Mind Your Language

The director general of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation and governor of Rivers State, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, was recently reported to have justified soldiers’ right to disobey superior orders; what in military parlance is known as mutiny. 


He was reported to have been reacting to the death sentence passed on some soldiers who refused to fight when sent to confront insurgents. Amaechi claimed in the report that the soldiers were right to have protested, because, according to him, for reasons of corruption on the part of the government, they were not sufficiently equipped to perform their professional duties. He was said to have made this remark during a press conference. It is therefore safe to conclude that he was not misquoted, especially as he has not, up until this time refuted the statement.

That being the case, it is unfortunate, in our view, that such a serious matter is being trivialised. A one-time chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Babangida administration, General Domkat Bali, reacting to a military situation at that time, said civilians are not in a position to understand military logic. This is true, because the military, as an institution, operates under a different set of laws with its own code of ethics. It is assumed that Amaechi, as governor and chief security officer of his state knows and understands this. It is also expected that he appreciates the fact that military operations are off limits for politicians, particularly in a war situation and especially in an election year. Every soldier, on the day he enlists, knows what he is signing up for. He/she also knows that mutiny is a cursed word that must be dreaded at all costs.

The challenges the military is facing are real. The problems were compounded by lack of attention to them over the years. They started with the recruitment process, where the ‘godfather syndrome’ took centre stage. Politics only made things worse and the country has now spent over a decade responding to the complex architecture of a modern military in an increasingly dangerous world. But the way to win the war on terror is not by airing publicly the country’s dirty laundry, which can only further undermine the confidence of our soldiers. The issue is national security, which is under serious threat and all hands must be on deck to tackle it.

It is said that wars are too important to be left to generals alone and it is at moments such as Nigeria is facing now that politics must take a back seat. Otherwise, the political class may unwittingly be constricting the very space they are clamouring for. This is no time for irresponsible grandstanding.

Source: Leadershipng