
[2] Ibid at 217.
[3] The Armed Forces Act 2004 Cap A 25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 [AFA 2004].
[4] For maintenance of order in the armed forces in Nigeria, the AFA 2004 makes extensive provisions its Part XII graphically detailing the offences in their various categories which include misconduct in action – ss 45-51; mutiny – ss 52-53; insubordination – ss 54-58; absence from Duty – ss 59-62; malingering and drunkenness – ss 63-65; and offences relating to property – ss 66-68. Other offences relating to maintenance of order in the armed forces are navigation and flying offences – ss S69-S72; offences in respect of Ships and aircraft etc., – ss 73-74; Prize offences – ss 75-76; Sexual offences – ss 77-81 offences relating to battering and requisitioning of vehicles – ss 82-83; offences relating to and by person in custody – ss 84-87; miscellaneous offences – ss 88-99; offences in relation to court-marital – ss 100-102; conducts prejudicial to service discipline, s 103; and civil offences – ss 104-S114.
[5] AFA 2004 provides, among other items for discipline; that an officer subject to service law under this Act who behaves in a scandalous manner, unbecoming of the character of an officer and a gentleman, is guilty of an offence. And accordingly, the Act having itemized the various forms of offence, in their different degrees and headings, also goes on to provide for the measures of punishment. This is captured in Part XIII, spanning from ss 115-120. It does not leave out the procedure for trials as couched in Part XIV of the Act, captioned trial procedure – ss 121-146. There is post-trial procedure – ss 147-182. The Act further provides for appeal, in its Part XVI – ss 183-202.
[6] See the ThisDay publication of March 24, 2024 captioned ‘Lessons from Okuama’ <https: //www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/03/24/lessons-from-okuama-killings/>accessed on July, 23, 2024.
[7] Tatlor B. Seybolt, Humanitarian Military Intervention: The Conditions for Success and Failure (Oxford University Press 2008) pp. 263-264.
[8] See The New Humanitarian publication of July 3, 2023 captioned ‘Exclusive: ‘They Just Shoot and Burn: Civilians Targeted in Nigeria’s War on Boko Haram’ <https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/ investigations/2023/07/03/exclusive-civilians-targeted-nigerias-war-boko> accessed on March 23, 2024.