CONUNDRUM OF SOLDIER'S MISBEHAVIOUR AND THE ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY.

I was flabbergasted and equally filled with apprehension yesterday, to the extent that I developed transcendental soliloquy concerning the nature and essence of our democratic dispensation.

Just as I seek elucidation within the paraphernalia representative of democracy, I was equally negatively jostled with what was presented via verification.

The question that overcrowded my mind was whether we are in a constitutional democracy within the purview of theory and practice or we are a quasi democracy teleguided by military overlord.

Recent event in Lagos involving Governor, Jide Sanwo-olu which culminated in the arrest of a soldier brought to the fore my concern about the training of our military personnel coupled with process of recruitment into the security apparatuses in Nigeria.

Democracy survival is predicated on the rule of law, obedience to regulations and statutory provisions, which in turn granted the enjoyment of constitutionally recognised rights and privileges by citizens.
It important to note that respect for constituted authority is a well established prerequisite for the furtherance of peace, harmony and orderliness in any democratic society.

Therefore, ours cannot be otherwise....

However, event alluded to in the previous paragraph has shown that there is a section of the agencies established by the constitution to safeguard security, orderliness in Nigeria, that has been producing miscreants, law breakers, with penchant for misplaced entitlement culture by orchestrated disobedience to constituted authority, failure to follow rules, regulations, and violation of the rights of civilians under the guise of being a soldier (s).

Soldiers by virtue of their training, indoctrination, are expected to be examplary law abiding members of the society. However, what we witnessed daily in Nigeria amongst this class of people are brigandages and unspeakable misbehaviours toward and against the nation and the citizens.

Don't get me wrong please....

I am not saying there are no disciplined, law abiding soldiers within the military, but so many of the members of the military establishment with civilian contacts at many occasions have shown themselves to be irresponsible, idiotic and braggadocio in their mannerism within public domain. Mostly the skewed entitlement mentality they paraded led them to commit egregious crime against the population.

They mostly go around harassing, terrorising the populace for mere simple altercation involving a soldier and a civilian, in fact don't be surprised if/ when you see a battalion of idiotic zombies matching on an entire community destroying everything just because of simple misunderstanding.

Is this a civilised practice in a democracy?
Is this the way soldiers must behave within the ambit of the rule of law?

Are we not dealing with barbarism.

Let us go back to the crux of the matter before the digression. A soldier was arrested for contravention of the traffic law of Lagos state recently and to free himself from arrest he decided to hide under his profession by claiming that he is a soldier. I wonder if being a soldier is enough prerequisite in justification for breaking traffic regulation of Lagos state. Is an individual offender profession enough to free him, her from facing the consequences of impunity.
Here, we see a reflection of what I have earlier described in the previous paragraph.

Thank you Governor, Jide Sanwo-olu. This is leadership exemplified. We need to curb the impunity of soldiers in Nigeria. I don't understand why this idiot thinks because he is a soldier he can disobey the law.

This is a miscreant calling himself soldier. There is no iota of soldiering in this felon. No "gait" and sophistication whatsoever.

There is nothing in the constitution or penal code that gives soldier the right to disobey the law of the state or Nigeria. The governor did what is right by arresting the idiot who subsequently would be reported to his superior.

It was reported later that some irate colleagues of the arrested soldier were ranting about the inappropriateness of such arrest. I must say here emphatically that such ranting must be coming from delusional mind, sick soldiers needing psychiatric evaluation.

These ranting soldiers must have been given the wrong training in terms of relationship within civil-military structure, environment, and constituted authority.

Isn't it so that in a peaceful milieu, rule of law must be the superstructure that guides everyone. I am baffled by their comparison with North Eastern Nigeria.

North Eastern Nigeria is a millieu ravaged by banditry, precisely speaking it is an area of immense conflagration. Simply put, it's not a normal situation. Therefore, the rules of engagement there might be different for security reasons. 

However, Lagos isn't a lawless place neither a war zone. If you want to live in Lagos state as a soldier or citizens alike, it is incumbent on you to follow the rules, regulations, guidelines, laws established for peace and orderliness.

The utterances of these ill-informed soldiers, suffering from some kinds of cognitive insufficiency show a deep  lacuna in the training of soldiers in Nigeria. The doctrinal ineptitude in respect of obedience to constituted authority,  laws, rules and regulations is obvious from the ranting of these pyschological impaired soldiers. I hope their superiors are taking note of these rascals giving the military as an institution a bad name.

Soldiers with misplaced entitlement mentality are dangerous to democracy and constituted authority. They are prone to committing grievous crime against civilians, susceptible to committing coup de etat, and all manners of war crimes just in the believe that they are above the law of the land.

Military authority, political leaders and national assembly must interrogate the recurring issue of soldiers misbehaviour predicated on delusion of entitlement.

We have tolerated this barbarism for too long, soldiers and civilians encounter in Nigeria is replete with massive civilian casualties for no just reason.  Worrisome also is their refusal to obey constituted authority despite the warnings and statements issued by their superiors that obedience to constituted authority must be paramount.

I still can't wrap my head around the lawlessness of these soldiers. It's only in Nigeria you see soldiers loitering around the place harassing the public just because they are in uniform or questioning the authority of the chief law officer of a state just because they are soldiers in some kind of hallucination about their absurd entitlement mentality.

Governor Jide Sanwo-olu has shown leadership and I hope others would follow up to check all kinds of impunity perpetrated by soldiers or security forces in Nigeria.

Please, the Chief of Army Staff NEEDS TO ANSWER SO MANY QUESTIONS CONCERNING DISCIPLINE IN THE ARMY.