Since the apparently invincible Boko Haram insurgency
pounced on Nigeria virtually four years ago, every act of
the Nigerian military in its effort to combat and, possibly,
subdue it has never failed to dishearten Nigerians in the
most bizarre and epochal forms.
Let no one talk about the
possibility of the
appalling failures 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,’ which may have, therefore,
compelled the military to compromise some measures of its
constitutional responsibility of maintaining security and
protecting the territorial integrity of the country.

We are talking of Nigeria – 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 brandishes the military prowess of defending
other African nations against any crisis akin to the one
terrorising 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 situations of the
inability of the police and other relevant agencies to do so
to ward off any uncontainable threat to the existence the
country.

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 bizarrely 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 the unfathomable 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 slapped Nigerians with an endless
series of disrespectful lies about strategically combating
the crisis, in the face of sharply contrasting deterioration
of the security situation.

No Nigerian now needs to be convinced that the top
echelon of the military has perfected strategies, not of
decisively battling insurgency towards quelling it, but of
conning President Goodluck Jonathan into disbursing
trillions of Naira to finance what it proposes to him as
victorious war against terror, to which the president
succumbs with a promptness emanating from his
Commander-In-Chief and guardian position for Nigeria and
Nigerians.

Although some inconsolably cynical Nigerians would always
argue that President Jonathan readily makes such
disbursements in a trick to mesmerise the soldiers against
going 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 ascended to the class
of the richest group of Nigerians, leaving the pitiably
frustrated rank-and-file consoling and pleasing themselves
with 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, on the pretext of looking
out for and arresting insurgents.

Very ridiculously, Nigerians have never heard of any
insurgent arrested at the checkpoints. A mass of hundreds,
at some locations, several thousands, of vehicles is usually
built up, with the jam-packed vehicles spilling beyond the
shoulders of the roads to create several lanes more than
the number the roads have been built to contain. These
huge mass of vehicles snail-paces to the point where a
couple of frustrated and angry-looking soldiers merely
wave at them to pass, most times without checking
anything.

Conventionally, criminals find it easy and safe 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 there would be relaxing, either near the checkpoints
or elsewhere nearby, drinking and gallivanting. 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 to be practically
useless, oftentimes, counterproductive, causing economic
activities slowdowns in most metropolitan centres with
large populations of commuters comprising traders,
businessmen and women and workers stranded there for
hours. Honestly, these checkpoints have failed to serve
their purpose. How would they? Do the soldiers have the
facilities to effectively be in charge of the checkpoints?
What modern gadgets do they have to detect even
knockouts?

Yours sincerely is 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 para-military
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, retired this and that 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, if the Hausa adage,
ido wa ka raina, wanda na saba gani (which simple means
familiarity, breeds contempt) is anything to go by.

Now, it has since ceased to be any secret that military
troops are deployed to the epicentres of the insurgency, ill-
prepared with ‘makeshift’ weapons compared to 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
their 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 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 respond, 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, an
impeccable observation the military authorities vehemently
denied.

Huge population of
Nigerians in the Northeast
are exterminated,
evidently by Boko Haram
militants and seemingly
complicity of the Nigerian
military in the insurgency
crisis, perhaps powered
by some unfathomable
formidable force
masterminding 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 accordingly, hone their tools
morally and spiritually, utilise the billion-naira funds for
the terror war in 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 HARD WAY, THE
ONLY WAY they can effectively deal with the crisis we have
at hand.


Source: http://www.opinions.ng/are-the-soldiers-betraying-their-commander-in-chief/