INTRODUCTION

Military rule began n Nigeria with the military coup of 15th January 1966

which overthrew the democratically elected government of Alhaji Tafa

Belewa. The military has ruled Nigeria for 25 years in which since the

independence with an enormous impact on the country’s culture and

institution the argument of this military rule ultimately impact negatively on

society by generalizing it authoritarian values which re on essence antisocial

and destructive of politics. Politics in the sense is understood as the art of

negotiating conflicts relational to exercise power.

It is important to emphasize that the role of the military institution is to

organize, control and apply force on the pursuit of policies determined by the

state. The traditional function of the military is to protect territorial integrity

of its country against external or internal aggressor. In other wards the

military are suppose to be absolute under the control of the civilian rule and

under its instructions. As traditional guards they are suppose to be seen and

not to be heard of coming into power because, their involvement is an

aberration. We should first of all look at the factor that encourages military

intervention in politics.

FACTORS THAT ENCOURAGE MILITARY INTERVENTION IN

NIGERIAN POLITICS

Generally the causes of military rule in Nigerian intervention in politics are of

two theories. the first theory talks about the internal characteristics of the

military itself, this means looking at the internal structure of the military

that is, the coalition of service, the social background of the official , the

training, carrier line , the decision within the institution and the professional

and the political ideologies of the military . this theory was propounded by

Morris janowitz (1964) he emphasizes that military intervention can only be

explained by the military explanation. if you want to understand why the

military intervenes in politics , you should look at the military itself.

In the second theory, Samuel Huntington (1968) contends that the most

reasonable explanation for military intervention in politics is political. In other

words the military operates in o political environment and influenced by the

environment. Although this theories seems to be true , but Oyederian,

(1984). Explains that the best way to approach this problem is to take the

two theories as one and look for the factors outside and within the military

for example, the constitutional crises, regional and ethnic crises, creation of

new state, action group crises and treason trial, census controversy and the

structural problem of the military.

CAUSES OF MILITARY INTERVENTION ON NIGERIAN POLITICS

Nigerian was under civilian rule between independence in 1960 and January

1966 during this period, government faced a large number of problems.

These problems include

Inability of politician to conduct elections which were free of rigging,

intimidation, violence, and fair to all participants; in ability to conduct a

population census acceptable to all Nigerians, massive corruption by the

politicians and other public servant, resulting in the decline of the national

economy.

Political bitterness and hatred among politicians. Bitter rivalry among

regional governments to the detriment of the nations, weak political

leadership, increase in unemployment and prices of goods and services.

As a result of these problems Nigerian became dissatisfied with the civilian

government. The people were alienated; the civilian government lost it

legitimacy and support of the masses. The government collapsed on the 15th

January 1966 when the Nigerian armed forces seized power and imposed the

military government on the country. That was the beginning of military rule

in Nigerian.

WAYS OF PREVENTING THE MILITARY IN POLITICS

There have being many suggestion and several argument has occurred on

ways of keeping the military bout of politics including their coups.

PAY FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MILITARY PERSONNEL: The

way to comprehend these military unlawful cops has generated a number of

suggestions towards the military within the barracks one of the important

suggestion made was the increase in allowance of the military and improve

conditions of service for rank and file of the military particular those at the

upper grader. But this increase in allocation and good condition of favoring

the military may encourage their political ambition as reflected in the coup

aganst Obote’s administration in Uganda.

BALANCE FIRE OF THE POLICE WITH THE MILITARY: in this suggestion

implies that if the police force can be equal or almost the same fire power

capacity as the counteracting force, this is to say that the police and the

military do not perform the same constitutional role and practices. We are

quick to notices that the existence of the well equipped national security in

Nigerian which their main responsibility is to the president to foil coups, but

could not prevent military coup when coupist decide to overthrow

government.

This should be noted that the major causes of military coups in Nigeria is the

unveil of the security personnel which has resulted to source of insecurity to

the government in power. In the prediction opinion of A.J Ohwofase 2007; if

the Nigerian police are eventually granted the same capability with the

Nigerian military their will shall be having not only military intervention but

also police intervention in our body of politics. Thus militarizing the police will

lead to police intervention in politics thereby returning the country to square

one because, the police shall assume to come and stay in the feature of

Nigeria politics and might not carter for the stability and development of the

country

DE- MILITARIZATION OF THE COUNTRY: this is a brilliant idea but has it

side effect on the country, that is the Nigerian military should be disbanded

as in particularly Nigeria is free from belligerent neighbors for example that

Switzerland without no standard arm yet it is stable.

