nigerian news today (1)

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Buratai, Nigerian Army and the renewed human
rights partnership By Ben Adeka / January 19,
2016
In this piece, Ben Adeka, our Maiduguri
correspondent looks at the renewed resolve of the
Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Buratai to improve
military civil relationship and improve the
battered human rights image of the Nigerian
Army The Nigerian Army nay the Nigerian
military are engrossed in a war that the end may
not be in sight. Like they always say that this
war against the terror group known as the Boko
Haram is not a conventional war, this perhaps
explains why the war has lingered on. In the
course of successfully prosecuting the war, the
military has come under scathing attack of human
right abuses. The most prominent attack the
military came under was by the Amnesty
International, an international body that draws
international attention to cases of human rights
abuses. The group came up with a very
scathing report indicting the Nigerian military
of high handedness and gross abuses in the
ongoing war in the North Eastern part of Nigeria.
Even before the current war on terror, the
Nigerian military has not been on the good books
of rights group especially when many other
factors are considered. Perhaps buoyed by this
image, Lieutenant General
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Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, decided
to tell a different story soon after he was made
the leader of the Nigerian Army. It is unarguable
that when he took over as the helmsman of the
army, the reputation of the army was at its
lowest. This must have informed his decision to
take the civil military relations to a new
height. In doing this, he decided to
collaborate with the Nigerian Bar Association to
look into the myriads of complaints of human
rights abuses by the Army. At a workshop held at
the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maimalari
Barracks, Maidugri, the president of the Nigerian
Bar Association, Augustine Alegeh announced the
constitution and inauguration of a team to
monitor and report cases of human rights abuses
by security agents especially the army across
Nigeria. In the workshop with the team,
Human rights in times of conflicts the import
of maintaining human rights even in the face of
conflicts and strife was well articulated. The
workshop which was at the instance of the chief
of army staff focused on the renewed efforts of
the army to operate within the confines of the
tenets of democracy. The NBA president said
during the workshop that the inauguration of the
committee would afford Nigerians the hitherto
nonexistent opportunity of reporting gross human
rights abuses and violation directly to the top
hierarchy of the military without the usual
hindrances. To underscore the seriousness of
this renewed military civil partnership and the
height the army chief wants to take it to was the
presence of Nigerias chief law officer and the
minister of justice and attorney general of the
federation, Mallam Abubakar Malami at the
Maiduguri event. The presence of Malam Malami is
a testimony to the resolve of the General Buratai
led army to turn a new leaf in seeing that the
army nay the military takes the lead in promoting
human rights even in times of aggravated
conflicts. General Buratai during the event
restated the militarys commitment to respecting
the human rights in its operations. He said that
the army would always discharge its
duties professionally and responsively.