- Army authorities should apprehend soldiers who brutalized LASTMA officials in Lagos
There was a time when the military was more respected than feared. The Nigerian Army was reputed to be a disciplined force. Unless drafted to quell civil unrest, it could only be imagined what they did on the battle front by their orientation and disposition. That tradition is largely lost now. The new turn probably informed the lamentation by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Salihu Ibrahim, that the Army he was leaving behind in 1993 had become a Force of anything goes. If anything, things have got worse in terms of discipline and military-civil relations.
Apart from constantly harassing the public, the Army has become notorious for taking on officials of paramilitary organisations and civil groups. On a number of occasions, they have been locked in open conflict with policemen and men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
On Monday, it was the turn of an official of the Lagos State Traffic management Agency (LASTMA), Mr. Peter Owolabi. The poor LASTMA official had to be battered for daring to enforce the law. And, to show that the soldiers who descended on the poor man, the soldiers who could not fathom why a common LASTMA official would dare caution them, blocked the Bus Rapid Transit Lane around Obanikoro in the former capital city. It did not matter to them that it would amount to gross indiscipline which is punishable under the law, nor did it bother them that the dedicated lane was for the free flow of traffic in the congested city. They were sure that no authority under the sun could call them to order.
And, to confirm their position, their commanders have not considered it necessary to issue a statement since the ugly development. There has been no visit to the brutalized official, no apology to LASTMA and the state government, Owolabi’s employers. The soldiers are indirectly, thus being told to repeat the ugly incident should any other law enforcer attempt to make them obey civil rules.
That was not the first time the soldiers and some of their officers would flagrantly disobey the laws of the land. On many occasions, they had been seen driving in the wrong direction at great discomfort to other road users. They are sometimes known to have forced gas stations to sell to them at whatever price they may dictate, and are hardly patient to join other would-be buyers on the queue.
This is supposed to be a new dispensation, one that has promised to mobilize Nigerians for rebuilding the country. We, therefore, call on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to order a probe into the incident with a view to identifying the soldiers and discipline them according to the rules to serve as deterrence to others. The same impunity had informed had informed the shooting of tax-paying citizens in the past.
It need be pointed out again that in a democracy, the military is subject to civil authorities. As many as elect to willfully flout the laws of the land should be brought to justice, if only to assure citizens that they are safe. The senior officers should be good examples. When they are orderly in all things and at all times, purged on the contempt for civilians who are sometimes described as “bloody civilians”, the forces would begin to act as members of an orderly society.
We call on the federal government to reconsider the strength and size of the Nigerian Police Force. Obviously, 30,000 officers and men are inadequate to police Lagos. While not unmindful of the instruction to the Inspector General and the Police service Commission to recruit 10,000 more Policemen to shore up the strength nationwide, this is a mere drop in the ocean. There can be no substitute for allowing the states to police their territories. The involvement of the military in purely civil matters like traffic management might have fuelled the superiority complex that sometimes drive the soldiers.
Nigeria is not in a state of anomie. The federal government has a duty to act immediately to halt the dangerous trend.
