When soldiers go on rampage

by Eze Eluchie

When people are trained to kill and are allowed free access in society, there is always the likelihood of violence between such trained persons and the rest of civil society. Even the ‘best trained’ soldiers often times, unleash animalistic tendencies when they think no one is watching – but for Wikileaks, Bradley Manning and social media, infractions and bestial behaviours’ by the soldiers of the United States and European armies in Abu Ghraib, The Collateral Murder video and several other untoward instances, would never have been unearthed and some would have continued with the ‘nice-boy’ image depicted of such soldiers by popular media.

Any frequent flyer through United States airports (and airports or public transport systems across Western Europe) will be familiar with the added perks accorded military personnel and their families at such areas. These perks and benefits serve to show societal respect and appreciation for the soldiers’ service and sacrifice and also reduce the likelihood of conflict between soldiers and the rest of civil society.

That is the reason why in most other civil climes, such militarized persons are, whilst in groups, kept away from civil society (in barracks) and all efforts are made to ease their path through civil society whensoever they have cause to so transit.

When the United States and the European Union, through their so-called ‘developmental’ grants, send funds to ‘preach’ military subservience to civil leadership in emerging societies, they either somehow omit, or those who implement such grants fail, to stress the need to appreciate and respect such service personnel – traits which are engrained in the ethos and fabric of all countries which have successfully navigated the balance between their military personnel and civil society.

After Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, a few months ago, mischievously publicly braided a senior military officer (even ensuring that his media team captured the insults on video and repeatedly broadcasting the unsavory event on all available media outlets) for doing what even low ranking civil servants in the Lagos State public service do on a daily basis – drive through illegally demarcated Bus Lanes in Lagos, any discerning observer would have realized that it was only a matter of time before the Boys will hit back for the insult on their Officer cadre.

Obviously, Fashola had not realized that neither he nor Senior Military Officers, who would have reined in the Boys, will be around when the result of his earlier ill-thought showmanship action would materialize. 

Whilst ensuring that the military is effectively brought under civil authority and that military personnel who deliberately set out to harm civilians and destroy public property are brought to justice in accord with relevant statutes, it is also vital that our contraption adapt sufficient measures, as is the case in other sane climes, to minimize the risk or possibility of civil-military conflicts.

Though the destruction and mayhem meted out to staff and property of Lagos State mass transit service after a Mass Transit Bus had knocked down and killed a soldier is condemnable, it is hoped that the experience will engender a more matured, mutually respectful relationship between the civil society and those who our contraption has trained and equipped with weapons to stand guard over us. In addition, the event will hopefully douse the air of impunity with which the said Mass Transit Bus operators approach other road users - an air which most likely led to the death of the soldier in the very first instance.

    
The lack of understanding of the tenuous relationship between the military and civil authority has been the cause of most military interventions/coups across sub-Saharan Africa. Mastery of the art of navigating between the psyche and mannerism of our armed forces and the larger needs of our contraption will serve to guarantee continued civil rule.

Picture: Some Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit buses burnt after one of the BRT vehicles knocked down and killed a soldier (4^th July 2014)

Marshall Badeh, where are the Chibok 'abductees'?

by Eze Eluchie

It is now well over 5 weeks since Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh, announced to the whole world that the Nigerian Military know exactly where the 'abducted' victims from the secondary school in Chibok are kept, yet the girls are yet to be rescued!

35 days and Air Marshall Badeh, as representative of Nigeria’s Military, has seemingly allowed the continued exploitation and dehumanization of the ‘abducted’ girls to continue? Does this guy actually have inkling as to what he is talking about and talking himself into?

You allow ‘hundreds of girls’ to continue to suffer the anguish of being with terrorists in highly deplorable and abusive environments for over 35 days, and counting, and the military does nothing about it? Presumably being subjected to daily violations, terror and all manners of abuse, and you tell us you are refraining from storming the place of their detention for the sake of the safety of the ‘girls’?

Does this man think the world which has been sensitized by the hyper-activism of the #bringbackourgirls gang are daft and incapable of drawing reasonable conclusions based on facts on ground? That whatsoever he says will be taken as sacrosanct?

Coming on the heels of more of the girls 'escaping' from their terrorist-captors and the repeated denials by the various foreign military units which embedded with the Nigerian military in efforts to resolve the Chibok fiasco, particularly the United States and British military advisers, of any knowledge of the whereabout of the girls, did our top hierarchy goof?

Did Air Marshall Badeh unwittingly draw himself, and the Nigerian Military, into what is perhaps the most heinous efforts at making terrorism an integral part of national politics?

Picture: Air Marshall Alex Badeh

Instigating mayhem.

by Eze Eluchie

How was it possible for the major international news networks (CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and CCTV and quite a lot of others) to simultaneously, during the 1st week of June 2014, publish and broadcast the false news of the abduction of over 20 Fulani women (wives of herdsmen) from their village near Chibok, Bornu State in Nigeria’s fractured northeastern region?

This false story was immediately lapped up and re-published almost to the punctuations by several domestic media outlets in Nigeria who have come to think of news from the international media houses as ‘evidence of truth’, even for what occurred in streets on which the domestic media houses are located.

Clearly, some deep-pocket, media-savvy and well connected entities are out to fan the embers of strive in the Nigerian contraption. You do not just get virtually all major media outfits to publish a lie with peanuts!

It took the denial of the '20-Fulani-women-abduction' story by the umbrella organization of Fulani, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) – who are very outspoken and assertive on the rights of their peoples, to put a stop to the lie.

Prior to the clarification by MACBAN, the false news had created much distrust and palpable tension amongst some Fulani migrant communities and their host in several States across Nigeria.

Definitely, more of such planted falsehoods will occur, with some resulting in orgies of inter-ethnic and or ethno-religious conflagrations – those out to make the country ungovernable are dedicated and well endowed to pursue their resolve.

The scourge of (internally or externally) induced inter-ethnic and or ethno-religious violence is one plague populations of sub-Saharan countries ought to be perpetually ready to confront. Often times, the groups pushed into sectarian or ethnic-based conflicts have peacefully co-habited for centuries and are at a loss as to how the conflicts they find themselves enmeshed in got started in the first instance.  Well one of the ways of starting off such conflicts is via implanted false media reports of mass atrocities!

In this instant case and for the Nigerian contraption, a holistic restructuring and renegotiation of the may yet avails us a slim opportunity to overcome such scourges with minimal material and human losses.

Picture: Ethnic tension boils over