COAS: Military Has No Plan to End Democracy in Nigeria

Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, has assured that the military has no plan to end democracy in Nigeria.

According to him, democratically elected leaders must rule, while the military restricts itself to its constitutional responsibilities.

General Lagbaja, gave the fresh assurance while addressing army officers at a seminar on career planning and management organized by the army headquarters in Abuja.

He said that the Nigerian Army has come to terms with the choice of Nigerians for democracy, as their preferred system of government.

Army officers, according to him, now regard themselves as agents of democracy, and would not suspend the democratic dispensation in the country.

Recently, the Chief Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, was alerted of moves by some unnamed persons instigating the military to topple the government.

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General Musa, describing those behind the move as enemies of Nigeria, said security operatives would go after them.

We are therefore agents of democracy and have no desire to truncate it. The Nigerian Army will continue to defend our constitution and not suspend it for whatever reason.

Our elected leaders have to lead while the military does its job as enshrined in our constitution.

Nigerian Army personnel must therefore remain professional and be above board as they discharge their constitutional duties.

The commitment by the COAS followed the series of putsches in West and Central Africa which have experienced at least seven military takeovers in the last four years.

Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and most recently, Niger Republic — all members of the Economic Community of Western African States ( ECOWAS) — have pulled out from the regional bloc in the last four years. Outside of West Africa, Chad and Sudan also experienced military coups in 2021.