CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A nation’s national security is predicated on her national interest as well as her strategic calculations within the region and in the global arena. For us to have an effective and result-oriented national security therefore, the socio-economic terrain and the entrepreneurial needs of the nation must be well enhanced, as these are catalysts that propel growth and development, which in turn assures the well- being of the citizenry. This cannot be achieved by one sector alone, a combination of all elements of national power and our strategic alliance would have to be harnessed. Thus the military remain a vital element in the overall national security strategy.[1]
Military involvement in the internal security operations is inevitable as the need for higher level of aggression continues to reveal itself. Although, this has been the case ever since Nigeria was formed and it also continued throughout the colonial period, the recent occurrence of terrorism witnessed in the country has further justified the need for military participation in internal security operations. This move however, is not without challenges of its own as the military is not particularly trained for internal security operations unlike the civil authorities and as a result, consistently engage in acts which are not civil enough (Azinge, 2013:2).[2] In view of the above assertion, this paper seeks to affirm the need for the military to maintain a frontal role in the internal security of the country so as to meet the challenges inherent in today’s Nigeria.
Internal security operations are a global phenomenon. In spite of the effort of the United Nations to maintain international peace and security, international crisis remains frightening and unpredictable. Experience from developed countries, Middle East and emerging democracies shows that stiff competition over issues of legitimacy, autonomy and sovereignty can threaten internal security of a nation. At the regional level, porous borders, insurgent’s movement, poverty and underdevelopment have been creating high degree of insecurity. For Nigeria, violent conflict, whether social, political, or environmental issues have contributed significantly to internal security crisis.
The Special Task Force, Operation Safe Haven, OPSH, maintaining peace in Plateau and part of Kaduna and Bauchi States, inaugurated a special operation code name ‘Operation Accord.’ Inaugurating the operation in Gwantu, Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna state, Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, Commander of the Task Force, said the special operation aimed at address the spate of insecurity within its area of operation. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Operation Accord is an ongoing Defence Headquarters operation designed to neutralise and stem down banditry and other forms of insecurity in the North West and North Central zones of the country (https://dailynigerian.com).
The operation accord was setup to control the level of internal security challenges faced by the people of Kaduna state; however according to Saharareporters, (2021) stated that there were some levels of human right abuse.[3] In contemporary times countries the world over adhere to the view that respect for human rights within their societies is compulsory. This is so for all systems of government; for even in authoritative regimes they claim to adhere to the human rights in arriving at and implementing government policies. Both at universal and regional levels, countries have all in one way or another manifested their support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR) etc. Countries in Africa are all parties to the African system of human rights which is built on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
Kaduna state among other northern states has experience series of internal security challenges ranging from herdsmen brutality to book haram insurgency; this led to farmer-herders crises since there is delayed response from the Nigeria security agencies like the police and military.[4] The deployment of the Nigerian military to the southern part of Kaduna state to restore peace and order in these areas was faced with some challenges due to lack of cooperation of the indigenes of Kaduna state. The lack of cooperation from the indigenes of Kaduna state might result to human right violation; however the Military Joint Task Force constituted by the Nigerian Government to curtail the upsurge in the rate of violent crime of banditry, kidnapping and insurgency in Kaduna State Nigeria is perceived to have recorded little success as attacks on innocent citizenry had persisted presence of the Security Forces in the State. The Inability of Nigeria police and Military led to the establishment of the composition of a Joint Task Force (JTF) comprising Nigerian Armed Forces and Para-military agencies in Kaduna State Nigeria. It is to this regard that the study was based on the role of military in internal security operations and human rights with focus on an assessment of the ongoing military operations in Kaduna
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study seeks to determine the role of military in internal security operations and human rights. The objectives of the study are:
- To determine the cause of internal security challenges in Kaduna
- To determine the relationship between the military and internal security operation in Kaduna state
- To identify the types of internal security challenges as observed by the Nigerian military in Kaduna state
- To evaluate the effectiveness of operation accord of the Nigerian military in the resolution of internal security challenges in Kaduna state
- To examine whether operation accord has any significant effect on human rights in Kaduna state
1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF STUDY
The study covers on the role of military in internal security operations and human rights; an assessment of the ongoing military operations in Kaduna with focus on the operation accord movement of the Nigeria military from 2021 to 2022
1.4.1 Limitation of the study
One the challenges experienced by the researcher is the issue of time; the research will simultaneously engage in departmental activities like seminars and attendance to lectures. But the researcher was able to meet up with the deadline for the submission of the project.
