Controversy trails use of army during polls

Emeka Ibemere

Reconciling the need for security and militarization of the election process has remained a difficult matter both for Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the federal government.

Obviously, it has remained like an albatross with its generated heat; barely a month to the general election in Nigeria, precisely on March 28, and April 11.

Last week, Nigeria’s lawmakers took different positions along party lines over a motion on the deployment of military personnel for elections.

House Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) had raised a motion on “Unconstitutional Deployment of Military Personnel for Election Purposes”, but it was suspended after Hon. Sunday Karimi raised a point of order that the matter was in court and therefore should not be debated.

It was thereafter referred to the Committees on Rules/Business, Justice and Judiciary by the Speaker to advise the House accordingly. Chairman of the joint committees, Hon Albert Sam-Tsokwa, had told the House explained that the Armed Forces Act in Section 8 (1) and the Section 218 of the Constitution vests on the President the power to determine the “operational use of the armed forces, which term by Section 8 (3) of the Act includes the operational use of the armed forces in Nigeria for the purpose of maintaining and securing public safety and order.”

He noted that the President’s power to “determine the operational use of the armed forces in Nigeria for the purpose of maintaining and securing public safety and order” was a constitutional mandate spelt out by the Constitution and the Armed Forces Act.

Sam-Tsokwa concluded his report by saying that the motion was caught in the cobweb of both the Constitution and the House Standing Orders and consequently should end its legislative adventure at this point.

He also added that since the matter was in court, the House cannot continue with the motion. The APC lawmakers in the House immediately went into frenzy session with a shout of No! No!! No!!! Deputy Speaker of the House, Emeka Ihedioha was not even allowed to rule on the matter based on the report. Gbajabiamila strongly objected to the report, insisting that “the motion must not die.”

He said there was no evidence that the case was in court from what was presented to them, adding that in law, he who alleges must prove.

The Minority Leader said it would amount to setting a bad precedence just to ‘kill the motion’ by mere saying the matter was in court.

At this point, Ihedioha reportedly pleaded with his colleagues not to politicise the issue.

 “I don’t want us to politicise the matter. When the issue came up, the Speaker, in his wisdom, referred it to the three committees. Based on the report, I therefore rule.”

Speaking to House Press Corps, Gbajabiamila said the caucus would do everything within their powers to ensure that the motion was not killed. He also expressed dissatisfaction on how Ihedioha handled the matter, accusing him of being partisan.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress in its effort to force the federal government comply with court judgment on the use of army in the elections, wrote a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan and the INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega asking them to give heed to the judgment barring the involvement of soldiers in elections.

The letter, dated February 16, 2015 emanated from the Director, Legal Services of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN)

Though it was addressed to Jega, copies of the letter were also made available to President Jonathan, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff and the National Chairmen of the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party.

APC in the letter called the attention of the federal government to a judgment delivered on January 29, 2015 by Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court, Sokoto and another by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, on February 16, 2015 which overruled the use of military in elections.

 “I am sure all well-meaning Nigerians share your deep seated concern on the militarization of our elections. It is therefore imperative your good office and commission ensure, henceforth, and until there is an enabling Act of the National Assembly, the court orders are obeyed and armed forces personnel are never again deployed in any form of security supervision of our elections,” the letter read in parts.

It would be recalled that Justice Aikawa of the Federal High Court in his judgment on the suit marked: FHC/S/CS/29/2014 among others, restrained the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and INEC, “from engaging the service of the Nigerian armed forces in the security supervision of elections in any manner whatsoever in any part of Nigeria, without the Act of the National Assembly.”

Justice Abdul Aboki, in his lead judgment in the Ekiti State Governorship Election appeal on February 16, held that “even the President of Nigeria has no powers to call on the Nigerian armed forces and to unleash them on peaceful citizens, who are exercising their franchise to elect their leaders.

Michael Nnebe, a social commentator writing on the use of army in conducting polls said over the years America has never used their military domestically except in defence of the country or in national emergencies. He blamed Nigerian’s constitution for not being specific on the issue.

 “Nigeria is different; our Constitution is far more comprehensive, and spells out the powers of Nigeria’s president as Commander-in-Chief, but also the power of our National Assembly to make laws for the regulation of the powers exercisable by the President as Commander-in- Chief. Section 218 (4) (a) of Nigeria Constitution”, he stated

 “It is no longer uncommon to see military checkpoints along our roads in Nigeria with the army collecting the usual twenty or fifty naira from the commercial mini buses that use those roads. There are these days not much difference between the Nigerian police and the Nigerian army, at least when it comes to their ability to collect bribes along our highways”

“Today in Nigeria, we are now using the army for everything from highway checkpoints, for escorts for big men, and more increasingly for our elections. Recently, a Federal Court of Appeal rendered a judgment restraining the President from unfettered use of the military during this forthcoming election”. He said.

 “Outside of the war zones of the Northeast, we should discourage the use of the military in Nigeria election at all times. Under our Constitution, the police still retain the power to arrest and detain provided that there is probable cause, and we should just keep it that way even for our elections”

“Our electoral laws forbid armed police from within certain metres of the polling booth for a good reason. For now, it is expedient for the ruling party to use the military in all elections, and as long as the people are not complaining, it is likely to continue for many election cycles to come. My only worry about all these use of the military is that we are setting a very dangerous precedence. And over time, precedence is bound to become the law”.

According to the social commentator, because of too much money in Nigerian politics especially during elections, continuous use of the army to monitor polls would expose the military to these vast amounts of money.

