By Richard Akinnola
In 1975, l flirted with the idea of going to the Nigerian Defence Academy to join the army. But l changed my mind because of the way I’m wired. l love to question and interrogate issues and directives, which goes against the command structure of the military.
If l had joined the army, l would have been court-martialed, put in the guard room and/or dismissed. The army has its code of conduct which every serving personnel subscribes to. It’s a different thing if it’s being selectively applied.
When the Naval authorities came out to give reasons that naval comedian was detained, it was because he went against the social media policies of the military. Now, a lady soldier who was caught with the love bug is being detained for flouting extant military code of conduct.
It was not for falling in love with a youth corp member but among other alleged infractions, publicly kissing that youth him in uniform. That is, a corp member that was under her supervision. The military authorities have reeled out about five infractions they claimed she committed.
As usual, many people are emotive, because the soldier fell in love. I don’t think the issue is about the soldier falling in love but for allegedly violating the extant code of conduct of the military.
While this action may be discriminatory because we don’t know the disciplinary action taken against the female soldier that recently tortured a female corp member in Calabar, one can only plead that they temper justice with mercy in respect of this detained soldier. We hope that the corp member won’t abandon her in her time of travails.