The public announcement late yesterday
(08/10/2015) to the effect that the Chief
of Defense Staff (Gen Gabriel Olonisakin) has inaugurated a 10-member committee
to study the doctrines and procedures of the military and come up with workable
plans to renew the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) is a welcome development
and a clear departure from hitherto “jack
of all knowledge and master of nonentity” approach of various public
institutions in Nigeria including the country’s public coercive or security
institutions. The Nigerian Military statement under reference was signed by
Group Captain Wap Maigida late yesterday in Abuja on behalf of Acting Director
Defence Information, Col. Rabe Abubakar and was reported in the media including
the News Express Online.
It is on record that Nigerian public office
holders and their institutions hardly consider informed and expert opinions as they concern topical social,
economic, scientific and political issues particularly those coming from
intellectual and cerebrated civil society communities. They also hardly attend
to and consider written representations or public interest letters addressed to
them from these expert communities and hardly accept and learn from their
policy mistakes and blunders. As a matter of fact, they are blended and
indoctrinated in immunity of impunity.
Barely 48 hours ago (07/10/2015), we issued an
informed public statement, titled: 1,700 Terror Killings & Renewed Bombings
Under Buhari: Chasing Bomb Detonators With Machetes, in which we came
down heavily on the Armed Forces of Nigeria including the Army, DSS, NIA and
the Nigeria Police Force for using approaches unknown to the modern intra-State warfare in their counter
measures against insurgency activities ravaging the country since 2009. In
other words, the Armed Forces of Nigeria have been heavily criticized by Intersociety
for using inter-State warfare approaches to
confront intra-State insurgency
violence in Nigeria. The anomalous approaches are clearly antithetical to human rights and humanitarian doctrines guiding
modern internal armed conflicts. They are also unknown to the post cold war military strategies or
approaches aimed at tackling insurgency,
guerrilla or terrorism.
That the
likes of Retired Generals Olusegun
Obasanjo, Theo Danjuma, Muhammadu Buhari, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ibrahim
Babangida, late Sani Abacha, to mention but a few, became generals was not because of
their expertise in modern military or warfare artistry, but crudely by virtue of their ability to cease public communications signals and announce the ousting of their former bosses from the Dodan Barracks
in military coups and counter-coups. This
is the military generalship of the
Nigeria’s military’s inglorious epochs. Unfortunately, that crude tradition is
still the stock-in-trade of the Nigerian military till date. Added to this are
the habitual office rankings and promotions largely built on nepotism and favoritism
and devoid of merit and outstanding performances in the confines of modern integrated military know-how or expertise.
Military doctrines are never static, but steadily
dynamic. For instance, in the eighties, Ethiopia used to have the largest
military soldiers in Africa with over 500,000 officers. Yet, at the same time,
the country was simultaneously at war all its fourteen provinces. But
today, its soldiers are under 100,000. China globally has cut down its soldiers
from about 4million in the past eight years to 2.3million in 2015.
The instances above clearly show that global and
modern soldiering has gone scientific, making maximum use of information
computer technology (ICT) and highly trained and exposed human intelligence.
The concept of war has also changed steadily from inter-State warfare to intra-State warfare since the end of cold-war in 1991. For instance, of 64 active
or violent conflicts ravaging the world presently, most, if not all of them,
are intra-State warfare. In the said intra-State warfare ravaging the world
of present time, about 597 intra-State armed groups are directly
involved. In all these, the modern warfare concept now revolves around man-machine-environment
as well as wars-without-borders. Similar situations are applicable in the
promotion, defense and protection of human rights where non State actors have now surpassed State actors in the realm of gross human rights abuses.
