INTRODUCTION Military rule began n Nigeria with the military coup of 15th January 1966 which overthrew the

democratically elected government of Alhaji Tafa Belewa. The military has ruled Nigeria for 25 years in which since the independence with an enormous impact on the countrys culture and institution the argument of this military rule ultimately impact negatively on society by generalizing it authoritarian values which re on essence antisocial and destructive of politics. Politics in the sense is understood as the art of negotiating conflicts relational to exercise power. It is important to emphasize that the role of the military institution is to organize, control and apply force on the pursuit of policies determined by the state. The traditional function of the military is to protect territorial integrity of its country against external or internal aggressor. In other wards the military are suppose to be absolute under the control of the civilian rule and under its instructions. As traditional guards they are suppose to be seen and not to be heard of coming into power because, their involvement is an aberration. We should first of all look at the factor that encourages military intervention in politics.

FACTORS

THAT

ENCOURAGE

MILITARY

INTERVENTION

IN

NIGERIAN POLITICS Generally the causes of military rule in Nigerian intervention in politics are of two theories. the first theory talks about the internal characteristics of the

military itself, this means looking at the internal structure of the military that is, the coalition of service, the social background of the official , the training, carrier line , the decision within the institution and the professional and the political ideologies of the military . this theory was propounded by Morris

janowitz (1964) he emphasizes that military intervention can only be explained by the military explanation. if you want to understand why the military

intervenes in politics , you should look at the military itself. In the second theory, Samuel Huntington (1968) contends that the most reasonable explanation for military intervention in politics is political. In other words the military operates in o political environment and influenced by the environment. Although this theories seems to be true , but Oyederian, (1984). Explains that the best way to approach this problem is to take the two theories as one and look for the factors outside and within the military for example, the constitutional crises, regional and ethnic crises, creation of new state, action group crises and treason trial, census controversy and the structural problem of the military.

CAUSES OF MILITARY INTERVENTION ON NIGERIAN POLITICS Nigerian was under civilian rule between independence in 1960 and January 1966 during this period, government faced a large number of problems. These problems include Inability of politician to conduct elections which were free of rigging, intimidation, violence, and fair to all participants; in ability to conduct a population census acceptable to all Nigerians, massive corruption by the politicians and other public servant, resulting in the decline of the national economy. Political bitterness and hatred among politicians. Bitter rivalry among regional governments to the detriment of the nations, weak political leadership, increase in unemployment and prices of goods and services. As a result of these problems Nigerian became dissatisfied with the civilian government. The people were alienated; the civilian government lost it legitimacy and support of the masses. The government collapsed on the 15th January 1966 when the Nigerian armed forces seized power and imposed the military government on the country. That was the beginning of military rule in Nigerian.

WAYS OF PREVENTING THE MILITARY IN POLITICS There have being many suggestion and several argument has occurred on ways of keeping the military bout of politics including their coups. PAY FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MILITARY PERSONNEL: The way to comprehend these military unlawful cops has generated a number of suggestions towards the military within the barracks one of the important suggestion made was the increase in allowance of the military and improve conditions of service for rank and file of the military particular those at the upper grader. But this increase in allocation and good condition of favoring the military may encourage their political ambition as reflected in the coup aganst Obotes administration in Uganda. BALANCE FIRE OF THE POLICE WITH THE MILITARY: in this suggestion implies that if the police force can be equal or almost the same fire power capacity as the counteracting force, this is to say that the police and the military do not perform the same constitutional role and practices. We are quick to notices that the existence of the well equipped national security in Nigerian which their main responsibility is to the president to foil coups, but could not prevent military coup when coupist decide to overthrow government. This should be noted that the major causes of military coups in Nigeria is the unveil of the security personnel which has resulted to source of insecurity to the government in power. In the prediction opinion of A.J Ohwofase 2007; if the Nigerian police are eventually granted the same capability with the Nigerian

military their will shall be having not only military intervention but also police intervention in our body of politics. Thus militarizing the police will lead to police intervention in politics thereby returning the country to square one because, the police shall assume to come and stay in the feature of Nigeria politics and might not carter for the stability and development of the country DE- MILITARIZATION OF THE COUNTRY: this is a brilliant idea but has it side effect on the country, that is the Nigerian military should be disbanded as in particularly Nigeria is free from belligerent neighbors for example that Switzerland without no standard arm yet it is stable. Now this idea to all intend is worst than useless, firstly demilitarization of the military in the twenty first century was an ugly incident, if this is done the neighboring countries with strong standing military would take their turn to dis-member the Nigeria nation. Nigeria need to embark on nuclear capability among others to contend with such imminent external aggressions rather than prescribing it armed force (A.J Ohwofase 2007) p 91 Militarization of civilians; it is the argument in some quarters that civilians would be militarized to some extent, say by giving compulsory training to youth and such program such as the national youth service corps(N.Y.S.C) as presently in some advance country such as U.S.A, CUBA etc. so as to reduce the power of usurper But this will take us no were because militarizing the youth cannot stop coups, thus the military coup is more strategic form of violence than a sheer act of

self defense which compulsory training is tantamount to give. in questionable scene ; would Nigerians have the temperament and emotional stability that go along with caring arms? In many cases caring of arm will exacerbate society violence and increase in arm robbery. Location of the barracks outside of towns; if the military barracks are located in the outskirts of towns military coups will be less frequent. Some people argued that location of the military outside town does not amount to locate societal problem such as ethnicity, economic mismanagement, corruption etc. cannot be in the outskirts of the country .Coupled with some interrelationship with some top politicians like classmate/school mate, childhood friend and relatives. This relationship makes the military officials to be susceptible to partisan with political ideas. This is to say that the military are not interested in staying in the barracks especially when idol, but still yet this trend has not stopped the military from coming into power. Political socialization; this is another important idea of keeping the military out of politics. This idea entails that if the military are giving some measures of political education to eradicate military coup in the country. This is on the believe that many coup plotter ware not aware of the negative impact, due to low or no sound political education of the official will help eradicate coup. This point is argued that ironically educated military conceive themselves as alternative to political authority as a result they are disposed to topple political

administrators so as to put in effect their supposedly supervise alternative proposals Foreign training of military personnel; the Nigeria environment is too politicized and the country will be more stable by sending its military personnel for combination studies. But the argument by (A.J Ohwofase 2007) p 95 is on the elemental premise that inaugural coup in Nigeria was fomented by 5 majors trained as it were in Britain Working towards good governance; there is a popular saying that the best military government is worse than the worst civilian rule or that the worst civilian rule government is better than the best military government. Meanwhile some scholars have became aware that the military rule is a corrective regime that stimulate changes for national unity and for development, while the opposing sees the military as greedy and selfish, grabbing political power purposely to amass wealth through intimidation and oppression rule (A.J Ohwofase 2007) p 97 to this group the military is not suppose to be in politics and cannot facilitate good governance nor development. There are therefore two school of thoughts that emerge on the impact of military rule on development; The latter view the military rule as a messiah that comes into government when the center cannot hold, when the falcon cannot hear the falconer then military will intervene as powerful agent for unity and national development that is progressive but not totally corrupted free

It has been argued that the remedy for political instability is the existence of good governance and not party system. But, how do we know a good and responsible government? Does the concept of god governance suggest that all military administration are running good governance and the sacked ones are not good enough; those it means that Mobotu Jekou of Zaire was running a good governance while captain Thomas Faso was a bad one? Definitely Murtala Mohamed administration would not had experience a devastating military coup. Therefore the concept of good governance is confusing as there is no indicator for measuring the goodness of a good government. So the government should make a concerted effort by eradicating mass poverty, socio-economic embark and providing for the welfare need of citizenry like Providing mass literacy education to all illiterate Nigerians in order to remove ignorance and apathy of majority that inhibit the socio economic and political development of the country. Mobilizing the populace towards achieving an egalitarian and self- reliant nation Enlightening the people politically to enable them know their right, duties and obligations as citizen of this great country Providing lasting practical solutions to the remove social, economical and political problems constraining the nation, could be regarded as good governance ( A.J Ohwofase 2007)p 98

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MILITARY The intervention of the military in Nigerian politics has saved the country from total disintegration on several occasions. A case in point in point was the failure of the civilian government to resolve the western region crises in 1965. The military coup of 15th January 1966 might have save Nigeria from the apparent incompetence of the political class The military promotes political stability especially in developing countries where centrifugal forces tend to tear the society apart. State creation is another achievement of the military. There is a general belief that the military finds it easier to create states than the civilians. Nigeria has indeed moved from federation of four regions to one of 36 states. All the states were created by the military regimes Military created institution and programs that would promote national unity and patriotism among Nigerians. The national youth service corps (NYSC) program for example remains one of the best legacies of the military The abolition of nation authority system and the removal of the local police, court and prisons from the hand of traditional rulers have set the Nigerian masses free from internal oppression. The massive development of social infrastructure by the military cannot be overemphasized. Most of the major Roads and housing estates in the country today were constructed under the

military and also most of the public universities, teaching hospital, and airport were established. Disadvantages to the military in politics In spite of this achievement of the military, it is not withstanding that the highest inflation witness ever in the country was during the military regime. Moreover, defense expenditure kept on rising when there was no war to fight. The military are always over ambitious for power; one solider group will be overthrown by another group. They were two bloody attempts to overthrow Babangida Military government. Another discouraging aspect of the military was the unwieldiness of many

military government to hand over power to civilians, for example the Gowon government, the Babangida and that of Abacha military regime never had the intention of handing over power to civilians , and in this modern the military governance is against democracy .

CONCLUSION My opinion is that during military era many development goals was archived, if the civilian government are ready to work towards a better economic growth and good political stability the military will not seize power, because in most

cases the military come into polities because of the misconduct of the civilian government in politics towards there selfish interest,. , in the opinion of Tunde Adeniran (1985), the military come in to fill the political vacuum.

The military has not only destroyed Nigerians federal system, its has played a major role in eroding the countries democratic assets. Be it that, there must be a movement that will be able confront and destroy the ambitious of the military and their friends are drawn Causes of military intervention on Nigerian politics Nigerian was under civilian rule between independence in 1960 and January 1966 during this period, government faced a large number of problems. These problems include Inability of politician to conduct elections which were free of rigging, intimidation, violence, and fair to all participants; in ability to conduct a population census acceptable to all Nigerians, massive corruption by the politicians and other public servant, resulting in the decline of the national economy. Political bitterness and hatred among politicians, bitter rivalry among regional governments to the detriment of the nations, weak political leadership, increase in unemployment and prices of goods and services.

As a result of these problems Nigerian became dissatisfied with the civilian government. The people were alienated; the civilian government lost it legitimacy and support of the masses. The government collapsed on the 15th January 1966 when the Nigerian armed forces seized power and imposed the military government on the country. That was the beginning of military rule in Nigerian.

Argument AGAINST THE MILITARY GOVERNANCE Inpite of the point above which are regarded as credit to the military. in Nigerian political science there are obvious and very genuine argument against the military coming into polities , some of these argument are discussed below Improvising of the citizenry; Gowons regimes failed to fill the bridge gap between the rich and the poor, as there was no provision of the redistribution of wealth the mass poverty continued along with the successive military regimes as there was no provision of basic amenities such as housing, education and health facilities. Display of dictatorship and despotism; Buhari regime was by many as inhibiting or restraining personal freedom, oppressing of the press freedom and this is violation our fundamental human right.

Fraudulent practices and embezzlement of public fund: the military mercilessly looted the Nigerian treasure such that until this moment effort are still being made to recover public fund looted and stashed away in foreign land. The degree and measure of looting along with squandered mane was so intolerable that the news made screaming headlines of the report, but as far as the military is still in power the report could not verified.

References Jibrin Ibrahim (1997) Expanding democratic space in Nigeria first published in 1997 by CODESRIA ABC, no 27 park end street, oxford oxi, itu Akin Bade J.A (2008) government Explained maclak books ventures, yaba Lagos first published

The military are trained to kill and handle arms and are suppose to remain in the barrack and not to intervein in politics, until their role are needed.