Since the seemingly invincible Boko Haram insurgency began its campaign of territorial take-over in parts of the Northern Nigeria nearly four years ago, every act of the Nigerian military in its effort to combat and, possibly, subdue it has continued to have a stamp of doubt in a bizarre form.
Is it what appears to be the appalling failure of the military to subdue the insurgency as a problem caused by something unfathomable in the realm of secret global military, political or intricate diplomatic intelligence, about which Nigeria must tread with utmost caution in its choice between ‘the devil and the deep blue sea’? There appears to be some forces that are working in cross purposed to compel the military to compromise some measures of its constitutional responsibility, of maintaining security and protecting the territorial integrity of the country.
And yet, Nigeria has prided itself ad the most reputable black nation in global affairs; a nation that proudly flutters the banner of the most revered military in peacekeeping missions; a nation that brandished the military prowess through defending other African nations against any crisis akin to the one terrorizing it now.
Members of the Nigerian military should know that their prime responsibility is to ensure the internal and external security of Nigeria and Nigerians, in a situation where police and other relevant agencies have failed or unable to do their own sides of the job.
They should know that there has to be a secured Nigeria for them to answer the name of the members of the Nigerian military, let us assume they have not begun to feel ashamed of answering the name.
Why are Nigerians so disheartened with the conceited failure of their erstwhile proudly laurel-decorated military to even face the insurgents in a prolonged fierce combat, let alone subdue and banish them from the Nigerian territory?
Aside from the orchestrated invincibility of the insurgents, which the depressing string of promises of the military authorities, such as ‘we are on top of the situation’ or “we will soon re-capture Boko Haram’s Caliphate,” the Nigerian military has all along told Nigerians an endless series of lies about strategically combating the crisis, in the face of the sharply deteriorating security situation.
No Nigerian now needs to be convinced that the top echelon of the military have perfected strategies, not of decisively battling insurgency towards quelling it, but of conning President Goodluck Jonathan into disbursing trillions of Naira to finance what they would present to him as victorious war against terror, to which the president has been succumbing as Commander-In-Chief being also the guardian for Nigeria and Nigerians.
Although some cynical Nigerians would always argue that President Jonathan readily makes such disbursements in return to keep the soldiers away from anywhere close to the vicinity of a coup de tat, I do not subscribe to that. So far, the president has demonstrated considerable commitment to putting an end to the dastardly insurgency that has, so far, resulted in the mass murder of innocent souls and wanton destruction of places of worship and many properties.
It has since ceased to be any secret among Nigerians that the top echelons of the military have suddenly joined the class of richest Nigerians, leaving the pitiably frustrated rank-and-file to console and please themselves. Such frustrated section of the military end up transferring their frustration and anger on the ever-worsening vehicular gridlock at military checkpoints on most of the Nigerian highways and metropolitan centres, especially in the northern states. This is often on the pretext of looking out for and arresting insurgents.
Very ridiculously, Nigerians have never heard of any insurgent arrested at such checkpoints.
At such checking points, apparently frustrated and angry-looking soldiers would merely wave at motorists to pass, most times without checking anything.
It is well-known that criminals are more comfortable to operate at night. In contrast, however, vehicles pass through these military checkpoints freely in a smooth vehicular traffic flow at night with no logjams because the soldiers keeping sentry would have gone to relax, either near the checkpoints or elsewhere nearby, drinking and dinning.
It would have been very easy for as many insurgents or other criminals as possible to ease their way through the checkpoints in the night hours when no soldier would be around to detect them to any planned location to perpetrate crime.
These military checkpoints have proved therefore to be counterproductive, but causing unnecessary discomfort to innocent motorists.
I am also worried about the way soldiers are being used in stop-and-search operations in the city, which ordinarily should be handled by the police or paramilitary personnel. More worrisome is the fact that a reasonable number of the soldiers have been deployed to personal residences of some retired permanent secretaries, retired directors and other retired top government officials as guards. Why should Nigeria train soldiers only to be used as guards in private houses and companies? For me, unnecessary presence of soldiers and avoidable interactions with civilians diminish their prestige in the eyes of the public. That is if the Hausa proverb, ‘ido wa ka raina, wanda na saba gani’ ( meaning: familiarity breeds contempt) is anything to go by.
Now, it has since ceased to be any secret that military troops that are deployed to the epicenters of the insurgency are ill-prepared with ‘makeshift’ weapons compared against the highly superior weaponry brandished by the Boko Haram militants. No wonder, most times when both combatants come face-to-face, the Nigerian military men flee for their dear lives as would, a herd of gazelles fleeing from an attacking lion in the wilderness.
Face-to-face with the stark reality of the superior weaponry of the insurgents, detachments of the Nigerian soldiers have severally mutinied against being deployed to confront the superior-armed insurgents.
Why are poorly-armed Nigerian soldiers continuously deployed to face the seemingly indomitably Boko Haram militants who delightfully crush them? Most Nigerians now believe this is due to the rather psychopathic tendencies of the military generals who evidently take pleasure in sacrificing them as part of the dual strategy of creating more urgent excuse to attract more funds for the terror war.
This situation, most recently, caused a detachment of Nigerian troops to flee from the more powerful insurgents to the neighbouring Cameroon, to which the Nigerian military authorities responded, albeit with the usual bare-face lies, that the soldiers only retreated in a tactical manoeuvre. What an explanation!
The persistent ill-preparedness of the Nigerian military for the terror war has confirmed the observation of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, some months ago, that the Boko Haram insurgents have more sophisticated weapons, which is why the Nigerian military cannot subdue them. Of course, the military authorities had since vehemently denied this.
Huge population of Nigerians in the Northeast are exterminated, evidently by Boko Haram militants with seemingly complicity of the Nigerian military in the insurgency crisis, powered by some formidable forces that are at the background to mastermind the insurgency.
There is absolutely no time for lamentations. If the Nigerian military authorities are sincere on fighting and quelling the insurgency, they should rebuild their confidence and commitment: morally and spiritually. They should utilise the billion-naira of funds disbursed for the terror war by equipping the rank-and-file with the state-of-art weapons that could, at least, match the ones brandished by the insurgents.
That is the only way they can effectively deal with the crisis we have on our hands. [myad]