“We succeed in devaluing their disciplinary standards. No wonder they no longer perform like regular battle hardened army when confronted by Boko Haram. It is a shame that of late, it took the help of Niger, Chad, and Cameroonian for Nigerian military to finally begin to make significant headway in the Sambisa forest”.

Nnebe  said the use of army is injurious to Nigeria’s Democracy and added that continuous use of the military for elections, would soon become a norm and soon they would begin to be expected in every election as part of the electoral arrangement. “It is expedient for the Presidency to continue this practice; I therefore do not expect it to voluntarily stop. It is however upon civil societies, and especially those in the National Assembly to use the powers conferred on them by our Constitution on Section 218 (4) (a) to regulate the powers exercisable by the President and Commander-in-Chief with regards to the deployment of the military for Nigeria’s elections”, he explained.

Abba Mohammed Bashir Shuwa, a scholar and commentator on political issues based in Leeds, United Kingdom writing also on the use of military to conduct polls also quipped.

“Nigeria has a peculiar way of doing things and when the army authorities recently announced that they are suspending all operational activities to prepare for election duties ones thoughts went into the last general election and how the army was used to rig the election in several states of the federation”, he writes.

“So is this another call on the army to ensure their C in C's men retains power at all cost which literally translates into a coup against the people of Nigeria? The Nigerian army should not have any role to play in election duties which is purely a civilian affair. People should not be intimidated and there must not be use of force by any means during the conduct of elections”.

He accused the government of trying to rig the election and that is why it is putting all in its arsenals to ensure that its preferred candidates are returned as winners by hook or crook; hence the proposed use of the armed forces and mobile police force to intimidate voters.

“The use of force by government to get voters away from election centers is therefore viewed as a major threat to our democracy and so the nation must rise against such practice so people can freely choose those they want to entrust with authority to govern. Nigerians are peace loving people and would not want gun totting security personnel patrolling their streets in the name of ensuring law and order at election times when in the real situation the same cannot be said to have been ensured for the safeguard of people’s lives and properties in normal times”, he added.

 “The whole world is watching as events unfold in Nigeria and current security situation leading to the next general elections does not show that people will be given the free will to get together and aspire for leadership”.

Military deployment during elections in Nigeria since 1979 has been the norms even up to the last election in 2011.

Ahead of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Osun States, military men were used to conduct those elections and it proved successful in terms of maintaining peace and order during and after election.

Security experts are concerned on why somebody should opposed the use of the army in an election considering the violence nature of elections in Nigeria.  According to them, it’s an attempt to be proactive in pursuit of free election violence canvassed by many. They argued that Nigeria has in the past deployed soldiers in other countries during those countries’ elections under Ecomog pretences.

 But the All Progressives Congress (APC) had kicked against the move by the federal government to use the military in the polls.

Their reasons for the rejection of the soldiers participating in the electoral process, was that their presence would intimidate the electorate and create apathy in the election.

But the federal government said the use of the military was to make the election violence-free and peaceful. It would be recalled that a number of violent clashes among political parties’ supporters were recorded in the build up to the polls in the state.

During elections, there were usually check points manned by military personnel in all entry points to the state and towns bordering the neighbouring countries with Nigeria. It’s also done within the neighbouring states like Kwara, Kogi, Osun and Ondo states.

During these periods, motorists and the passengers were also subjected to stop and search operations embarked upon by the soldiers deployed to the state few weeks before the election and in most cases their presence has trumped up ugly security plots that without their presence could have aided some irregularities and rigging by parties.

Aside the men of Nigerian army, there were heavy presence of all the security operatives including the conventional police, anti-riot policemen, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and Directorate of Security Service. A Group acknowledged the fact that presence of the army has helped in the elections conducted in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti States last year. 

And the elections were widely adjudged to be free, fair, credible and peaceful.

APC currently are fighting the election in Ekiti with the alleged recorded tape were they accused PDP of using the military to rig the election. But the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO) raised the alarm over what it termed the move by the APC to discredit the use of soldiers during elections in the country.

According to the party, even though the Attorney General of the Federation was the preferred person to comment on the deployments of soldiers during elections, the party said that President Goodluck Jonathan would not work against the judgments that ruled against the use of military during elections.

The appellate court had reiterated that the use of Armed Forces in the conduct of elections was in violation of section 217(2) (c) of the Constitution and section 1 of the Armed Forces Act. It cited and relied on a judgment delivered by Justice R. M Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Sokoto on January 29, 2015, barring the use of the armed forces in the conduct of elections. The appellate court therefore barred the use of the Armed Forces in the conduct of future elections in the country as such constituted a violation of both the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

But reacting to the judgment regarding the use of the army during elections at a press conference, the Director of the PDPPCO, Femi Fani Kayode, said:

"The attempt by the APC to discredit the use of soldiers by promoting some misleading audio tapes of the so-called rigging during the Ekiti governorship election, in which one Captain Sagir Koli was the dramatis personae, is childish and absurd.

"The federal government deployed soldiers in the Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections and all those elections were devoid of violence. Remarkably, the APC won in Edo and Osun; APGA won in Anambra, Labour Party won in Ondo while the PDP won only in Ekiti State.

"The basis on which the APC is agitating for the exclusion of soldiers from the election by sponsoring court cases is patently dubious and untenable. The reason that the APC and its leaders do not want soldiers deployed is to be able to intimidate voters and unleash violence on the polity once they lose the elections. They know that it would be far more difficult for them to do that when soldiers are on the streets.

According to Fani-Kayode, "the President is a law abiding citizen, I know that this government will not walk against the Court judgment. We have a law abiding government but moreover, I will allow the Attorney General of the Federation to speak on this matter."