Retired Generals Call for Review of Existing Laws Governing Military Operations in Nigeria

Linus Aleke in Abuja

Retired Generals have called for a comprehensive review of the extant legal instruments governing military operations in the country.

The generals also stressed that some provisions of the laws are obsolete and require urgent review to bring military operations in Nigeria up to speed with global best practices.

Speaking at the Army Headquarters, Department of Civil-Military Affairs’ two-day capacity-building exercise for media practitioners in Nigeria in Abuja, the Director General of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Major General Garba Wahab (rtd), said that laws governing military operations were long overdue for review.

General Wahab, who responded to questions after presenting a paper titled “Crisis Communication and Ethical Reporting by Journalists,” said the military itself has called for a review of the extant laws because many things have happened, and these laws have become obsolete.

He stressed that the review of laws is the job of legislators, and nobody needs to remind them about it.

Noting that the rules stipulate that all extant laws should be reviewed at regular intervals, General Wahab queried, “Do we review ours?”

He also said that it is not the military that defines the term national security but the government, comprising the executive, legislature and judiciary.

“For example, if the military is deployed in a situation like the one in Los Angeles, where 500 Marines were deployed, thorough planning, training, and debriefing would be essential. This process would include reviewing the operation and identifying areas for improvement,” he said.

The problem, the Director General noted, is that nobody wants to take proactive steps until something goes wrong and affects those responsible; only then do people start scrambling to address the issue.

The former Director of Nigerian Army Legal Services, Retired Major General Yusuf Ibrahim Shalangwa, also called for a review of Section 218 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, considering the hierarchical nature of the military.

General Shalangwa expressed concern over the phrasing of the subsection (3), which provides that “the President may, by directions in writing and subject to such conditions as he thinks fit, delegate to any member of the armed forces of the federation his powers relating to the operational use of the Armed Forces of the Federation.”

Stating that the above provision raises concerns due to the military’s hierarchical structure, General Shalangwa said, “One looks at a scenario where the President, based on that provision of the Constitution, decides to nominate or direct a very junior officer to be in charge of a particular operation. When you have the Service Chiefs, who are more senior, but the President nominates a junior person, going by that provision, and tasks him with that responsibility. So, the concern is that that provision requires review, especially by the National Assembly, possibly for it to be abrogated or deleted, so that the President should give his directive through the Service Chiefs, through the Chief of Defence Staff, to the Service Chiefs.”