ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN FROM PUNCH
In the recent instances where some officers of the Nigerian Army have brought the institution to some disrepute, the defence in their official statements tends to emphasise the military ethos of ‘discipline.’ For instance, when the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Lagbaja, commented on the soldier(s) who insulted the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for ordering the arrest of one of their colleagues, he reminded us—several times, in fact—that the army was about ‘discipline.’ Again, in the press release issued to refute Ruth Ogunleye, one of their officers who also made a video alleging sexual abuse and maltreatment by her named senior officers, they restated that they were a “disciplined force” —an oxymoron.
Their having to reiterate an essence about them that should otherwise be taken for granted betrays their anxieties about their public image. Some of the emphasis is likely an overreaction to the repeated invocation of the term in the flurry of comments that attended the Sanwo-olu incident. Almost every observer, understandably shocked by the development, wondered what happened to army ‘discipline.’ But once you remove the novelty of soldiers making videos to insult a sitting governor, there is no new revelation there. Nigerian soldiers are renowned for various acts of physical abuse and general misconduct. The soldiers in those videos did not say anything out of how we understand their character. The only people who probably believe that the Army represents ‘discipline’ in the public imagination must be the crafters of those press releases.
Yes, I am aware that COAS Lagbaja said only one of those whose videos made the rounds was their officer; the rest were impostors. But that assertion itself is rather curious. Why would some ordinary civilians (if that is what they are) care so much about the fate of a random soldier that they would take the risk to impersonate an officer, make videos—without hiding their faces—and insult a governor? If they are not your officers, who are they? And what do they have at stake in the matter that they would go that far?
For me, the conceit in those videos is not that those soldiers despise civilian rule but that they assume they are exceptional. Several of them repeated each other’s arrogant claims that since they fight terrorists on behalf of the nation, they have also earned the privilege of being excepted from the rules that bind the rest of society. That mindset is terrifying. We thank them for their services to the nation, but that does not exempt them from following basic rules. Beyond what is gradually becoming a pattern of beating the public on the head with the information that the order of their nature is ‘discipline,’ maybe the military should rethink how it defines the term. Is there anything in their mode of instilling it that makes some of these soldiers presume they are above the rest of society?
That said, while there has been a ton of ink spilled over the case of soldiers running loose mouths against a public officer, I do not think I came across any analyst pointing out that the indiscipline that also underwrote the public arrest that precipitated those insults was not just about the soldier or even the other Okada riders. Virtually all the op-eds I have read have either justified the governor’s actions (and in almost exaggerated terms) or refused to even acknowledge the overreach.
This is by no means justifying the offensive comments, but there was also everything wrong with a civilian governor standing on the road and yelling orders at his security aides to arrest those driving against traffic. When one of them identified himself as a soldier, he shouted “Put him there; let your father come and rescue you. You’re telling me you are a soldier; that is the reason I am going to lock you up!” He also confronted two of the Okada passengers being driven one way and said something to the effect that he could arrest them and put them in the guardroom. What gives a civilian governor such a right?