Now this idea to all intend is worst than useless, firstly demilitarization of

the military in the twenty first century was an ugly incident, if this is done

the neighboring countries with strong standing military would take their turn

to dis-member the Nigeria nation. Nigeria need to embark on nuclear

capability among others to contend with such imminent external aggressions

rather than prescribing it armed force (A.J Ohwofase 2007) p 91

Militarization of civilians; it is the argument in some quarters that civilians

would be militarized to some extent, say by giving compulsory training to

youth and such program such as the national youth service corps(N.Y.S.C) as

presently in some advance country such as U.S.A, CUBA etc. so as to reduce

the power of usurper

But this will take us no were because militarizing the youth cannot stop

coups, thus the military coup is more strategic form of violence than a sheer

act of self defense which compulsory training is tantamount to give. in

questionable scene ; would Nigerians have the temperament and emotional

stability that go along with caring arms? In many cases caring of arm will

exacerbate society violence and increase in arm robbery.

Location of the barracks outside of towns; if the military barracks are located

in the outskirts of town’s military coups will be less frequent. Some people

argued that location of the military outside town does not amount to locate

societal problem such as ethnicity, economic mismanagement, corruption

etc. cannot be in the outskirts of the country .Coupled with some

interrelationship with some top politicians like classmate/school mate,

childhood friend and relatives. This relationship makes the military officials

to be susceptible to partisan with political ideas. This is to say that the

military are not interested in staying in the barracks especially when idol, but

still yet this trend has not stopped the military from coming into power.

Political socialization; this is another important idea of keeping the military

out of politics. This idea entails that if the military are giving some measures

of political education to eradicate military coup in the country. This is on the

believe that many coup plotter ware not aware of the negative impact, due

to low or no sound political education of the official will help eradicate coup.

This point is argued that ironically educated military conceive themselves as

alternative to political authority as a result they are disposed to topple

political administrators so as to put in effect their supposedly supervise

alternative proposals

Foreign training of military personnel; the Nigeria environment is too

politicized and the country will be more stable by sending its military

personnel for combination studies. But the argument by (A.J Ohwofase 2007)

p 95 is on the elemental premise that inaugural coup in Nigeria was

fomented by 5 majors trained as it were in Britain

Working towards good governance; there is a popular saying that “the best

military government is worse than the worst civilian rule or that the worst

civilian rule government is better than the best military government.

Meanwhile some scholars have became aware that the military rule is a

corrective regime that stimulate changes for national unity and for

development, while the opposing sees the military as greedy and selfish,

grabbing political power purposely to amass wealth through intimidation and

oppression rule (A.J Ohwofase 2007) p 97 to this group the military is not

suppose to be in politics and cannot facilitate good governance nor

development.

There are therefore two school of thoughts that emerge on the impact of

military rule on development; The latter view the military rule as a messiah

that comes into government when the center cannot hold, when the falcon

cannot hear the falconer then military will intervene as powerful agent for

unity and national development that is progressive but not totally corrupted

free

It has been argued that the remedy for political instability is the existence of

good governance and not party system. But, how do we know a good and

responsible government? Does the concept of god governance suggest that

all military administration are running good governance and the sacked ones

are not good enough; those it means that Mobotu Jekou of Zaire was running

a good governance while captain Thomas Faso was a bad one? Definitely

Murtala Mohamed administration would not had experience a devastating

military coup. Therefore the concept of good governance is confusing as

there is no indicator for measuring the goodness of a good government. So

the government should make a concerted effort by eradicating mass

poverty, socio-economic embark and providing for the welfare need of

citizenry like

Providing mass literacy education to all illiterate Nigerians in order to

remove ignorance and apathy of majority that inhibit the socio

economic and political development of the country.

Mobilizing the populace towards achieving an egalitarian and self-

reliant nation

Enlightening the people politically to enable them know their right,

duties and obligations as citizen of this great country

Providing lasting practical solutions to the remove social, economical

and political problems constraining the nation, could be regarded as

good governance ( A.J Ohwofase 2007)p 98

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MILITARY

The intervention of the military in Nigerian politics has saved the country

from total disintegration on several occasions. A case in point in point was

the failure of the civilian government to resolve the western region crises in

1965. The military coup of 15th January 1966 might have save Nigeria from

the apparent incompetence of the political class

The military promotes political stability especially in developing countries

where centrifugal forces tend to tear the society apart.

