At the onset of what was to snowball into disdain for the military in 1993, Nigeria’s retiring Chief of Army Staff, in the soldierly character of Lt. General Salihu Ibrahim, told the nation that the Nigerian army had “become an army of anything goes”. The general and gentleman officer reputed for being one of the most apolitical and brilliant soldiers the nation ever produced made that germane point during the ceremonial pulling out that marked the end of his glorious career in an institution that had become notorious for being inglorious at that time.
The army General Ibrahim spoke about tasted blood in 1966, pushed the country into a needless fratricidal civil war that turned everyone into a casualty and went on to entrench itself in power for a cumulative three decades. While in power, the army was notorious for human rights abuse, subversion of civil authority, and, according to Alozie Ogugbuaja, became experts in savoring pepper-soup and rolling out tanks for putsches. At the time of General Ibrahim’s “army of anything goes” theory, the likes of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransom-Kuti, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, among others had dissected the Nigerian Army for what it really was as an army that had become the enemy of the nation and did not get away with it. They were arrested, detained, brutalized and bruised, but they were not bowed. However, when the bitter truth came from the retiring generalissimo himself, the rank and file fell silent, and the truth hunted them until 1999 when they beat a retreat to the barracks. Unfortunately, the genie that distorted the mindset of the military as the protectors of the nation refused to be subdued quarter of a century after the citizens thought that the nation had an army that embraced nationalism and self-reform.
The consequences that attended the discovery of seventeen dead soldiers on the Forcados river at Okuama, an Urhobo agrarian community, in March 2024, only confirmed the fears of Nigerians that the dream of having an army of protection remains a pipe phenomenon. The nation was startled to read about the heinous crime of butchering soldiers. Condemnation trailed the dastardly act. The Urhobo people, the ethnic stock of the Okuama, joined in condemning the act and urged the federal government to galvanize the relevant security agencies to apprehend the perpetuators and also investigate what happened with a view to punishing the act which was an affront against the nation.
A few days after the incident the nation’s Chief of Defence Staff volunteered information that the military knew the killers and not only named their leader, but also mentioned the community from whence he hailed. He told an apprehensive nation that the killers would soon be caught. Meanwhile, the Urhobo people mourned with the families of the victims, the Nigerian Army, and the Nigerian state, while not relenting in the condemnation of the act and insistent in calling for stiff punishment when caught. The Urhobo nation thus demonstrated good faith and waited for the culprits to be apprehended.
Then the unthinkable, but usual happened. The Nigerian Army, Africa’s largest fighting force, invaded Okuama, a village of farmers and fishermen whose only tools were machetes, hoes, fishing nets and cones. The soldiers reduced Okuama to rubbles with only one building, a church building, standing. In reminiscence of Abama in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the Urhobo people were to cry out “Okuama is no more”. The soldiers frisked and ransacked many communities abutting Okuama and within days the communities became desolate. Everybody, without exception, fled the villages and sought refuge in forests and swamps with dangerous reptiles and animals stalking them. The military invasion was considered unthinkable because the Chief of Defence Staff had said that the military knew the killers and since they knew them it was unthinkable that Okuama would be invaded in a punitive manner. Conversely, the invasion was deemed usual because it earlier played out at Odi, Zaki-Biam and other places. The people who fled into the forest endured the most inhuman of conditions. A humanitarian crisis was at hand, but for the intervention of the Delta State government that set up an internally displaced persons’ camp.
Not satisfied with “jungle justice” the army declared six indigenes of Okuama, including the Ovie (monarch) of Ewu, wanted. Not succumbing to the indignity of going into hiding and getting ferreted out by adventurous soldiers, the monarch turned himself over to the police after which soldiers took him in and detained him, an action that was an anathema. Knowing that brutality is the military’s second nature, the others declared wanted went into hiding with a caveat that they were ready to surrender to the police and get detained in police facility.
Concerned and knowledgeable Nigerians also felt that the army had no constitutional powers to detain civilians no matter the offence. That point was canvassed again and again. The army embarked on a manhunt and eventually arrested the five others in August of 2024. They have since been detained with one of them dying in custody. Nobody knows the condition under which they are being held, but that one of the detainees died in military custody is a pointer to something dreary. Lauretta, Professor Arthur Ekpekpo’s daughter, who could not bear the psychological trauma of what was happening to her father died two months ago!
What was thought to be an attempt at obeying the rule of law and trying the suspects in a competent court of law was botched by the military when it refused to produce them in court. There have been multiple outcries condemning the continuing detention of the detainees by soldiers. The soldiers have been told that they cannot be judges in their own case. They have been told that they have no constitutional powers to detain civilians. They have been told to release the detainees to the police so that the latter can investigate the matter and charge them to court. The soldiers paid no heed.
The Federal House of Representatives set up an investigating committee to which the soldiers were invited, but they refused to appear. When word went round last week that the detainees would be arraigned at a federal High Court in Warri, many did think that the soldiers will for once subject themselves to constituted authority and obey the rule of law. The court convened. The judge sat, so do lawyers and others who came to witness the proceedings, but the soldiers were nowhere to be found with the detainees. The soldiers disobeyed the lawful order requesting them to bring the detainees to court. Was this behavior not part of why General Ibrahim theorized about “an army of anything goes”? And to those who may not know, General Ibrahim, despite his brilliant career and astute mind, ironically demonstrated that trait when he became the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Ilorin by disobeying court orders in cases instituted by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The army demonstrated lawlessness and disregard for constituted authority by not handing the detainees over to the police or bringing them to court. It is really unfortunate that this is happening in Nigeria after twenty-five of a hard won democracy. Many of those who took turns to castigate the army of anything goes Ibrahim referred to many years ago are today in positions of influence and authority. They should call the soldiers to order.
Trampling on the people you were meant to protect is not valour. It is lawlessness. The National Security Adviser was a policeman and he ought to know better than allow soldiers to do the work of the police. The matter has been adjourned till November. The soldiers should be told in clear terms that they should hand the detainees over to the police who should bring them to court. The Urhobo people, the Okuama people have become victims of state terrorism orchestrated, executed and supervised by the Nigerian Army. We have had enough of an army of anything goes!
