Era Of Military Regimes Is Over Forever – Badeh

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh has given assurance that the country’s military officers will never again truncate the nation’s democratic process, saying that the military is subordinate to Nigerian constitution.

Badeh made this known yesterday when the military high command played host to a high powered team of members of the National Peace Committee for the 2015 General Election led by its chairman and former head of state, General Abulsalami Abubakar.

“The era of military rule is gone forever and ever in this country. In fact if there was military rule I am not sure if I could have been here.

We are the armed forces of Nigeria and not that of any political party and will be subordinate to the constituted authorities”, Badeh said.

The CDS said that the present crop of military leaders were the product of democratic governance and would therefore not embark on any activity that could jeopardize the electoral processes in the country.

He further affirmed that the military would remain non-partisan while carrying out their legitimate duties of providing the enabling security environment for Saturday’s elections. Badeh said, “The Armed Forces is indeed very proud that members of the peace committee are here to give us a pat at the back for what we have done.

I want to again thank you for recognising what we have done in the North East.

I remember when we asked for more time to embark on what we are doing there was a lot of misgivings. But we are happy that we are able to ensure that some of the people in the region exercise their choice of who to govern them even though we did not achieve 100 per cent but we are able to secure the major ones.

Gen Abdulasalmi who spoke earlier, gave the Nigerian military a pass mark for providing the level of security needed to ensure free, fair and violence free elections.