A confrontation between FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Navy Lieutenant A.M. Yerima over a disputed Abuja property has gone viral, prompting nationwide debate over the limits of civilian authority and military discipline, NATHANIEL SHAIBU reports
The confrontation between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and Lieutenant A.M. Yerima of the Nigerian Navy on Tuesday has sparked intense debate among legal and security experts, highlighting the delicate balance between civilian authority and military discipline in Nigeria’s democracy.
Lieutenant Yerima, a young naval officer, had been deployed to secure a plot of land reportedly belonging to Awwal Zubairu Gambo, a former Chief of Naval Staff. When Wike arrived with officials and security personnel intending to enforce a demolition order, Yerima calmly refused access, explaining that he was acting on instructions from his superior officer.
The encounter quickly escalated into a verbal standoff. Video footage captured the tense exchange and was widely shared across social media platforms, drawing reactions from Nigerians nationwide.
In the video, Wike can be heard issuing repeated verbal demands and challenges, while the officer, maintaining his composure, replied firmly, “I am not a fool, sir. I am acting on orders.”
The calm and resolute response by the young naval officer has been widely celebrated as a display of discipline, restraint, and moral courage. Social media users have praised him for standing up to a powerful political figure while adhering to military protocol, with some suggesting he embodies the integrity that the nation’s armed forces aspire to uphold.
At the same time, some critics argue that the incident reflected deeper tensions between Nigeria’s political class and the military hierarchy.
The legal view
Legal experts are divided on the matter. While some contend that the officer violated the law by obstructing a serving minister acting within his constitutional authority, others maintain that Wike’s public confrontation and disparagement of a uniformed officer represented a serious breach of decorum and national security protocols.
At the heart of the clash lies a contest between constitutional supremacy and institutional pride — between a politician’s assertion of civilian control and the military’s claim to hierarchy and discipline.
Constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Sebastine Hon, came out swinging against what he described as a “palpable illegality” by Lieutenant Yerima.
According to Hon, “the duty of a junior officer to obey orders of his superiors, even though strongly upheld in military and paramilitary circles, has its limitations recognised by no other authority but the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”
Citing decisions of the apex court in Onunze vs. State (2023) and Nigeria Air Force vs. James (2002), Hon argued that military obedience does not extend to unlawful or manifestly unjust orders.
“When an officer obeys palpably illegal orders, they become personally liable for their actions and would be expected to face court-martial or official sanction.”
He further stressed that no provision of the Armed Forces Act permitted an officer to “mount guard at the private construction site of his boss,” describing Yerima’s presence at the site as unconstitutional and ethically questionable.
The law professor noted that Wike, as FCT minister, exercised presidential powers over land administration under sections 297(2) and 302 of the Constitution.
“Mr Wike stood in loco of the President of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on that day,” Hon said.
“Even if the superior officer were still in service, he would not disobey or obstruct Wike from entering the land.”
Condemning public support for the officer, Hon cautioned that celebrating such defiance “may unleash a reign of terror by men in khaki against hapless civilians.”
“The minister’s method may be brash, but it is legal and lawful in all respects. It is the officer who breached the Constitution,” Hon added.
Also reacting, senior lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, said both parties within the same executive arm of government should have engaged in dialogue with a view to promoting harmony in governance.
“Dialogue. Rapprochement between players within the same Executive arm of government with a view to promoting harmony in governance.
A senior lawyer and Managing Partner at E.A. Adedeji and Co, Emmanuel Adedeji, SAN, described the exchange as “a show of impunity”, faulting Wike for personally attending to a land dispute and the retired naval officer for resorting to self-help rather than following legal processes.
“My concern is, what is the interest of the minister that he has to go to the land personally? There are procedures to be followed; you can go to court to get a court order, for the court to give an order for them to stop work, since they did not obey the order, the directive of development control to stop work.
“Two, you can use executive influence, talk to the Minister of Defence, talk to the Chief of Naval Staff.