Every research work needs funding; however lack of adequate funds might affect the speed of the researcher in getting materials for completion of the project
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This study will throw more light on the activities of the Nigeria military in internal security operations in Kaduna state:
To the Nigeria government; the findings of the study will show the effectiveness of the operation accord and resolution of Kaduna internal security challenges.
To the people of Kaduna state, the study will identify the reasons for adherence to military instruction during the operation accord movement and the need for human rights protection.
To the students this study will serve as a source of information to and research materials for developing a similar research in the above case study. Finally this study will contribute to the body of the existing literature on the role of military in internal security operations and human rights; an assessment of the ongoing military operations in Kaduna
1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.6.1 Introduction
This section is designed to describe the procedures adopted in this research. The procedures involve the following: research design, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, instrumentation, validation of the instrument, administration of the instrument and data analysis techniques.
1.6.2 Research Design
This study will employ survey research design to determine the role of military in internal security operations and human rights; an assessment of the ongoing military operations in Kaduna. According to Nworgu (2006), survey research design ensures that a group of people or items are studied by collecting and analyzing data from only a few people or items considered as representative of the entire group. It uses a questionnaire to determine the opinion, preferences, attitudes and perceptions of people about issues that concern them. Survey design is suitable for this research because it utilizes the questionnaire to elicit information from respondents.
1.6.3 Data collection and sample size
The type of data used in this study is a mix of primary data through the use of Questionnaires and interviews. A Questionnaire will be instituted on the Nigeria military based, Kaduna state, whilst data will be obtained through content analysis of the operation accord movement of the Nigerian military in Kaduna state.
1.6.4 Data Analysis Techniques
Data collected will be analyzed using frequency table, percentage and mean score analysis using SPSS (statistical package for social sciences).
1.7 CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS
1.7.1 THE MILITARY
We adopt a broad definition of military. At the core of the field, of course, are histories of war – both particular wars and warfare (the conduct of military operations) more generally. But narratives of campaigns and battles, or even analyses of the patterns and principles of warfare illustrated by campaigns and battles, sometimes called the “art” or “science” of war, can be told in many ways. The historian can look at a war in terms of how it fits into the larger political aims of a country or leader, what strategies leaders adopted to fit their larger aims, how and how well those strategies were executed, or what the results of the war were – that is, histories of particular wars and warfare are part of the larger topic of histories of war in all its complex manifestations and effects. The focus at any of these levels might be on the decisions made by leaders, the institutions that put those decisions into operation, the experience of individuals far from the decision-making process but close to the action generated by the decisions, or the world of ideas, beliefs, and ideologies, including religious beliefs and practices, that shaped the plans, decisions, and actions of individuals and groups. Nor do such varied approaches to the narration and analysis of warfare exhaust the possibilities of military.[5] Some armies never fight wars, but as institutions they are important (or simply interesting) despite (or even because of) the fact that they didn’t fight. Military institutions, in other words, are as much the province of military as are military actions. This is particularly true since institutional history subsumes the history of military organization, unit structures, and allocations of equipment. Likewise, the varying roles of soldiers and warriors in different societies and the social impact of warfare – whether directly through the interaction of combatants with non-combatants or indirectly through taxation, conscription, and other effects associated with the intrusion into societies of states and organized violence – have become central to much military. The basic constraints placed on warfare and those who wage it by deep factors such as environment, climate, geography, and patterns of economic production as well as overall levels of economic productivity have also entered the mainstream of military, especially in terms of histories of military technology. Technology, science, and the impact of war on individuals intersect in the history of military medicine. And the very popularity of war tales in many cultures indicates just one of the ways in which warfare, military institutions, and military values (including warrior codes of behavior) interact with the cultural values and constructs of different societies, bringing cultural analyses of war and warriors into the debate. Furthermore, both social structures and cultural constructs, including gender roles, affect the ways armies are raised, how they fight, and how they interact with society more broadly. In other words, the relationship between war and military institutions on one hand and society and culture on the other is reciprocal. We therefore arrive at a broad definition of military that encompasses not just the history of war and wars, but that includes any historical study in which military personnel of all sorts, warfare (the way in which conflicts are actually fought on land, at sea, and in the air), military institutions, and their various intersections with politics, economics, society, nature, and culture form the focus or topic of the work. One obvious implication of such a broad definition is that many works of military could also be classified variously as political, economic, institutional, intellectual, social, or cultural history. Indeed the best history, military and otherwise, necessarily crosses many of these abstract academic boundaries in order to present as rich and rounded a view of the past as possible. In practice, military has benefited from methodological advances and insights derived from other subfields of history, as well as from separate but related academic fields such as anthropology, sociology, and literary criticism. Historiography is the study of the history of historical writing; one of its basic principles is that while histories can be divided by their central intellectual or topical approaches, the historical categories used are not clear and compartmentalized, but overlap across fuzzy boundaries. The categories themselves are invented – there is nothing “natural” or essential about them – and so over time their definitions and boundaries are frequently contested and adjusted. One reason history gets divided up into subfields is for convenience of historiographical analysis. Historical writing really does fall into recognizable groupings, even if the groupings can be rearranged if viewed from a different angle, just as any set of historical data can be divided up depending on the interests of the particular historian. But another reason is that many of the practitioners of historical writing since the mid-nineteenth century have become increasingly professionalized in specific ways that contribute to specialization and subdivision. Historians working within academic institutions – colleges, universities, and research institutes – are especially prone to specify their areas of specialization for a variety of reasons that include the utility of such divisions for historical research in an age of ever-increasing information, but are also influenced by academic politics, the interests of sources for funding research, and the workings of academic job markets. The subfield of military is further complicated by such dynamics because a significant amount of military writing, because of its attraction to popular audiences, has always come from outside of academic institutions. This brings us to the question of military’s practitioners and audiences.
