POST-COLONIAL MILITARY MISCONDUCT DURING INTERNAL SECURITY OPERATIONS IN NIGERIA: AN ETHICAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The military in Nigeria is the custodian of national security as well as the symbol of national unity. The involvement of the military in the nation's internal security operations over the years has been at optimum controversial. Nigeria since 1960 as a nation has been involved in and entertained so many internal security crises. In handlings some of these security crisis, the military were involved. In their engagement in internal security operations, there have been cases of misconduct by these military personnel who were called up to defend and protect lives in such situations and such misconducts have been on record. The recorded misconducts are as characterized by; extra-judicial killings, torture of innocent citizens, military engaging non-combatant citizens, the use of excessive force in their operations and extreme use of the consequentialist principle in decision making during engagement. This work attempts to appraise this misconduct found in military engagement in internal security operations in Nigeria. To achieve this aim, some issues which we found lacking and may be the cause of the above discussed unethical actions of the Nigerian Military are examined. Some of these necessary lacking conditions in military engagement in internal crisis that cause them the temptation of acting unethical are as follows; lack of proper preparations for internal security operation, importance of ethical studies in military training and striking a balance between law and ethics. This work recommends uncompromising adherence to professional rules of engagement and best practices as a solution to the anomaly. Hence, the researcher suggests that, if the military will consider the above observations, there will necessarily be a change in the way they carry out their duty in internal security operations in Nigeria and some of the unethical actions may also be avoided.