Why the Nigerian Army ain’t shit.
It is not for lack of knowledge of what soldiers go through that we "bloody civilians" find the Nigerian army -as an institution, despicable.
Let me tell you a story. An incident my father once narrated to my brothers and me.
He (my father) was walking along a busy Lagos road on a Tuesday morning, A uniformed soldier walked behind him in familiar 'big man' fashion. No sooner had a young man (in his twenties) passed him when chaos erupted. The young man's arm had allegedly hit the khaki of the soldier, the young man apologized promptly but was met with a slap across the face. Bystanders began apologizing on behalf of the young man as they stood at arms length.
While everything was going on, in an unbelievable manifestation of what some would call karma, a danfo driver lost control, swerved off the road and hit the soldier and the young man. The danfo driver made a run for it, the young man (and a few bystanders) sustained very minor injuries (the young man stood almost immediately and was running in five minutes), the soldier died immediately.
Everybody ran, nobody dared touch the soldier's remains. Roadside traders packed up shop immediately, cars sped past, no one loitered within a km of the soldier's lifeless body.
Everyone knew what was to come. They knew an army would troop in to pick up anyone found around the area regardless of their complicity in their colleague's death. And it happened as my father heard. They came, picked innocent people up and tortured them for sport.
You see, it is not for lack of knowledge of what soldiers go through that we "bloody civilians" find the Nigerian army -as an institution, despicable.
Commentators have emphasized the significance of colonialism and the neo-colonial involvement of the army in political (and related civil) matters in the evolution of the relationship between the army and the civilian population.
At the risk of oversimplifying the context, the average Nigerian soldier acts in superficial servitude to the country and its symbolisms. Shallow because this does not in anyway translate to a feeling of responsibility for the safety of the ordinary citizen. This is in stark contest to what is obtainable in many other systems. The army is in-fact a willing tool of oppression against the ordinary Nigerian.
It reeks of distilled dishonesty when certain parties act like the cause of the resentment a majority of the civilian population feel towards the army is unknown. It is more puzzling when said parties turn it up a notch and contrast the situation with what happens in other countries in a manner that suggests the contempt -or indifference- is unfounded. Even more laughably, these mischievous elements attempt to 'remind' us of the duties of the army and how they 'protect' the lives they have shown -in their actions, to mean nothing to the army. We are supposed to worship an institution that would (and does) kill us in enormous numbers without question.
We know the sentiments that birth phrases like “bloody civilian" and we have learnt over time, the implications of these sentiments. Again, it is not for lack of knowledge of what soldiers go through that we find the Nigerian army -as an institution, despicable.
