Saturday, 25 March 2017

IS IT THE PEOPLE'S ARMY, OR THE ARMY'S ARMY?

The Editors at Premium Times referred to "the constitutional guarantee of civilian control of the army, etc"
I wonder how many otherwise educated Nigerians, even those warming their seats in the House and Senate, understand this simple concept. The way our people mindlessly defer to "our" military is most disconcerting. Does anyone treat his megadi that way? No.
These long years of military rule have done irreparable damage to our psyche. We still act like zombies. The late Kayode Esho, JSC, lamented in those days that a new breed of lawyers were coming of age, who had neither the experience nor a recollection of the rule of law, which has adversely limited their scope.
Let me take one final shot. Is the NYSC a military or paramilitary establishment? Neither. Granted the lofty goals of fostering national unity by scattering university educated Nigerian youth to far-flung outpost, it's overall objectives dovetails more closely with the functions of the National Orientation Agency and the Ministry of Information. A road walk drill for a forthnight, worthy of proud Boy Scouts, does not overnight turn the NYSC into a military establishment, which it is not. Can anyone then explain why we have retained the notion that the Director General of the NYSC must be a soldier, typically of a rank of Brigadier? This is intellectual laziness and mental slavery. Under the military, that posting was job-for-the-boys. We have no single good reason to retain that charade. A civilian must henceforth head our NYSC, if indeed we want to retain that setup.
God bless Nigeria.

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