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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Ayo Sogunro -- The Case Against the Nigerian Military

(The Guardian) -- The Nigerian military is sick and requires urgent intervention. Clearly, public intervention in military affairs is a sensitive issue, and our politicians generally avoid commenting on military issues except when it affects their electoral interests.

However, the rest of us must not remain mute when it is clear that an intervention is needed. In the last three years, we have witnessed the military’s increased impunity in the conduct of its operations, disregard for the rule of law and civilian control, and contempt for public accountability.

The Nigerian military has become uncontrollable in a way that we have not seen since the transition to civilian rule.

A theory of civil-military relations, formulated by Samuel Huntington, is the idea of “objective control” of the military by the civilian authority. According to Huntington, objective control requires the military authority to: (i) demonstrate a high level of professionalism and recognition of the limits of its professional competence; and (ii) effectively subordinate itself to the civilian authority that makes decisions on military policy.

Read more: https://guardian.ng/features/the-case-against-the-nigerian-military/