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Onaiyekan Warns Against Misuse Of Armed Forces

January 16, 2019

He also admonished the Nigerian Army to embrace justice and good governance as it strives to maintain internal peace in the country.

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John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, has warned against the misuse of security forces in the country.

He also admonished the Nigerian Army to embrace justice and good governance as it strives to maintain internal peace in the country.  

Onaiyekan states this in his address in commemoration of Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration on Tuesday.

The archbishop encouraged the Nigerian government to fight corruption within the confines of the rule of law, noting that the search for peace and overall stability of the country would be futile in the absence of justice and good governance.

“We cannot successfully prosecute a war against indiscipline by locking up innocent people for months in dungeons without legal recourse. For the same reason, we cannot hope to win the war against corruption by ignoring or by-passing basic human rights regarding the rule of law," he said.

Onayeikan said leaders must learn from January 15, 1966, the historic event which marked the beginning of military rule in the country.

“We hope we have by now learnt our lesson and that we will no longer allow such misuse of our armed forces and our military resources. I do not know why January 15 has been chosen as the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, but to many people like me, it brings strong memories of that critical day, January 15, 1966,” he added.

Adding that one of the lessons to hold dear is that “we should not misuse our armed forces and our military resources".