DEMOCRACY AND MILITARY FORCES

DEMOCRACY AND THE MILITARY FORCES IN NIGERIA.

BY:

MUDASSIR ALIYU YUNUSA

mudassiray@gmail.com

     Democracy is a political system of government where people of a nation or a country are ruled base on form of governance they choose to establish through drafting laws guiding the conduct of the society. Abraham Lincoln defines democracy as “the government of the people by the people for the people”. Therefore democracy has to do with popular interest and sovereignty, public opinions, freedom of expression and choice, as well as the dividents of democracy in respect to the provision of law, order, welfare and security to the citizens. While on the other hand military are group of people who are characterized by force and given the power and authority to acquire arms and amunations for the purpose of protecting internal and external integrity of their country. Military rule simply mean period when members of armed force are controlling the political power of a given country. In most cases military acquire power through coup d'etat by force from both civilian or same military.

     It is 16 years with the return of the current democracy in Nigeria (1999 – 2015), this is the longest period of civilian administration the country ever witnessed after independent, though several attempts were made to democratize the country e.g  First and  Second Republics as well as the short lived Third Republic which otherwise led to the Shonekan Interim National Government(ING), but all the efforts made in politicising the country proved unsuccessful and abortive as a result of frequent seizure of power by the members of  military forces which led to the collapses of the previous democracies during 1^st and 2^nd republics prematurely in few years of their inceptions.

    However the current democratic era is the most successful and uninterrupted reign of civilian government per say, compared to the previous ones, because it is only within this period that democracy ever witnessed a remarkable transitional agenda that allow the successful handing over power from civilian to another elected civilian particularly at federal level. With this we can say that there is improvement with regard to the sustainability of democracy in Nigeria.

Before 1999, Nigerians suffered much from harsh and dictatorial decisions and decrees made by military rulers which made the citizens to respond seriously against the junta and agitated for democracy and democratization, also Nigerians on different occassion were forced to accept and endure a prolonged harsh and dictatorial leadership of our military people which threw serious discontent to our existence as an independent nation. In view of this, series of movements and agitations for change were made by Nigerians which eventually succeeded in turning around the political system  of the country from military to democracy.

We all know military junta dominated the political scene of leadership by commanding the polity for 29 out of 54 years of full sovereignty and autonomy in 1960. As usual (considering the number of military coup that happened in form of successful, abortive and foiled coup), this time around Nigerian military are out again to complete the cycle of dictatorship just to show their power in controlling the country even during democracy. We are aware that the military took away democracy on several occasions, denied the consolidation of civilian administrations (1966,1983 & 1993), they also delayed democracy through prolonging the transitional agenda (1975, 1993 & 1998), and still can not defend the sustainability of the current democracy by allowing election which is the most important feature in  pure Democracy to hold as scheduled.

The postponement of the forthcoming February elections is not because of any political outrageous nor because of PVC distribution or other INEC logistics, but because military can not provide security on a single election day. Is this cocievable? Does that mean the power, the  prestige, the recognition, the skills and tactical approaches accorded to them particularly in dealing and foiling down any crises and insurgencies within their territory and also in their peace keeping mission accross the globe is no longer with them? We are aware that 80% of military forces constituted under ECOMOG are Nigerian military and they were known for their effort and capacity in restoring peace and nomalcy in Yugoslavia, Liberia, former Zaire, Sirra Leone etc.

Surely, Nigerians for quite long are disappointed with the distress and critical condition which many people are blaming and attributing the failure  to    the prolong military rule that would have  move  the country  far on the trend of development.

 Moreso, the development of any nation could only be achieved when the citizens including the armed forces, the police and other para military institutions join hands together.

Finally, I will like to raise an appeal to military on the issue of governance especially the consolidation of this democracy as system that is generally accepted by all  as nigerian political system, they should give their maximum support in the course of sanitizing the country at any cost rather than accepting inferiority always.

I hope our confidence and emotion to the military will never be defeated by allowing political circumstances to affect their integrity as legitimate as standard institution.

MUDASSIR write from NTA Zaria.