In 2015, the then opposition political party, All Progressives Congress, engaged the President Goodluck Jonathan Government in a bitter war of words on how to keep the Nigerian Army away from participating in that year’s general election. It was such a heated argument to the point that the court was involved and a ruling obtained, and in the end the military was stopped from taking part in the election.
The fear of the then opposition party was that by involving the military, the ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party, may manipulate the process, using them. The resistance of the APC then was on the grounds that the main job of the Army was to protect the country from external aggression or other matters that may threaten its sovereignty, but very far away from election matters, which the police had not proven incapable of dealing with.
On the other hand, the PDP having also weighed the possibility of violence in the election, had sought to involve the military to assist the police professionally to avoid loss of lives in the election. But they lost the opportunity.
Fast forward to 2019, one leg of this year’s general elections has just been held, and unlike in 2015, the Army participated fully. Just like in 2015 when there had been opposition to the involvement of the military, a good look again at the involvement of the military would reveal that with professional conduct and proactive approach to violence, their involvement paid off hugely. Their role in the election may have re-defined their role, and may just give the Army a permanent role in election conduct in the future.
Though a report by a human rights group, Civil Liberties Organisation, has put at 35 the number of people that lost their lives in the Presidential and National Assembly elections of February 23, 2019, but a good look will reveal that without the involvement of the military, the number may most possibly have gone higher.
First, upon the knowledge of its involvement in the election, The Nigeria Army through its former Spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman, in Abuja reacted to rumours on social media that the troops were being paid uniform allowances to sway their votes for a particular party. Usman said: “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to some insinuations on various social media platforms that the recent payment of uniform allowance to officers and soldiers was done to sway their voting towards a particular political party. This is not true. The payment of uniform allowance was started in 2016 to assist troops deployed on Operation LAFIYA DOLE as uniform upkeep and maintenance.
“The allowance was however extended to all Nigerian Army personnel because of their increasing engagement in various Internal Security Operations across the country. It is important to note that 95 per cent of Nigerian Army troops will be engaged in security duties during the forthcoming general elections. Out of this, almost 40 per cent are in the North East. Therefore, it is gross unfair and sheer mischief to associate the Nigerian Army with such mundane action. We therefore implore all well- meaning Nigerians to dissociate themselves from such fake and unwarranted information calculated to smear the Nigerian Army.
“Although investigation is ongoing to ascertain the source of such malicious allegations, we would like to warn such unpatriotic individuals to stop this mischief forthwith. We would like to further warn all officers and soldiers to desist from acts that are inimical to Service discipline and code of conduct and reiterate the Chief of Army Staff’s warning during his conference with General Officers Commanding and Operations Commanders that, All Nigerian Army personnel must remain neutral, non-partisan and transparent in all their actions.”
Again, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, warned during his visit to the Nigerian Army Corps Signals in Lagos to inaugurate some buildings while also attending the corps’ reunion party: “All officers and soldiers must remain apolitical and exhibit exceptional professionalism in the forthcoming tasks. You must report any unwholesome activities up the chain of command once it is beyond your powers of command.
“The full weight of the Armed Forces Act will be visited on any personnel found culpable of committing any electoral malpractice. We will support the Independent Electoral Commission, the Nigerian Police and other security agencies in concluding a successful election. As you are aware, the Nigerian Army and indeed the nation is beset by a plethora of security challenges that have tasked our resources, ingenuity and resilience. Despite these, the welfare of troops remains priority in all my considerations and actions. My conviction is that a well motivated force, even with scare resources, can vanquish any external or internal foe.”
The army went further to clearly spell out what its involvement in the election would be, and some of the limitations of the personnel involved. It included Officers of the Nigerian Army will not be involved in any political activity in the general elections – The military said it would only be ensuring a peaceful and violence-free environment for the smooth conduct of the exercise – The Army also said any claim that it would participate in any political activity is false, and that none of its officer will be involved in any political campaign, working as escort to any political personality, or support any political party as it was reported on some popular platforms.
The force through its spokesperson, Colonel Sagir, Musa stated through a press release that as a response to the allegation of political involvement of the military in Rivers State. The Army said though it had given a fuller and more detailed press release to that effect, it is necessary that it restates its position on the issue. It said that in the 2019 general elections, the force is only responsible for the provision of a violence-free environment for the conduct of the exercise. Musa said any allegation that may have stated otherwise is false and should be totally disregarded as the force under Buratai strictly frowns against any form of political participation.
To make sure its rules of engagement was fully met, the Nigeria Army on February 13, 2019, shortly before the Presidential and National Assembly elections inaugurated an election observation centre (situation room) at the Army Headquarters, Abuja to compliment Operation Safe Conduct also launched to ensure a peaceful 2019 general elections.
Buratai, while launching the situation room, said it has been reconfigured for real-time monitoring of events during the 2019 General Elections. He said post-election violence which characterized previous elections highlights the challenges posed by incidents of electoral violence in the country. He said: “Lessons learnt from previous election violence witnessed have categorized the nature or types of violence into three broad categories namely: pre-election violence, violence during elections and post-election violence.”
He said violence at the various phases of elections include thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes and papers or kidnapping or abduction of electoral officers and party agents and wanton destruction of lives and properties. He said having observed this cycle of violence reoccur severally in past electioneering processes, the Nigerian Army has thus deemed it necessary to adopt a proactive and responsive posture that would allow her to better respond to early signs of insecurity before they could escalate into a major security challenge.
Buratai said: “It is in this light that the NA has launched Operation Safe Conduct and also gone ahead to establish this situation room for real-time monitoring. At this point, it cannot be overstated that fake news and false propaganda pose a dangerous threat to both the democratic process and military operations. The use of media, especially social media to deliberately spread fake news should be a thing of concern to all. The rapid spread of fake news has been responsible for misinformation, thereby having an influence on public sentiment and sows confusion among the electorate or even easily ignites violence during the period of the 2019 general elections.”
Now that one leg of the election has been held, one may stand in a better position to appraise the involvement of the military in Nigeria election, and even though there were news of violence across several states of the federation during the presidential and national assembly election, it would be noted that without the involvement of the military, the violence level may have shot up a notch. Especially in the north east where despite the huge number of security deployed, the Boko Haram insurgents sought to disrupt voting process to the point of even attempting to stop a certain sitting governor from casting his ballot.
Again, the major fear which was that the military may collude with the sitting President to favour him was made nonsense of as Buratai kept to his promise of ensuring that his men were above board during the election. Though the election of February 23 cannot entirely be exonerated from rigging, but such did not come from the angle of the military as feared previously.
The involvement of the military as earlier said may have at least opened a new vista to the role the military can play during election, especially as insurgency continues to be with us, and now that it has become established that politicians cannot exactly be exonerated from violence, using political thugs in matters that concern election.
. Opara writes from Ibadan, Oyo State.