The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Luka Yusuf, has said there will no longer be any military coup in Nigeria because the military has been professionalised.
Yusuf gave the assurance on Tuesday in a keynote address at the First Annual National conference and National Assembly of Society for Peace Studies and Practice in Abuja.
He said the military was determined to carry out its duty of protecting Nigerians and the territorial integrity of the country.
In an address entitled, �The Statutory and Operational Challenges of the Nigeria Army in Peacekeeping and Peace Building,� Yusuf said the Army was the pillar of democracy.
The COAS said that the military had gone professional to the extent that the barracks were no longer places to play politics.
He said, �Let me use this opportunity to assure Nigerians that the era of coup plotting is over. There can never be any coup in Nigeria.�
Yusuf said the military had benefited a lot from the current democratic experience than to plan to disrupt it.
He, however, noted that there was no cheap security as good security required good equipment with adequate funding.
The COAS commended President Umaru Yar�Adua for laying a solid foundation for the sustenance of democracy.
He said that going by the way the President was transforming the Army, the nation would never witness any civil war like happened in the 60s.
Yusuf commended the Army for displaying professionalism in all its peace missions.
He said since the Nigerian Army started peacekeeping in 1960, more than 100,000 personnel had participated in 27 of 67 UN missions, while 4,000 were currently on peacekeeping operations around the world.
Earlier, the chairman of the occasion and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said the elite had more to lose during crises.
He said, �It is, therefore, important for the elite to protect and sustain the rule of law.�
Oloyede, who is a fellow of the society, added that the basic tool for the consolidation of peace was to value and respect human dignity.
In an address of welcome, the National President, SPSP, Alhaji Nurudeen Olarinde, said the main goal of the society was to promote synergy between peace scholars and practitioners in Africa.