Abstract
The current corps of Nigerian army are products of top tertiary military and policy institutions. They have demonstrated their prowess internationally, especially, in peace keeping and peace enforcement. Forty-four years (44 yrs) after the Nigerian Afro-Beat Maestro (Fela) sang, “…they leave sorrow, tears and blood…”, the Nigerian army is still riveted in gross human rights abuses. Recently, it is competing with Boko Haram on who comes first on the list of International Criminal Court’s (ICC) human rights abuses. Given that the army is trained to use maximum force and the fact that post-colonial states’ crises, especially in Africa, and specifically Nigeria are internal. There has been the debate on the establishment of medium force outfit in Nigeria, which led to the establishment and subsequent disbandment of National Guard in the 1990s. The debate continued to rage in this Fourth Industrial Revolution era. But the cost implication of running such a paramilitary outfit has posed a major hindrance. To fill this gap, this paper joins the debate and argues for the establishment of an Army Constabulary Corp (ACC), a medium force between the army maximum force and the police minimum force. The paper uses the Feaver Agency theory of civil military relation as its theoretical framework. The study collated data through documentary methods. In analysing the data, the qualitative data were transcribed, interpreted, and analysed through systematic logical inductions.
Highlights
From the serious abuse of civilian communities in Odi in 1999 and Zaki Biam in 2001; to extrajudicial killings of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) in Zaria and Abuja; and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), These acts alienate citizens, whose cooperation is crucial for successful internal security operations (DFAT, 2018: p. 25) and; to killing protesters at Lekki killingLagos state; in Obigbo (2020) and Orlu in 2021 (Intersociety, 2020; Egbas, 2021; Uneze, 2021)
Multilateral rules and doctrines of engagement, which this paper considers as international operational regimes are exemplified first at the African level where, Ebo (2005) stated that the draft Code of Conduct (CoC) for Armed and Security Forces in Africa, drawn up in 2002, is an effort to fill the expanded democratic control of the armed and security forces, with following: parliamentary oversight, a vibrant and resilient civil society, and a free press
The poor human rights records are, but not limited to the followings: serious abuses of civilian communities in Odi (1999) and Zaki Biam (2001); to extrajudicial killings of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) in Zaria and Abuja; and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the abuses continued in killing of protesters at Lekki, Lagos state; Obigbo, Rivers state (2020) and Orlu, Imo state in (2021)
Summary
From 1999, the NA has grossly abused the rights of Nigerian citizens in Odi in November 1999; in Zaki-Biam, Pro-Biafra advocates on May 30, 2016; hundreds of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) members, known as Shi’ites were massacred in Zaria and soldiers used live ammunition between October 27 and October 29, 2018, and admitted to killing six of their members (Ojo, 2009; Enyiazu, 2018). The military is an apparatus for war; force is its language and style. Their being used unduly militarizes political and civil conflicts. General Ibrahim Babagida’s military government was the first to problematize the need of a medium force outfit, because of frequent border skirmishes between NA and Cameroonian Gendarme (a medium force), which ordinarily would have been mere border skirmishes but were always escalated because of the involvement of the Nigerian army. Vanguard Editorial (November 9, 2010), noted the return to this idea by former
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