A must read editorial of the vanguard newspaper TITLED Lessons From The Army Mutiny Trial ONE of the low points in the war against the Boko Haram terrorists in the north east was the mutiny of some army personnel on parade in Maiduguri on May 14th 2014. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) the newly created 7th Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed, was shot at by some rebellious officers, who were apparently angered at the number of dead colleagues who fell to a Boko Haram ambush. This incident created a lot of anxiety in the populace because it cast several shadows on our military’s readiness to face the challenge of routing the insurgents. News soon came of an impending court martial of eighteen army officers over the sad event. On Monday, 15th September 2014, the court martial, with Major General CC Okonkwo as its president, handed down several sentences ranging from death for twelve of the officers, 28 days of hard labour for one officer and an acquittal for five others. There are several lessons arising from this incident. Foremost of these is that the war against the Boko Haram terrorists has degenerated to a civil war of sorts, since the rebels have now seized territories and proclaimed a separate entity. These insurgents grew from a band of rag-tag armed agitators to become one of the most fearsome Islamists in the world. This was only possible due to insider abuses both in the government and the military, whereby information, funds and equipment meant for the defence of the territory and people of Nigeria were divulged to the enemy by saboteurs. Fifth-columnists’ activities unsettled the usual cohesion and discipline for which the Nigerian Armed Forces are renowned, and which made them among the most effective fighting forces in the world. Intolerable acts of indiscipline and unprofessionalism in the rank and file deteriorated to the point where wives and family members of military personnel deployed to carry out their job of defending the fatherland barricaded gateways into barracks in Maiduguri to prevent them. This did not portray our armed forces in good light, as it emboldened the enemies to start seizing territories. We hope the trials allowed each of the convicts fair hearing and that their rights of appeal would be respected. We, however, plead for amelioration of the sentences as executing the convicted men could lead to great loss in morale among the men in the field of war. Bloodshed, except in clearly proven cases of barefaced sabotage and loyalty to the enemies, cannot be to our best interest now. The military is a serious institution. It is not a place for playing partisan or religious cum sectional politics. The Nigerian military is the lynchpin for guaranteeing the unity and territorial integrity of Nigeria. We are solidly behind all necessary measures taken to strengthen the armed forces.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 18:18:46 +0000
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