Equipping our soldiers for terror war – Punch

Soldiers rarely shy away from war; or defy the orders of their commanders to be deployed in the battle front. But this is the order of the day in Borno State, where the military have been battling Islamic insurgents. Many of the soldiers are reportedly being killed like chicken by the rampaging Boko Haram insurgents in the frontline states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe that have been under a state of emergency for more than one year now. This scandal has exposed the underbelly of the Nigerian Army; it must be investigated to forestall this national embarrassment from festering.

The reported refusal of about 40 soldiers from Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri, to be drafted to Gwoza and Damboa on August 19, for allegedly being armed with weapons inferior to the insurgents armour, should not be seen by the Army high command as entirely its own affair. It is absolutely not so; because the action imperils the collective security of the country and its territorial integrity.

Before the soldiers’ open defiance, their wives had early in August blocked the barracks gate to prevent a military truck from carrying away their husbands to the warfront. They had yelled, “We don’t want to be made another set of widows; give our husbands modern and better arms, weapons and vehicles, or they go nowhere.” Not surprisingly, one of the soldiers in a media report was quoted to have expressed such concern: “We were only given guns and some ammunition, even the armoured tank that we were supposed to go with was withdrawn….” With devastating effects, Boko Haram has launched several attacks with Armoured Personnel Carriers, rocket launchers, grenades and machine guns.

Its superior fire power is seen in the many villages it has razed to the ground: Gwoza town in Borno State has just been declared an “Islamic state,” just as Damboa was seized earlier in the month. The military camps in Yadi, Gari, Buni and Goniri in Yobe State were reportedly deserted recently and taken over by Boko Haram during an encounter with soldiers. Last week, they overran a police academy with 290 trainees in Borno State, in a raid executed with three APCs. No fewer than 35 cadets are said to be missing, while arms and ammunition were looted.

In February, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State had said that “… Boko Haram are better armed and better motivated than our troops… Given the present state of affairs, it is absolutely impossible for us to defeat Boko Haram.” Instead of investigating his claim, both the President and his aides vilified him. Today, Shettima has been vindicated. The Chief of Army Staff, Kenneth Minimah, told soldiers of 82 Division, Nigerian Army, Enugu, last week of plans to order new weapons from abroad, which he believed, would give new impetus to the war against insurgency in the North-East region. “When they arrive, you can trust me that we’ll end that war very, very soon,” Minimah enthused. He also warned soldiers against the felony of conspiring or conniving with the terrorists.

These operational debilities ought not to have existed in the first place. How was the N3 trillion provided for security in the last three years expended, amid the recurring massacre of our soldiers by insurgents? There are also reports alleging that some military hardware procured from China are of inferior quality, and therefore inoperable in war situations, while the welfare of the soldiers is sometimes compromised. The soldiers’ revolt in Akure, Ondo State, in 2008 over the non-payment of their $1.05 million allowance from an international operation, for which some officers involved were demoted, bares it all.

It is not enough for Minimah to berate the defiant soldiers, stress the fatal consequences of their action, or warn their spouses against interfering in military matters. Our soldiers had performed with acclamation in ECOMOG, African Union and United Nations military duties in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Mali and Congo. For the reverse to suddenly be the case at home means that the military and political authorities have cases to answer. It is our conviction that an ill-equipped or haphazardly funded military would fall prostrate in battle.

Abubakar Umar, a retired colonel, has stressed the need to stem the tide of mutiny by addressing the causative factors. He attributed the crisis to dubious recruitment methods, poor training and equipment, lack of motivation and “civilianisation” of the military. We agree.

It remains troubling that the Jonathan administration has dangerously vacillated in prosecuting this war. And terroristsflourish on vacillation by governments. Now, Boko Haram has been transformed to al-Qaeda in Nigeria. The lethal virus can no longer be ignored; it must be eradicated. We must realise that the longer we dither, the better prepared this bestial group against military assaults, the more reinforced its defence and the more it copies gruesome acts from fellow jihadists like Iraq’s ISIS in executing terror attacks here.

In collaboration with friendly countries, we must rework our intelligence community, train and equip our security forces in the best way possible. This horror can only be contained by targeting Boko Haram leadership and destroying its operational capacities, as well as by seeking to discredit its malevolent ideology.