Abbas Jimoh
17 June 2008
The era of military intervention in political affairs of the country is over, Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Luka Yusuf has declared.
Speaking at the first annual national conference of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) themed "Consolidating Democracy through Peace building and collective Security" in Abuja yesterday, Gen. Yusuf said that there is nothing like coup or military intervention in the thinking of the Nigerian Army.
"There will be no more coups in Nigeria, the Nigerian Army under my command is professionalized, I say this because we can no longer think of coup or military intervention in the highly professionalized army.
"The Army has over the years been viewed with suspicion by the political class. This suspicion is a product of the military's past involvement in the political life of the nation. However, for the past nine years the NA has continued to focus wholly on her professional calling. We have worked hard to purge and sanitize the NA of officers with political leanings," Gen. Yusuf said.
He said that the Army lacked modern equipment but "needs the equipment to effectively cope and in fact continue to excel in her peacekeeping and peace building roles around the world."
He disclosed that the Army had participated in 27 of the 61 operations that have been so far mounted by the United Nations (UN), with 4085 personnel of all ranks participating in various missions around the world.
National president of the association, Alhaji Nurudeen Olarinde said sustainable development would continue to elude Africa until a lasting solution is found to the various armed conflicts across the continent, which has caused loss of lives and properties.
Chairman of the occasion and the Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Prof Is-Haq Oloyede said the belief that the advent of democracy presupposes a conflict-free society was erroneous as many societal factors come to bear on the government and the governed.
"It is therefore of utmost importance to continuously work at maintaining the peace at all times. Peace building efforts involve establishing normalized relations between people on both sides of a conflict," Prof. Oloyede said.
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