By
Toba Alabi. tobalabi@yahoo.com
Wike
1. Introduction
This paper examines how retired senior military officers are protected and privileged within Nigeria’s civil–military landscape, and how such protections can degenerate into the abuse of active military personnel when institutional boundaries are blurred. Using the recent confrontation between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and a retired Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, over a disputed land in Abuja, the paper explores the misuse of military subordinates for private ends and the erosion of professional ethics. By comparing Nigeria’s practices with those of the United States and the United Kingdom, it argues that the Abuja incident exposes a dangerous culture where retired elites deploy serving military personnel for non-state duties, thereby undermining professionalism, accountability, and the rule of law.
In all democracies, the military institution is designed to serve the state, not individuals. However, in Nigeria’s post-military political order, retired senior officers often retain residual influence over serving personnel, sometimes converting that influence into private power. The confrontation between Minister Nyesom Wike and naval personnel allegedly acting on the instruction of a retired Chief of Naval Staff epitomizes this abuse.
The episode brings into question not only the protection of retired officers but also the misuse of active-duty personnel in private disputes. It reveals a wider malaise, how Nigeria’s fragile civil–military balance allows informal authority to overshadow legal boundaries, and how civilian officials may, in turn, respond with verbal or procedural excesses that expose institutional weaknesses.
2. Conceptual and Institutional Context
2.1 Protection and Abuse Defined
Protection of retired military officers encompasses legitimate measures such as personal security, institutional honour, and welfare benefits. Abuse, by contrast, occurs when this protection extends into unauthorized use of active-duty soldiers, coercive influence over public institutions, or manipulation of security assets for private gain.
In a professional military system, as articulated by Huntington (1957) and Janowitz (1960), the chain of command ends at retirement. Retired officers may advise or be consulted but are not entitled to issue operational orders or deploy personnel. Any deviation from this principle amounts to an abuse of command and institutional trust.
2.2 Comparative Civil-Military Boundaries
In the United States and United Kingdom, the use of active-duty personnel for private or political purposes is categorically prohibited. The U.S. Posse Comitatus Act (1878) and the British Armed Forces Act regulate all deployments of military assets. Retired officers cannot lawfully direct serving personnel; any attempt to do so constitutes misconduct and can trigger court-martial proceedings against the active-duty soldiers who obey.
In Nigeria, however, the absence of clear legislation governing retired officers’ privileges has created ambiguity. While the constitution affirms civilian supremacy, the legacy of military rule has left a residue of informal hierarchies. It is within this gray zone that abuses thrive, where loyalty to retired superiors occasionally supersedes loyalty to lawful civilian authority.
3. The Case: Wike vs. Gambo -Land Dispute in the FCT
3.1 Facts and Sequence
In November 2025, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike visited Plot 1946, Gaduwa District, Abuja, after reports of irregular land development. The site was allegedly linked to retired Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo. Upon arrival, Wike’s team encountered armed naval personnel who refused access, stating they were acting on orders from the retired admiral.
A heated confrontation ensued. Video footage captured Wike berating the officer in charge-calling him a “very big fool” and demanding to know who authorized his presence. The officer maintained he was obeying instructions “from above.” The exchange reflected more than a land dispute; it revealed an abuse of military personnel-servicemen performing private guard duties under the implicit authority of a retired superior.
3.2 Institutional Reactions
While the Minister of State for Defence later clarified that no sanctions would be imposed pending investigation, the broader issue remained: why were naval personnel deployed for a private, non-operational purpose? The Navy’s silence, coupled with Wike’s public outrage, points to systemic confusion about the limits of military involvement in civil affairs.
The Comments of the Former Chief of Army Staff
“URGENT ACTION REQUIRED AS MINISTER WIKE’S CONDUCT POSES A CLEAR THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY”
By Tukur Buratai (Former Chief of Army Staff)
The events of November 11, 2025, involving the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike, demand an immediate and serious response. His public disparagement of a uniformed officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces transcends mere misconduct; it represents a palpable threat to national security and institutional integrity.
A minister’s verbal assault on a military officer in uniform is an act of profound indiscipline that strikes at the core of our nation’s command and control structure. It deliberately undermines the chain of command, disrespects the authority of the Commander-in-Chief, and grievously wounds the morale of every individual who serves under the Nigerian flag. Such actions erode the very foundation of discipline upon which our national security apparatus stands.
Also Read:Wike and Yerima altercations are symptoms of a failed system
PDP National Convention: Wike, Ikpeazu, Ortom, others back court verdict
Wike, FCT officials prevented by soldiers from entering Abuja land
This can not be dismissed as political theatre. It is a reckless endangerment of national order. This action by Wike is clearly an indication of undermining the federal government’s authority.
