I have always described the Nigerian military as a genocidal army or as David Hundeyin once put it an “African bush militia.” This is because their modus operandi is exactly that of a bush militia or genocidal army. For instance, their style of policing has nothing to do with detecting or investigating crimes. The bush militia has neither the capacity nor patience for such intelligence and painstaking process. There is a faster and brutal process – to shock, terrorise, brutalise, and use mass murder and rape as punishment and reprisals for supposed wrongs or infractions.
Since the military’s involvement in internal security matters in Nigeria, their preferred style of responding to skirmishes or crimes is to carry out what they call ‘a reprisal’ against the community involved, brutalising and killing enough people and destroying as much of the community as they could afford to. The rationale is to instil the fear of God in the community and deter further crime.
But, of course, the downside is that the real criminals or culprits are never affected or punished. Only innocent people are killed or affected by the reprisals. The real criminals know to leave the area immediately after committing the crimes. The military isn’t too dumb not to know this. But they do not care. They know only the innocent and helpless will be affected. One is then forced to ask why exactly the military is always involved in such reprisal killings and destructions even when the military high command knows such reprisals are illegal and based on the Geneva convention, are properly classified as ‘war crimes’.
One is then forced to ask why exactly the military is always involved in such reprisal killings and destructions even when the military high command knows such reprisals are illegal
The answer, it appears to me, is in the very origins of most third world militaries, which were set up not to defend the country per say, but to protect the government from the people. In this case, the people – and not some external forces – are the real enemies and must not be spared in case of any uprising or infractions. This tendency tends to be exacerbated by military incursion into politics and military rule. With time, a clear divide emerges between the military, which is considered a special or privileged group, whose lives are more precious and valued, and bloody civilians, who are the wretched of the earth and can be dispensed with easily without any consequences.
This has been internalised, passed down across generations in the military and new military recruits are basically trained to become bullies and to consider killing innocent and unarmed civilians as service. What is more, with retired military generals still dominating the Nigerian political space, they provide political cover to the military to continue to commit war crimes against their own people without any consequences. The last set of service chiefs – the longest in the history of the Nigerian military – were even rewarded with ambassadorial positions immediately they were reluctantly retired, several years after they were officially due to retire.
Why am I reflecting on this after exhaustively writing on the genocidal history of the Nigerian military of late? It is because they continue to commit mass murder of innocent and armless civilians at the slightest excuse all over the country. In 1999, it was Odi in Bayelsa state; in 2001 it was Zaki Biam in Benue state; in 2015 it was the Shiites in Zaria; in 2016 it was the Gbaramatu people in Delta state; in 2017 it was the people of Aba and Onitsha; in 2020 it was peaceful protesters in Lekki and many others that are too numerous to mention.
Last week again, it was the turn of the Tiv people in Konshisha local government of Benue state to suffer mass killings and destruction in the hands of the military in the name of reprisals. It was reported that eleven military men were killed by a militia in the area and the military promptly responded by sacking the community, killing people indiscriminately, destroying houses, farmlands and anything of worth in the area. As usual, the military claimed they were tracking the bandits who killed the military men.
This was exactly what happened in 2001 in Zaki Biam and the military kept denying the killings until 2007 when then Chief of Army Staff, Luka Yusuf, publicly apologised to the people of the state for the killing of over 100 people in the area and the destruction of several communities. Till date, and despite the public acknowledgement and apology, no one has been held responsible for the war crimes.
In far away Myanmar, another country that only returned to a military-shepherded democracy after over 50 years of continuous military rule in 2010, is also experiencing a genocide being perpetrated by the military. On February 1, 2021, the military sacked the democratically elected government following the results of an election it did not like. The people said they have had enough of the military and protests erupted. The military, after some initial warnings, simply turned their guns on their fellow citizens. As at the last count, over 700 people have been brutally executed by the ruthless military in the country for resisting a return to military rule.
In Nigeria, just like in Myanmar, the military is a class of its own, separated from the rest of society, and sees itself as above the society and the legitimate guardian of the society. In Myanmar, just like in Nigeria, the people feared a return to the bad old days of military rule where rape, assault and indiscriminate and arbitrary killings were the order of the day. But in Myanmar, just like in Nigeria, however, the people supported military genocides against minorities or people it did not like. In Nigeria, it is the kinsmen of the people in power; in Myanmar, it is the Buddhist majority supporting the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority. But like I always say, the massacres will eventually go round. Whoever rides on the back of the tiger is likely to end up in the belly of the tiger.
