₦airaland Forum

The military stands peculiar amongst state organizations given its role as the core defender of the country, the monopolist of legitimate violence and the mechanism for rational use of coercion (both the protector from, and creator of violence). It uses violence to create order but based on orders, create more violence.

It is common to find Nigeria soldiers deployed for election security purposes, a task and that should be left strictly to civilian authorities which makes me wonder, does it help to deploy soldiers in elections?

Ekiti election was devoid of extreme violence even without the presence of the military, what then is the use of the military in Nigeria’s elections?

Just thinking

lastmanstandn:
The military stands peculiar amongst state organizations given its role as the core defender of the country, the monopolist of legitimate violence and the mechanism for rational use of coercion (both the protector from, and creator of violence). It uses violence to create order but based on orders, create more violence.

It is common to find Nigeria soldiers deployed for election security purposes, a task and that should be left strictly to civilian authorities which makes me wonder, does it help to deploy soldiers in elections?

Ekiti election was devoid of extreme violence even without the presence of the military, what then is the use of the military in Nigeria’s elections?

Just thinking

It is never a good idea to deploy Soldier's to a situation where there is unarmed violence. The only time Soldiers should be deployed in Nigeria is war, insurrection and territorial integrity.

All other situation such as election, IPOB, kidnappers and armed robbers where the Army were deployed are all illegal since it is the job of the Police

gidgiddy:
It is never a good idea to deploy Soldier's to a situation where there is unarmed violence. The only time Soldiers should be deployed in Nigeria is war, insurrection and territorial integrity.

All other situation such as election, IPOB, kidnappers and armed robbers where the Army were deployed are all illegal since it is the job of the Police

So why do we do it anyways, it’s not like the Government lacks individuals with strategic ideas to curbing internal violence. We should be promoting this type of discussions at the legislative levels. In 2014, Ekiti was turned into a war zone, 4 years later, same election but this time no military, yet no changes in level of violence. Interesting!
Can we hold elections without soldiers?