No sane person will justify treasonable felony. It is unacceptable because it strikes at the very heart of the cohesion as well as the social stability and indeed the very integrity of the nation State. This is why any act of mutiny or insubordination within the nation’s armed services is intolerable.
Nevertheless, this newspaper pleads in mitigation against the death penalty which has been handed out to 12 Nigerian soldiers for alleged mutiny. We will not go into the crucial issue of whether or not the legal framework upon which the court martial was constituted is compatible with the constitution.
The point here is that while we condemn the alleged mutiny, we plead that it must be put within a frame work. For, even during the horrendous Nigerian civil war we did not see this sort of thing. That it is manifesting itself now shows that there is a disturbing inducement.
This should give us the opportunity to look at the state of morale and combat readiness in our armed services. This has clearly impacted upon discipline. For we are now treated to the absurdity of a situation where the spouses of our soldiers make public entreaties, pleading that they should not be sent into the heat of battle.
This sort of position is disturbing in view of the plaudits which our armed forces have earned by taking part in peace keeping missions worldwide since independence. This is why we have to take a holistic look at the state of our armed forces especially now given the backdrop of the war against terror.
We plead therefore that the government should commute the death sentences into prison terms and in the long term work out a rehabilitation programme for the prisoners after the conclusion of their sentences. This does not portray a weakness. On the contrary, it is far sighted. For it will kick start the process of redressing the grievances which triggered the mutiny in the first place. This is a task that has to be done anyway.