Consequently, Barrister Nyesom Wike must tender an immediate and unequivocal public apology to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Commander-in-Chief, the entire Armed Forces of Nigeria, and the specific officer whose honour was violated.
Our nation’s security must come first. It is time for decisive action, not politics of military bashing. The integrity of our Armed Forces demands nothing less.
Lt Gen Tukur Buratai
Former Chief of Army Staff
4. Analysis
4.1 Abuse of Military Personnel
The central abuse in this episode lies not merely in the land dispute but in the deployment of active-duty naval personnel for private security and land protection. This contravenes both the ethics of command and Nigeria’s Armed Forces Act, which mandates that service members act solely under authorized military or civil assignments. By assigning active personnel to guard his private property, the retired admiral, if proven, blurred the line between state service and private interest.
Such misuse degrades morale and professionalism. It transforms trained state assets into instruments of personal power, reproducing the militarized privilege that Nigeria’s democratic transition sought to dismantle. Worse still, it exposes young officers and ratings to public humiliation, as seen in the viral video, when their illegal assignments collide with legitimate civilian authority.
4.2 The Minister’s Reaction and the Question of Decorum
While Wike’s verbal outburst was condemned as undiplomatic, it also reflects a deeper frustration with entrenched impunity. His harsh tone, though unstatesmanlike, underscored the principle that no military authority, serving or retired, should defy civilian regulatory power. Nonetheless, civilian officials must enforce the law without descending into personal invective. The rule of law is better served through institutional action, not insult.
4.3 Institutional Failure
The fact that military personnel could be “on duty” at a retired officer’s private plot signals administrative complicity. It suggests that orders were either informally issued or tacitly tolerated within the Navy’s command structure. Such tolerance represents institutional decay, where military discipline is subordinated to patronage. This, in turn, invites civilian overreach and erodes mutual respect between the uniformed services and political leadership.
4.4 Comparative Perspective
In the United Kingdom, retired officers may retain ceremonial protection but cannot request serving soldiers for personal security. In 2021, when a former Chief of the Defence Staff faced public controversy, all official resources were withdrawn immediately to preserve institutional neutrality. Similarly, in the United States, the Secret Service, not the military, handles personal security, ensuring no confusion between public duty and private interest.
Nigeria’s tolerance of serving soldiers doubling as private guards for elites is therefore an anomaly, a holdover from military, era habits incompatible with democratic norms.
5. Implications for Civil-Military Relations and Governance
1. Professional Ethics and Morale:
The use of active-duty troops for private ends undermines professionalism, discipline, and morale. Junior personnel lose faith in the impartiality of command when orders serve personal or illegal purposes.
2. Civilian Supremacy:
The Abuja incident reinforces the necessity of reasserting civilian control. Ministers and elected officials must have unhindered authority to regulate public space without interference or intimidation by military-linked interests.
3. Abuse Prevention Mechanisms:
The Ministry of Defence should establish a Retired Officers Conduct Unit to monitor, investigate, and sanction abuses involving active personnel acting on retired officers’ behalf.
4. Protection with Accountability:
Retired service chiefs deserve respect, pension, and security, but these must be state-provided and institutionally sanctioned, not self-arranged through informal military deployment.
5. Legal Reform:
Nigeria should legislate a Retired Military Officers’ Privilege and Accountability Act, defining the limits of military involvement in private matters, with penalties for commanding or obeying unlawful instructions.
6. Conclusion
The Wike-Gambo confrontation reveals the dangerous underside of Nigeria’s civil-military relations: the persistence of privilege that allows retired elites to mobilize active-duty personnel for private purposes. This constitutes an abuse, of the military institution, of the personnel involved, and of the principles of democratic governance.
Protecting retired officers is a legitimate objective; but when that protection mutates into private militarization, it corrodes the very foundation of professionalism. The Abuja incident should therefore serve as a turning point, prompting reforms that safeguard the dignity of both civilian authority and military service, while ensuring that no soldier ever again stands guard over private land under the shadow of an old command.
References
Huntington, S. P. (1957). The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil–Military Relations. Harvard University Press.
Janowitz, M. (1960). The Professional Soldier. Free Press.
TheCable (2025). “Awwal Gambo, ex-naval chief at the centre of Abuja land dispute with Wike.”
Vanguard News (2025). “Wike, soldiers in verbal war over alleged land grabbing in Abuja.”
Abuja Inquirer (2025). “We won’t allow lawlessness, Wike warns ex-Naval Chief.”
Information Nigeria (2025). “Wike, Military Officers Clash Over Alleged Land Grabbing in Abuja.”
United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (2023). The Armed Forces Covenant.
U.S. Department of Defense (2022). Manual on the Use of Military Personnel in Domestic Affairs.
Toba Alabi is Professor of Political Science, Defence and Security Studies. (08036787582)
14 November, 2025.