“Number two, the choice of words, the abusive language you use on the officer is a no, it’s unacceptable. The officer is not standing there representing himself in a personal capacity. He’s an officer of the Nigerian Navy, representing the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. So, calling him a fool, telling him to shut up, is unacceptable.
Addressing the posture of the naval officers, Adedeji said, “On the part of the military, nobody needs to resort to self-help to fight for his rights.
“Since he is a retired, senior, high-ranking military officer, he had the instrumentality of the military, which he deployed to protect the land. That’s self-help. It’s just like the civilian hiring thugs to protect the land. It’s never a duty of the military to protect land. It’s none of their duty. So, deploying a military officer to protect land is illegal.”
Military response
But former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), took a starkly different stance — warning that Wike’s verbal confrontation with the naval officer endangered national security and eroded military discipline.
In a strongly worded statement, Buratai said the minister’s public disparagement of a uniformed officer “transcends mere misconduct; it represents a palpable threat to national security and institutional integrity.”
He argued that such public humiliation “undermines the chain of command, disrespects the authority of the Commander-in-Chief, and wounds the morale of every individual who serves under the Nigerian flag.”
Buratai insisted that this was not a matter for political grandstanding: “It is a reckless endangerment of national order. Wike’s action clearly undermines the federal government’s authority.”
The retired general called for an “immediate and unequivocal apology” from the Minister to President Bola Tinubu, the Armed Forces, and Lieutenant Yerima. “The integrity of our Armed Forces demands nothing less,” he declared.
In a similar response, the Coalition of Nigerian Military Veterans condemned the minister’s outburst against the military officer, whom they noted was in uniform, describing it as an undermining of the dignity of the military.
In a statement, the spokesman of the CMV, Abiodun Durowaiye-Herberts, said the minister should have engaged the Chief of Naval Staff rather than “attempt to disgrace a retired senior officer.”
“How can a minister call an officer a fool on camera? If he was responsible, he should have engaged the Chief of Naval Staff privately, rather than attempting to disgrace a retired senior officer,” the statement read.
They further warned against attempts to punish the officer involved, calling for Wike to tender a public apology to the officer.
“If, for any reason, the officer is punished, military veterans will occupy the office and residence of the FCT Minister. Military officers swear loyalty to the nation, not to individual public officials.
“Wike’s action demeans the dignity of the minister’s office. He should apologise for using abusive language. It is not acceptable behaviour,” the statement added.
Also speaking, the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, while speaking at the ministerial briefing to unveil the 2026 Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day, stated that the ministry was investigating the confrontation, adding that the officer would be protected if he did his job very well.
“We are looking into this issue, and we assure you that any officer on lawful duty will be highly protected. We will not allow anything to happen to him so long as he is doing his job, and he is doing his job very well,” he said.
Civil rights perspective
Human rights lawyer and Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, Frank Tietie, sided with Prof. Hon, accusing Nigerians of hypocrisy and bias in their reactions to the incident.
In his article titled “Is it because it is Wike?”, Tietie argued that the Minister had every legal right to act as he did, asserting that “only deep-seated hatred for Wike would explain why many of his detractors would tolerate such impudence by a military officer.”
He described the officer’s conduct as “unacceptable,” warning that it reflected a dangerous culture of military impunity and contempt for civil authority.
“We have become too used to the abuse and misuse of military power in Nigeria,” Tietie lamented.
“If military personnel can confront a minister, what would stop a General Officer Commanding from defying a Vice President or the President himself?”
The rights advocate also took aim at Buratai’s position, arguing that the former Army Chief’s emphasis on “national security” glossed over the more fundamental issue of constitutional supremacy.
He urged President Tinubu to invoke the Tribunals and Inquiries Act to probe the confrontation “to prevent such occurrences in the future and preserve Nigeria’s democracy.”
The Wike-Yerima clash has rekindled an old debate about the balance of power between Nigeria’s civilian leadership and its military establishment — a fault line that has haunted the country since its years of military rule.
Whether Wike overstepped his bounds or Yerima defied lawful authority, the incident has exposed once again the uneasy coexistence between military order and civilian rule in the corridors of power.
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