Intersociety has carefully studied and agreed with the Military Committee’s terms of reference, which are below stated as
follows: “to re-appraise previous AFN’s
transformation activities and suggest options for realistic reforms”;“to
determine ways of improving on operational efficiency in the services”; “to
examine ways of fostering mission-oriented training in the armed forces”; “to
evaluate the foreign courses that are currently attended by AFN personnel and
suggest ways of ensuring that such courses tally with desired milestones”; “consider
measures for improving on troops adherence to Law of Armed Conflicts in
Internal Security and Peace Support Operations”; “ determine impediments to
effective logistics support and recommend the way forward”; “identify current
constabulary engagements of the AFN that could be relinquished to the Nigerian
Police and other paramilitary organizations”; “ examine ways of fostering value
orientation of service personnel through nationalism and the promotion of
services’ core values”; and “suggest
ways of improving on career planning in the AFN”.
The Nigerian Military spokesman also added that “the Committee will also take a critical
look at personnel welfare, civil-military relations, policy formulation and
implementation, media operations, participation in UN/AU/ECOWAS missions,
personnel spouses and barracks youths, plights of ex-service men, career review
and national development. The Committee which may also consider other matters
that may result in reforms that would reinvigorate the AFN and empower them to
seek inputs from the Service Headquarters, serving and retired senior officers,
relevant MDAs and other stakeholders to enrich its recommendations.”
As fantastic as the above terms of reference are, we wish to urge the leadership of the Armed
Forces of Nigeria to also introduce compulsory ICT programs for all officers
and personnel of the Armed Forces. All the ranking categories from Private to General or their equivalents
must be captured in the compulsory exercise. There shall also be networking and
digitalization of all military formations in the country. Apart from out-service or foreign military courses
for selected members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the AFN leadership should
also make maximum and steady use of the resources of the National Open
University of Nigeria (NOUN) particularly in its robust academic fields of
Criminology & Security Studies as well as Peace Studies & Conflict
Resolution.
The two prestigious courses are offered both at
undergraduate and post graduate levels in the University and their materials
are well researched and internationally competitive in matters of intra-State conflicts methodologies and
their solutions. There is a maxim that says that armed robbers are better caught or bottled in their hideouts than when
they are on rampage.
This showcases the importance of using preventive approaches including preventive security intelligence in
tackling insurgency onslaughts in Nigeria. To this end, the trio of Directorate
of Military Intelligence, Department of State Security Services and National
Intelligence Agency created by the National Intelligence Agencies Act of 1986
must totally be reorganized and re-orientated and exposed to the doctrines of
modern intra-State warfare counter-measures,
which are clothed with human rights and humanitarian doctrines. Also very
important is the need to effectively manage the
conditions of service of members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN). The AFN must be rid of nepotism, favoritism and ethno-centrism. Sacking or recalling,
outside the confines of diligence, due process and fairness, of members of the
Armed Forces of Nigeria particularly members of the Intelligence Community could
be very catastrophic for the country’s public security and safety.
Like we said earlier, ways must be found to make
the Nigeria Police Force operationally effective and institutionally viable
particularly as they concern the policing of the country’s internal security.
It is on record that the 370,000 plus Nigeria Police Force (NPF) are a major
parasite and an army of termite draining the country’s lean commonwealth with
little or nothing to show for it. It is a truism that the NPF annually takes
away 40%, if not more of the country’s spending on public security particularly
in recurrent expenditures. The total
annual input and output of the NPF in Nigeria’s internal security is less than
20%. Apart from social forces and
realities that make most citizens to obey law and social rules, the
fraction that are social deviants and law breakers far outweigh the competence
and capabilities of the NPF.
We urge other public institutions particularly
the public office holders and the leaderships of DSS, NIA and the Nigeria
Police Force to borrow a leaf from the foregoing bold step taken by the Armed
Forces of Nigeria (primarily composed of Army, Navy and Air Force), which first
acknowledged that its operational modus operandi is incoherent as it concerns
present insurgency counter measures, leading to its boldly initiatives in
search of expert hands and minds to assist it in devising and following the
right paths. The concept of global
village also includes marketing, bargaining, sale and procurement of socially and scientifically researchable
ideas as well as their cross-fertilization.
Signed:
Emeka
Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International
Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
+2348174090052
(office)
Obianuju
Igboeli, Esq., Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please restrict your comment to the subject matter.