1.7.2 ARMED FORCES
The armed forces of countries consist of the Army, Navy and the Air Force. In some countries like the US however, this may include the Marine Corp and the Coast Guard, (Dictionary of military and Associated Terms 2005). It is sometimes called the defence forces or military. Their roles depend on the constitution of each country as stated. However, the primary role of the armed forces is maintaining the territorial integrity of their country and the maintenance of peace and order which may involve the use of force or combat, (Timothy 2006:2-3).[6]
Wildham defines armed forces as a “class of men set apart from the general mass of the community, trained to particular uses, formed particular notions, governed by peculiar laws, marked by peculiar distinction…” (Akinyemi 2003:9). Engels also sees the armed forces as an “organized association of armed men maintained by a state for the purpose of offensive and defensive warfare,” (Constitution of
Nigeria 1999). While Wildham’s definition captures the features of the armed forces, Engels perceives armed forces from its traditional role in the society. Wildham’s definition of the armed forces will be adopted for this paper.
According to Akinyemi, in order to achieve the very essence of the establishment of any armed force of a particular country, some form of regimentation, military and civil training are very important for the force. The members of the armed forces are not only trained in combat training but also are required to be trained in the academic world. Professionalism is required in both military and academic pursuit. Hence the average soldier can oversee any area of responsibility given to him. Akinyemi further believes that “the military requires personnel that must be competent in the use of equipment to constitute an effective force. Hence training in the military needed also to be competency-driven if troops are to be properly prepared for operations.
The Nigerian Armed Forces comprises the Army, the Navy and the Air force whose roles and responsibilities are spelt out in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN). Section 217(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states that:
There shall be armed forces for the Federation which shall consist of an Army, a Navy, an Airforce and such other branches of the armed forces of the Federation as may be established by an Act of the National Assembly, (Constitution of Nigeria 1999).
The 1999 CFRN Section 217(2) further states that, the Federation shall, subject to an Act of the National Assembly made in that behalf equip and maintain the armed forces as may be considered adequate and effective for the purpose of:
a. Defending Nigeria from external aggression.
b. Maintaining its territorial integrity and securing its borders from violation on land, sea or air.
c. Suppressing insurrection and action in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so by the President, both subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.
d. Performing such other functions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly, (Constitution of
Nigeria 1999).
The Nigerian National Defence Policy 2005 supports the participation of the armed forces in sub-regional and UN PSOs. The Defence Policy further states that the Nigerian Armed Forces participation in international PSOs is an expression of her will and ability to be a provider of security resources and show of solidarity for collective international security. It is also to expose the armed forces working in cooperation with forces of other nations, (Turuka 2006:13-14). In the Nigerian context, the Armed Forces supports the nation’s foreign and defence policies as clearly stated in the 1999 CFRN.
[1] Section 217(2)(a) 1999 Constitution
[2] Section 217(2)(b) 1999 Constitution
[3] Okoli, Al Chukwuma, Orinya, Sunday “ Evaluating the Strategic Efficacy of Military Involvement in Internal Security Operations (ISOPs) in Nigeria” IOSR
[4] Section 33-37 1999 Constitution
[5] See Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
[6] Oxford Adanced Learner’s Dictionary online http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/aid_2 accessed on the 22nd August 2013
