ABSTRACT
In the current debate on the reform and restructuring o f the Nigerian federation, a state institution that has come under the severest attack is the military. The Nigerian military, according to some, is at the heart ofthe current crisis o f nationhood in Nigeria (Omoruyi, 1999). It is considered to be over-ethnicised and over politicised, and rather than promote national integration, has enveloped the nation and itself in deep crises. The solutions put forward to ameliorate the problem vary quite widely. To some, Nigeria does not have an army in the proper sense o f it. What exists is largely a coterie o f praetorian soldiers who prey on each other and the nation.1 As such, the military in its present form should be disbanded and the process o f establishing a new national professional army put in place. To some others, the solution lies in regionalising die military. That is, for every geo-political zone o f the country to have a regiment o f its own made up mostly o f people from that region. Better still, some argue, quite contrarily that what the nation needs is a thoroughly refrained and professional armed forces, which would balance the issue o f the representativeness o f the different ethnic groups and social cleavages in the country, with the search for merit, fairness and justice in its activities.