State creation is another achievement of the military. There is a general

belief that the military finds it easier to create states than the civilians.

Nigeria has indeed moved from federation of four regions to one of 36 states.

All the states were created by the military regimes

Military created institution and programs that would promote national unity

and patriotism among Nigerians. The national youth service corps (NYSC)

program for example remains one of the best legacies of the military

The abolition of nation authority system and the removal of the local police,

court and prisons from the hand of traditional rulers have set the Nigerian

masses free from internal oppression. The massive development of social

infrastructure by the military cannot be overemphasized. Most of the major

Roads and housing estates in the country today were constructed under the

military and also most of the public universities, teaching hospital, and

airport were established.

Disadvantages to the military in politics

In spite of this achievement of the military, it is not withstanding that the

highest inflation witness ever in the country was during the military regime.

Moreover, defense expenditure kept on rising when there was no war to

fight.

The military are always over ambitious for power; one solider group will be

overthrown by another group. They were two bloody attempts to overthrow

Babangida Military government.

Another discouraging aspect of the military was the unwieldiness of many

military government to hand over power to civilians, for example the Gowon

government, the Babangida and that of Abacha military regime never had

the intention of handing over power to civilians , and in this modern the

military governance is against democracy .

CONCLUSION

My opinion is that during military era many development goals was

archived, if the civilian government are ready to work towards a better

economic growth and good political stability the military will not seize

power, because in most cases the military come into polities because of the

misconduct of the civilian government in politics towards there selfish

interest,. , in the opinion of Tunde Adeniran (1985), the military come in to

fill the political vacuum.

The military has not only destroyed Nigerians federal system, its has played

a major role in eroding the countries democratic assets. Be it that, there

must be a movement that will be able confront and destroy the ambitious of

the military and their friends’ are drawn

Causes of military intervention on Nigerian politics

Nigerian was under civilian rule between independence in 1960 and January

1966 during this period, government faced a large number of problems.

These problems include

Inability of politician to conduct elections which were free of rigging,

intimidation, violence, and fair to all participants; in ability to conduct a

population census acceptable to all Nigerians, massive corruption by the

politicians and other public servant, resulting in the decline of the national

economy.

Political bitterness and hatred among politicians, bitter rivalry among

regional governments to the detriment of the nations, weak political

leadership, increase in unemployment and prices of goods and services.

As a result of these problems Nigerian became dissatisfied with the civilian

government. The people were alienated; the civilian government lost it

legitimacy and support of the masses. The government collapsed on the 15th

January 1966 when the Nigerian armed forces seized power and imposed the

military government on the country. That was the beginning of military rule

in Nigerian.

Argument AGAINST THE MILITARY GOVERNANCE

Inpite of the point above which are regarded as credit to the military.

in Nigerian political science there are obvious and very genuine

argument against the military coming into polities , some of these

argument are discussed below

Improvising of the citizenry; Gowon’s regimes failed to fill the

bridge gap between the rich and the poor, as there was no

provision of the redistribution of wealth the mass poverty

continued along with the successive military regimes as there

was no provision of basic amenities such as housing, education

and health facilities.

Display of dictatorship and despotism; Buhari regime was by

many as inhibiting or restraining personal freedom, oppressing of

the press freedom and this is violation our fundamental human

right.

Fraudulent practices and embezzlement of public fund: the

military mercilessly looted the Nigerian treasure such that until

this moment effort are still being made to recover public fund

looted and stashed away in foreign land. The degree and

measure of looting along with squandered –mane was so

intolerable that the news made screaming headlines of the

report, but as far as the military is still in power the report could

not verified.

References

Jibrin Ibrahim (1997) Expanding democratic space in Nigeria first published

in 1997 by CODESRIA ABC, no 27 park end street, oxford oxi, itu

Akin Bade J.A (2008) government Explained maclak books ventures, yaba

Lagos first published

The military are trained to kill and handle arms and are suppose to remain in

the barrack and not to intervein in politics, until their role are needed.