By Bolade Omonijo
Posted to the Web: Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Following open calls by delegates for zonal commands in the spirit of devolution of power and true federalism, the retired generals argued that the restructuring proposal was fraught with danger to the polity.

Speaking exclusively to Vanguard, one-time Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe(rtd) said the politicians were ignorant of the implications of their suggestion. His words: “These are politicians who don’t understand how these things work. All they are concerned about is that the military should not plan coups. They do not realise that the armed forces’ primary role is to defend the territorial integrity of this country and ward off external aggression. No one is trained to plan coups.

“The armed forces are organised in such a way that commands are sometimes professional. In the Niger Delta, if you have the Army, it will be a Marine Command because of the terrain. That is the reality. The Artillery is elsewhere and Infantry in another. So, how does zonal command help? And, sometimes when there are specific requests from outside Nigeria, you may decide to send a command. Wouldn’t that provoke cries from the region where the command is based if arranged on zonal command? Things don’t work like that. The military is a unifying force. If you operate on zonal basis, how would that affect central appointments. No, the military cannot go that way.”

Speaking earlier on the floor of the conference, Major-General Geofrey Ejiga (rtd) expressed surprise that some delegates were canvassing the idea. “The Army is the only institution that positively projects the image of Nigeria,” he said. The assertion was greeted with loud disagreement by the delegates who felt that the military had contributed more to the crises of the Nigerian state more than any other group.

General Ejiga took exception to the apologies offered earlier by senior officers of the three arms of the military, describing such apologies as personal views. He said military personnel should be commended for representing Nigeria well in international peace-keeping operations. According to him, one of the issues that has adversely affected the image of the military at the domestic level was their involvement in electoral purpose. He said they be allowed to work within their area of primary calling and core competence alone.

His view was supported by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Victor Malu who described any move to reorganise the military on zonal or regional lines as counter productive. His words: “I am speaking from experience and I am supposed to know because I have headed the Army as well as commanded the ECOMOG. The problem with the military has nothing to do with structure. The problem is how it is run. The only duty of the military is to ward off external aggression. One of the few things that people commend this country for is the performance of the armed forces while on peace keeping operations. This is a fact. If the military is seen as bad at home, it was made so by the government of the day.

A retired police officer and former military governor, Alhaji Usman Farouk, warned of the danger of using factors other than professional standing in appointing heads of the various security outfits in the country. He said the constitutional provisions that such appointment should not be influenced by ethnic origin and even seniority had been ignored.

Alhaji Farouk asked government to pay more attention to the charisma and integrity of those to be appointed. With specific reference to the Police, Alhaji Farouk warned that the spate of insecurity of lives and property would continue for as long as primordial factors were conditions for such appointments.

Earlier, another former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie had lent his voice to the campaign against indigenising police commands or creation of state police. Supporting the view of Chief Sunday Adewusi who presided over the Police Force in the Second Republic, Alhaji Coomasie pointed out how the constitutional provision for the subordination of the Commissioners of Police to state governors was abused in the Second Republic.

He described as adequate the provision in Section 195 of the Constitution which enjoins the Police Commissioners to take lawful orders from the state governors. Alhaji Coomasie said the Force had already been decentralised along 12 zones with the appointment of Assistant Inspector-Generals in charge.