The unpleasant public encounter between the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike and a naval officer, Lt. A. M. Yerima, on November 11, 2025, which degenerated into a shouting match and open display of disrespect for the Minister vested with the constitutional powers to administer the laws and policies of the FCT on behalf of the C-in-C, has once more brought to the fore the lingering question of whether or not Nigeria is really in a constitutional democracy in which the military is, for all intents and purposes, subordinated to the civilian authorities or we are still very much under the influence of lurking military men who, though now constitutionally obligated to yield the political space to the duly elected government of the day, are still flexing martial muscles seemingly unchallenged. For the avoidance of doubt, the elected civilian President is both the defacto and de jure Commander-in-Chief.
Undue Concern About Personalities Instead of About Legality
It is telling that rather than focus on the larger question of where the locus of political authority of the country lies within the extant constitutional system which we claim to be running, attention is being wasted on personalities instead of on the fundamental principles of government raised by the Abuja incident: has Nigeria become a diarchy in which the military can lawfully share political powers with elected civilians? Are our civilian elected political leaders themselves even aware that they are now constitutionally in charge? I ask, because the line between respect and propitiation could sometimes be blurred in our unprincipled politics.
Much attention has been paid to the rough “you’re a fool” and “I am not a fool” dialogue amongst the two individuals involved, namely Minister Wike and naval officer Lt. Yerima, with one being vilified as uncouth, power drunk, too frontal and disrespectful of the “uniform” while the other party is being celebrated as the hero in a melodrama in which the mob has injudiciously taken sides as if it was a Nollywood offering. A diabolical twist was added to the mix when some contents-creating online paparazzi circulated the inciting fake news of an assassination attempt on the life of officer Yerima purposely to add more fuel to the social media more flame online. The political undertone of the whole hullabaloo is self-evident; it symbolizes a dangerous trend seriously questioning how much trust do Nigerians have for democracy and its associated values.
There is no doubt that the FCT Minister, former governor Wike, must have over the years made tons of political enemies especially because of his peculiar brand of politics which tends to exhibit the blunt and abrasive side of electioneering which is seemingly effective for him. As a notable political actor within the Nigerian partisan political arena, it should be expected that as much as he is making enemies out of his peculiar style, he is at the same time also seen as a hero by those in his political corner and that possibility makes it important for his chroniclers to consciously separate the politics of the present situation from the larger picture of democratic governance in which the constitutional stipulations about power and responsibilities are paid more attention than that being expended on perverted personalized sentiments currently making the rounds.
What are the Key Facts of the Case?
A retired naval Vice-Admiral, ZubairuGambo, has allegedly unlawfully taken possession of a large piece of land for a purpose that is quite different from what it was earmarked for in the Abuja Master Plan. When the appropriate officers of the FCT subsequently went there to post a “stop work” notice, they were reportedly forcibly chased away by naval officers who were apparently (unlawfully) posted there just to foil any administrative intervention by FCT officials coming on official duty.
The question now is: was it lawful for a retired Admiral to go into the barracks and bring forth military men, including Lt. Yerima, for an unofficial operation intended to militarily prevent public officials from gaining access to the land and in furtherance of the land utilization laws of Abuja? Is it not a blatant abuse of the Constitution as well as military statutory enactments for a retired officer to put military men to be doing menial jobs in his private businesses instead of their serving him personally at his residence? This matter is beyond those theatrical optics; instead, it touches on the substratum of Nigeria’s constitutional order.
Unfortunately, because the ghost of military rule is still tormenting our national psyche, nearly everyone has been trying very hard to exonerate the military as being blameless in the whole transaction but the key question for us all is: Is it professionally prudent for a military that is in the middle of a war to be deploying so many of its troops to non-combat, unprofessional uses such as going to protect the mundane personal contractual interests of serving or retired officers or even powerful civilians? Is that not tantamount to unlawful deployment of military resources?
The Minister of Defense was quoted as saying the ministry will always protect officers on “lawful duties.” In the context of the Nigerian Constitution, our civil and military laws, is it proper for military men to be sent on duties that are clearly outside of the boundaries of professional ethics and general legality?
Talking about “obeying orders from above”, one does not need to be a Sandhurst graduate to understand that under both military and civil laws, as well as binding judicial pronouncements on the subject-matter, starting from the famous Nuremberg Principle, it is imperative for military men that they may disobey obviously “unlawful orders” and if they obey, could be personally punished, subject however, to the mitigating factor of being an order from a superior officer in the chain of command. So, there is no blanket immunity for an officer who joins, say, in a coup plot or participate in a robbery act simply because he was “obeying orders from above.”
The subordination of the military to civilian authorities is a cardinal constitutional principle in all democratic societies. It means any military action that undermines the lawful functions of civilian authorities is unconstitutional and, indeed, an egregious violation of the rule of law. No one is exonerating Wike. Not at all. But it must be said that contrary to the unfounded theories been actively pushed by the ubiquitous anti-Wike political mob and being unfortunately reechoed by some retired military brass like Gens Irabor and Brutai who seem to be suggesting that a hurt to a member of the armed forces by a civilian, irrespective of his standing within the chain of command is tantamount to a threat to “national security” but we all know that the real threat to national security is the unchecked military disobedience of constitutionally elected civil authorities.
Such extravagant interpretations of the relationship between the military and the civilian authority in a constitutional democracy are definitely tendentious and evince a faulty normative mindset of a particular profession acting as if its members are above the law. The unfortunate boastfully defiant “unshaken,” “unbent” and “unbroken” remark of the military high command soon after the clash seems to have come from a mindset that is oblivious of a universal constitutional reality. The real pride of the military in both peacetime and wartime is measured by how professionally it has ceded political control to civil authorities within the framework of democracy.
Conclusion
Democracy, like Gold, is cherished only by those who know its value and from the way some Nigerians have been reacting to that altercation and the enormous intellectual energy that have been spent trying to spin a simple matter concerning the relationship that should ordinarily exist between the military and civil authorities under the Constitution the matter has been reduced to a relentless salacious online skits about a minister of the republic being humiliated by a “brave and patriotic” Lt. Yerima. That cannot be the whole story and we are certainly better than that.
To have reduced what ought to have been a serious existential debate for our democracy to the banal level of jest and parody is to have missed the point completely. Our frustration about an administration should never be extended to the undermining of the philosophical underpinnings of our adopted system of government. That is beyond partisanship or emotion-driven politics because Wike will come and go but the core principles of modern constitutional government remains unless we have opted for something undemocratic, which is more like throwing the baby away with the bath water.
It is a matter of fundamental operational military doctrine in all functioning constitutional democracies that officers of whatever rank, serving or retired, must yield to civil authorities and, for us in Nigeria, it is a fundamental constitutional rule intended to shield the military from mingling with civil authorities which is essential for the realization of genuine self-determination as periodically renewed at the polls, a right which is regarded as one of the highest forms of civil liberties in a free society.
