In a desperate letter to President Goodluck
Jonathan and Senate President David Mark
leaked to SaharaReporters this past
weekend, a commanding officer stationed in
Nigeria's northeast details several troubling
issues plaguing troops combatting Islamist
terror group Boko Haram in the region.
President Goodluck Jonathan
The officer stated that, corruption,
maladministration, lack of resources and troops
motivation has militated against a successful
campaign to end Boko Haram's deadly reign of
terror in the northeast.
The officer's lengthy complaint which he claims
would lead to a threat to his life forewarns that
if his pleas continue to be ignored by the
country's leadership that both the Nigerian Army
and the country will crumble under the
insurgency.
"If all issues raised in this letter are not urgently
addressed, the Nigerian Army will soon be
history and by implication there will be no
country called Nigeria," the officer gravely
states. "No country without a strong army will
survive."
Below is the full text of the officer's letter
addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan
PLEASE MR PRESIDENT SAVE THE MILITARY AND
NIGERIA FROM COLLAPSING
1. Sir, I am constrain to write you this letter
which I consider it a matter of more than great
importance for me to inform you and put to record
issues that are happening in the North East
(Operation Zaman Lafiya). I choose this medium
to write you this open letter because I have written
similar letter but no action was taking which I
believe some forces have blocked it are now after
my life. Sir I have served in 7 Division as staff
officer and presently I am the commanding officer
of 103Bn in the field. My combined wealth of
experience as a staff officer and now commanding
officer are the disturbing fact that necessitated me
to write you this letter. While as a staff officer, I
was among those who believed that the
commanders in the field are not doing well. But
presently, as a commander in the field, I found
out that it is not the fault of any commander that
the defeat of the so called BOKO HARAM (BH) has
not been achieved.
2. First and foremost sir, the Nigerian Army is
poorly equipped in the North East, if all the
battalions are well-equipped as required; it will
not take the Army more than two weeks to flush
out the BH. Presently there are four units in my
location here in KONDUGA including 21 Armoured
Brigade HQ. If all the units are provided with all
their requirements, we can advance and flush out
BH out of North East. Mr. President sir, the
Nigerian Army is well-trained and capable of
defending our nation. It has demonstrated the
capacity to even successfully enforce peace in
other nations. Why not in our own country
Nigeria?
3. The fact about NE operation is that we are
poorly equipped, understaffed, high corruption
from Army Headquarters down to battalion level.
Commanders see it as opportunity to make
money. My predecessor has complained of the
same problem. Instead of ASA addressing the
issue raised by him, the army authorities decided
to Court Martialled him. All the units in NE are
understaffed, but on payroll their strength are
complete just to collect more allowances than
what each unit is supposed to. The commanders
see it as a personal money making venture rather
than taking care of men and equipment. This ugly
trend led to loss of many officers and soldiers
and thereby having adverse effect on the moral
(sic) of troops. Majority of soldiers in the
operation area wear mufti (civil cloths) under their
military uniforms in case there is an attack and
the troops cannot withstand the BH, they found it
easy to disguise as civilians to enable them
escape. This is not the traditional practice in the
NA. Though it is lack of adequate equipment and
poor administration from the higher authority that
resulted to this ugly trend by our troops
4. Sir, another bad and unprofessional act is
that soldiers don’t take to orders from their
superior officers because they have lost
confidence/trust from them. The case of former
General Officer Commanding 7 Division Major
General A. Mohammed is enough evidence to
show that all is not well in the Nigerian Army. It
will interest you to note that worse cases has
been recorded before that of the former GOC and
more are still happening, but nobody is ready to
investigate the root cause of problems facing the
troops in the field.
5. This brings me to a recent occurrence which
is my main purpose of writing this letter. As I
mentioned earlier, due to the failure of the
authority to address issues that I made
mentioned, when a unit is attacked and overran by
the BH not because the soldiers are unable to
fight, but lack of weapons, ammunitions and
communications equipment, the soldiers on many
occasions will ran away, and a commander cannot
stand and fight alone as a result of this. Presently
seventy percent of commanders in the NE are
facing Court Martial due to the reasons
mentioned. We the commanding officers are very
worried over this development. This is because we
many soon find our self as victims of this
maladministration from our higher authorities.
6. There is no sincerity in this operation; this is
because the present acting GOC has never visited
any location outside Maiduguri town not to talk of
principal staff officers in Army Headquarters or
even the COAS. But we keep on hearing all sorts
of lies that Generals are leading the fight against
BH. These are facts that can be confirmed from
officers and soldiers in this operation including
those in the 7 Division Headquarters. The GOC is
so afraid that even with the Divisional
Headquarters; he doesn’t go out and always
locked himself inside his office. Infact it is a
common knowledge among officers and soldiers
in this operation that the acting GOC is here to
make his money and earn his promotion to the
detriment of the operation. The completion of his
mansion at No 8 Gwamna Road in Kaduna which
the GOC ignorantly disclosed that when he
completed it, will be among the best houses in
Kaduna, has turned to be a subject of discussion
among troops.
7. The former 21 Armored Brigade commander
is facing Court Martial today because the acting
GOC does not want to see him and his garrision
in Maiduguri town simply because of the huge
monthly allocations from the Borno State
government to the brigade garrision. He wanted to
be collecting his money by using 7 Div Garrison,
but in reality 7 Div Garrision does not have troops
to claim such money. It is worthy to note that the
GOC received 33,000litres of AGO and PMS each,
600 bags of rice monthly from Borno State
government. All these items are diverted for his
personal use.
8. Recently the newly appointed 21 Brigade
commander lead 3 units to flush out the BH, that
operation was successful, almost 300 BH were
killed, weapons and vehicles were recovered from
them, in the process the troops exhausted their
ammunitions from the Div, the GOC simply replied
that there was no ammunition this made all the
troops to withdraw back to KONDUGA.
9. Presently more than 3000 officers and
soldiers are either killed in action, deserted,
captured as POW or on AWOL. But due to lack of
proper administration the army directed that their
salary should be stopped. This affect the families
of those that are either genuinely killed in action
or captured as Prisoners of War. It has also
affected some of the troops that are still
participating in this operation.
10. Mr. President sir, if all issues raised in this
letter are not urgently address, the Nigerian Army
will soon be history and by implication there will
be no country called Nigeria. No country without
strong army will survive. I decided to write you
this letter because the life of officers and soldiers
trusted in my care are no longer save. My life is
also at the stake because the NA authority as
usual will say I have communicated directly to you
as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
and may sanction me. As a citizen of this country
and a commander in the operational area, with all
the points I have mentioned in this letter, it is
clearly that the Military authorities have failed the
country, as such they should be held liable for
their misdeeds. I have consulted seasonal
constitutional lawyers if writing you this letter will
be an offence, but they said it is my constitutional
right to inform the C in C about what is happening
in the NE and within the military which if not
address will affect the survival of Nigeria.

emperorchedda:

LORD of SB.AN.
I hail thee, what technique do U use