Armed Forces Day: We Are First Victims Of Military Rule – General Irabor

The former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor (rtd), has said military coups were always to the benefit of the few who carried out the coup.

Naijaonpoint reports that General Irabor said only the selfish interest of the few caused military incursion into political space.

The former CDS stated this on Tuesday while speaking at the Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day Lecture and Art Exhibition 2025, in Abuja.

He emphasized the need for citizens to stop viewing coups from the lens of benefitting the majority of servicemen, stating that the military was always the first victim of all military government.

“The military is an instrument of state for upholding the sanctity of the values of the nation. However, in the course of national growth and development, the Nigerian military leadership, at some point in our history, has found itself in the political leadership of the country.

“Whereas the development is an aberration and not a product of the military institution, it has been a challenge for many elites in the geo-political space to understand that the military itself is the first victim of military rule in Nigeria.

“In this regard, the resonant narrative, inadvertently or otherwise, deepens the gorge in civil-military relations to the detriment of the state. This must be reversed.

“It must be reiterated that military-political leadership of the country is by a select group of individuals. It must not be construed to be an institutional arrangement,” he said.

General Irabor further addressed issues regarding military personnel abusing civilians, particularly in the country.

He said it was deceptive to believe it was a military thing to manhandle civilians. He explained that such behaviours should not be attributed to the military institution but to individual personnel involved.

“Such a view is deceptive. Any misdemeanor by individual military service personnel should not be construed to be institutional behaviour.

“The military institution already has established disciplinary protocols to address issues bothering personnel that cross professional boundaries.

“There could be, and certainly there are, challenges with the military institution. However, there are institutional mechanisms designed to address them in due deference to the norms of objective civil control of the military.

“Our collective aspiration should be to have the optimum effectiveness of the military in national growth and development and not otherwise,” he added.