By  Emmanuel Onwubiko

Just before this year’s Valentine’s Day celebrations, the first set of service Chiefs appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari few months after he was sworn in on May 29th 2015, voluntarily disengaged. Since their disengagement, a lot of waters have passed through the bridge. Also the nation’s security climate has further taken a nose-dive thus demonstrating without any doubt that purging the service chiefs out of their commanding positions was never going to be the solution to the widening spectre of violent attacks targeting civilians by terrorists. Aside the fact that terrorists attacks have heightened including the dastardly criminal terror acts of kidnapping school children, there is also a steady rise and a spike in the attacks by all forms of armed non- state actors targeting military officers.

There have been reported cases of violent killings of soldiers that have occurred across the geopolitical zones since the voluntary departure of the erstwhile military chiefs including the then Army Chiefs lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai who is known to have strongly acted to forestall such reckless and lawless killings of his operatives. Apart from adopting strict military actions in the event of the killings of soldiers, the former Army Chief of staff lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai made a formidable reputation amongst civilians for investing substantially in carrying out initiatives and projects in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility that impacted positively on the overall lives of Civilians and soldiers alike and these projects cemented the relationship between the civilian population and the Nigeria military.

There is therefore the need to call on the current Army Chief as well as all the other service chiefs to embrace the investment of resources towards achieving greater corporate social responsibility so as to encourage increased relationship between the military and the civilians to check the increasing attacks targeting the Army. Only yesterday March 4th 2021, many Soldiers were feared killed as bandits Stormed Military Base in Katsina. An unspecified number of soldiers are feared killed in an attack on a military outpost in Marina, Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State….  An unspecified number of soldiers are feared killed in an attack on a military outpost in Marina, Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State. The attack was carried out around 1pm on Thursday, according to eyewitnesses. It is not clear the casualties suffered on either side, but some soldiers were feared killed. The soldiers were said to be returning from an operation in a nearby forests when they were ambushed.

A resident of the area, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said: “Unknown to the soldiers, the bandits had laid ambush in their outpost. The bandits opened fire immediately the soldiers returned to the posts. “It is unfortunate because the soldiers were just returning from another operation, where they made tremendous success, combing the forests for the bandits, only to be waylaid in their base,” he said.

Another resident, however, said two of the bandits were killed during the gun duel. Attempts to confirm the incident from the Military or the Police authorities proved abortive. This and many other hate motivated attacks against the military is the reason to ask the service Chiefs to revisit General Buratai type of CSR projects. The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implies positive, as opposed to negative, influence and contribution of an organization to society and its environment. It is the way in which a corporate body, group or body impacts its milieu by providing basic amenities or contributing to its host community or society outside its strict legal bounds or contract with such a community, individuals or society. According to Nigeria Social Enterprise Reports Vol.2, CSR is generally understood to be the way a company achieves a balance or integration of economic, environmental and social imperatives while at the same time addressing shareholders and stakeholders expectations. This stems from the fact that organizations like businesses owe the society beyond the production of goods and services and making of profit.

While it is not news that in May 2008 Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council approved the development of a CSR policy for the country, to instill ethical behavior in Nigerian Business, words used by the then Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Sanusi Daggash, makes it clear that the policy includes “beyond law commitment” and activities that would necessitate an expectation to ‘give back’ to the society by groups existing in society not merely limited to “companies”. 

The theory is rooted in the humanity of man and the need for every body or organization to act in accordance with that humanity or respond to same irrespective of their core traditional role for which they were primarily set up to achieve.  Thus the concept of corporate social responsibility extends to all organizations of human endeavour including such as the army. It is in this regard that the definition of the concept of CSR by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) is quite appreciable because of its broad base. EFQM, in its Framework for Social Responsibility, 2004, defines CSR as: “a whole range of fundamentals that organizations are expected to acknowledge and to reflect in their actions. It includes among other things respecting human rights, fair treatment of the workforce, customers and suppliers, being good corporate citizens in the communities in which they operate and the conservation of natural environment.”

Related News

On the other hand, the Nigerian Army is established under section 217(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which provides that there shall be an armed forces for the Federation which shall consist of an Army, a Navy, an Air Force and such other branches of the armed forces of the Federation as may be established by an Act of the National Assembly. The functions of the armed forces are expressly provided in under section 217(2) thus: “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 and air;  (c) Suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to so by the President, but subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly; and  (d) Performing such other functions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.”

Pivotal Role of the Army: The place of the army in society cannot be over-emphasized. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) under the Fundamental Objectives and Directive principle of State Police makes a correlation between security and welfare of the people by stating under section 14(1)(b) that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. It must equally be noted that it is not out of place that the subject of security and welfare is immediately preceded by the sovereignty of the people under section 14(1)(a). The point being made is that the sovereignty of the nation is only guaranteed and protected by where the security and welfare of the people is prioritized.  A most functional institution of the state involved in protecting the sovereignty, security and welfare of the people is the military and especially the army.

This role of the army in society is much more understandable in the light of section 218 (1) of the Constitution confers on the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces with “power to determine the operational use of the armed forces of the Federation.” The functions and use of the army are therefore not confined to the ones mentioned under section 217 of the constitution and could go beyond as far as the President considers it necessary. This role will better be understood in the light of its corporate social responsibility. 

CSR of the Nigerian Army: First the army is neutral, non-partisan and peaceful. Section 55 of the Armed Forces Act says:  ‘A person subject to service law who- (a) Fights, quarrels or behaves a disorderly manner with any other person, whether subject to service law under this Act or not; or

(b) Uses threatening, abusive, insulting or provocative works or behavior likely to cause disturbance,   Is guilty of an offence under this section and is liable, on conviction by a court martial, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or any less punishment provided by this Act.

The army authorities continue to ensure that the neutral, non-partisan and peaceful role of the army in society is observed, any breach of which immediately gets a reciprocal response by summons to Court Martial in appropriate circumstances.

Onwubiko is head of the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA)