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By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The practice of men in uniform deploying the state security apparatus to protect private interests is gradually evolving into a pattern in Nigeria. The recent standoff between the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike and Navy Lieutenant A.M. Yerima over an alleged infraction in the development of a parcel of land – Plot 1946 – in the Gaduwa District of Abuja readily comes to mind. Yerima was not acting on his own; he stated he was deployed to protect the property of a superior. It was, however, later revealed that the property allegedly belongs to the immediate past Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo (rtd).
The land in question was said to be originally designated for parks and recreation but was allegedly illegally converted for residential use to build duplexes. Wike, as the FCT Minister, went there to enforce the Abuja Master Plan but Yerima denied him entry, citing an order from above to secure the site. He insisted he was on an official assignment to protect the property, effectively placing military orders above the FCT Minister’s civil authority.
Fuming with anger, Wike publicly rebuked the officer, stating, “I am the Minister of the FCT. No one is above the law,” threatening to order the demolition of the illegal structures. The Navy and Defence Headquarters have since stated they are investigating the incident.
A recurring decimal
The Abuja incident is not an isolated case. In 2022, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had the same encounter with policemen deployed to Magodo Phase 11 on the order of the Inspector General of Police and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami. When Sanwo-Olu confronted them and ordered them to leave, they declined and told him to call Abuja.
The Magodo case was arguably even more legally complex than the Wike incident. On one hand, the refusal to obey Sanwo-Olu’s order amplifies the dilemma of the governors who are regarded as Chief Security Officers of their states but lack the power to command the police. On the other hand, the Attorney General’s argument that the police were enforcing the rule of law, a Supreme Court judgment, legally justified the police deployment. So, they used a legal cover to support the deployment, making it harder for the governor to simply order them away.
In Wike’s case, the Navy had no legal cover but insisted on obeying order from the above. In both instances, the uniform effectively served as a boundary that civil authority could not cross. And the pattern has persisted, confirming that security hierarchy is superior to civil authority.
Historically, the military has operated with a degree of insulation from civil laws. Indeed, it is rare for a civilian authority to successfully challenge a military deployment on the spot, which is why Wike’s direct confrontation went viral—it broke the unwritten rule of fearing the uniform.
The Order from Above is a tool senior military and police officers often used to bypass local laws, town planning regulations, and even the direct orders of governors and ministers.
To analysts, the altercation Wike had with Yerima was not just about a plot of land; it was a power struggle between the civil authority and the rule of might. Wike attempting to reclaim the land signals a potential shift where civil governance asserts supremacy over military influence in the capital’s administration.
Dilemma of junior officers
Over the years, Order From Above culture has become an entrenched norm in the country. It is understandably so because in the military and police structures, the chain of command is absolute. Junior officers like Lt. Yerima are often deployed to guard the private businesses, construction sites, or homes of senior/retired officers. In doing so, they are placed in a dilemma-disobey a superior and face court-martial or disobey civil law and face public backlash.
Sometimes, the senior uniform men find accomplices within the civil populace under the guise of Big Man Syndrome. The perceived status of a Big Man or what is sometimes referred to as VIP is often measured by the number of armed uniformed men guarding them. Such acts serve as a status symbol and a tool of intimidation against land grabbers or civil authorities.
Wike’s case has thus thrown up a critical legal contradiction between the Land Use Act which vests all land in the territory in the hands of the Minister holding it for the President and the conduct of personnel of the Armed Forces. Consistent with the Armed Forces Act, soldiers are subject to both military and civil law. However, in practice, superior orders are often used as a shield against civil accountability.
Implications for civil governance
According to legal experts, Wike is the landlord and has the final say on land administration with the FCT. They argued that military personnel have no constitutional business guarding private construction sites or enforcing land ownership disputes in the FCT.
A renowned Legal Luminary, Prof Sebastine Hon, SAN, condemned Yerima’s altercation with the FCT minister, insisting that the young Naval officer breached the law. He had this to say: “Brushing sentiments aside, I hereby condemn in totality the actions of the Naval Officer, A.M. Yerima, who obstructed the FCT Minister from gaining access into that parcel of land, under the guise of ‘obeying superior orders.’
“The duty of a junior officer to obey the orders of his superiors, even though strongly upheld in military and paramilitary circles, has its own limitations recognised by no other authority but the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“The illegality in that order stems primarily from the fact that no service law of the military permits a serving military officer to mount guard at the private construction site of his boss, especially under suspicious circumstances like this. The retired Naval Officer ought, under the circumstances, to have engaged the civil police, if he suspected likelihood of arson or criminal trespass.
“Additionally, Nyesom Wike is the equivalent of Governor of a State – he being the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. More importantly, all lands in the FCT Abuja, by Section 297(2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, belong to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. By section 302 of the same Constitution, read together with other extant Acts of the National Assembly, the President of Nigeria has delegated all powers with respect to land administration in the FCT Abuja to the Hon. Minister. Going by constitutional and administrative law, therefore, Mr Wike stood in loco the President of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces on that fateful day. Consequently, even if the superior officer were still in service, he would not disobey Mr Wike or obstruct him from entering the land. This was an affront to the civil authority of Mr President.
“The Minister’s method may be brash; but it is legal and lawful in all respects. Rather, it is the officer who obstructed him that has breached not just the Nigerian Constitution, but also service and extant regulatory laws. For the avoidance of any doubt, section 114 of the Armed Forces Act makes military personnel criminally liable for civil offences. This means the officer in question could be arraigned before a court martial for obstructing a public officer from performing his public duties, et cetera.
“In conclusion, celebrating the humiliation of Nyesom Wike, simply because he is a ‘big man’ or simply because he is not liked by certain persons begs the real issue here. If such intolerable conduct by the young officer is not punished or is celebrated, this may unleash a reign of terror by the men in khaki against hapless civilians – with a grin or boast that ‘we did it to Wike and nothing happened.’ This is not Nigeria of our dream.”
Similarly, Senator Anthony Adeniyi, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), decried Yerima’s altercation with Wike as an act of lawlessness. Speaking with Sunday Sun in a telephone interview, he said: “It is lawlessness, it is inconsistent with Military Act. What of those who do not have military background? He ought to have reported the matter to the police. For him to have used military to harass anybody is lawlessness.
“Wike being the minister has the authority of the President to perform certain acts. I learnt that the land does not belong to the Naval Officer. Somebody scammed him. Even at that, he cannot use the military might to legalise the illegality. By disobeying the minister, he has disobeyed the President.”
Regarding the Lagos incident, Adeniyi maintains that Governor Sanwo-Olu has the right over the land in Lagos. “The police officer who insisted that the order came from above was overzealous. Which order from above? We are not subject to military authority. What they have done is a flagrant disregard of civil authority,” he declared.
However, Gen Ishola Williams (retd), responding to the legal arguments, noted that the culture of impunity and Big Man Syndrome had become a pattern in Nigeria not only among the military but also civil populace.
Reacting to the matter in an interview with Sunday Sun, he said: “This is not a matter of military Act. Many big people who are not even in uniform, who are millionaires or billionaires, also carry thugs to protect their property. Why do we have cases of land grabbing?
“The issue has nothing to do with the Constitution. It is the norm in our present society. So, cases of people protecting their lands is not abnormal. They are merely behaving with the norm of the society in which they live in.
“Talking specifically about the case of Lt Yerima who was sent by his boss to go and protect the land of his colleague, that Lieutenant has done his job. He was given an order, he has to obey the order and he has to do his job. Wike should have listened to the Minister of Defence who told him to wait for investigations and then revert to him. Instead, he went there like Omo-onile to go and force his way.
“Ordinarily, the Minister could call the Naval Officer and tell him to obey the law of Abuja with respect to what that land had been designated for and that if he does, the building could be demolished. If you have a boss and he gives you an order, which one would you obey?
Dismissing the opinion that the disobedience of the minister was tantamount to disobeying the President, he described the analogy as nonsensical. “Don’t let anybody tell you what is not. That is a nonsensical talk. The President will not ask his minister to go and confront a person on a piece of land.
“As a minister, you have to use your discretion to carry out your duties. You don’t have to obey an order blindly. That is not an excuse at all. He was not acting on behalf of the President.
Asked if Yerima’s conduct was consistent with Military Act, he responded, asking “who is the authority you are talking about?
“The lieutenant obeyed the authority above him. You cannot have two captains in a ship. Wike is not an authority over the lieutenant. Wike refused to heed the advice of his colleague who has authority over the lieutenant. “How many authorities do you want the lieutenant to obey? He had his boss, he had the Minister of Defence. Land is very important in the life of a person. Even if he has the authority, he should have empathy. Wike was told to wait for investigation to be carried out, why didn’t he respect his colleague? He has no reason to do what he did”, Gen Williams concluded.
