- Cameroon shows Nigeria how to honour fallen combatants
One of the most disheartening aspects of the anti-insurgency campaign currently being waged by Nigeria in concert with Cameroon, Niger and Chad is the way in which Nigeria has failed to properly honour the soldiers who have paid the supreme price for their fatherland.
Cameroon demonstrated the proper way to treat fallen heroes with a series of elaborate military funerals in which the country’s citizens came together as one to celebrate the courage and fortitude of those who had fully lived up to their oath to protect their nation with their own lives. Families of the fallen heroes were invited, as was the general public. Coffins were draped in the Cameroonian national flag, and the departed soldiers were given posthumous medals for bravery.
The Cameroonian example is replicated in many other countries, most notably in the United Kingdom and the United States, where personnel killed in action are treated with a dignity that emphasises both the extent of the sacrifice made and the esteem in which those who made it are held. In the US, the coffins are received at airports with a sombre dignity; for several years, the small town of Wootton Basset was the UK’s major site for the honouring of British military personnel killed in action in Afghanistan.
These countries fully understand the importance of what they are doing. All the rhetoric about patriotism, bravery and fortitude will count for nothing if those who fight for their nation know that nothing will be done to honour their memories if they die. Unlike other professions, a military career is more than just a vocation: it is a calling in which one can be asked to pay the supreme price. That is why the honour they receive when they die in action is far more significant than what is extended to those in other jobs.
Tragically, it is a lesson that Nigeria is yet to learn. Ever since the country’s involvement in the Liberian and Sierra Leone conflicts in the 1990s, the armed forces have developed the unwelcome habit of performing mass burials in conditions of great secrecy. Casualty numbers are a closely-guarded secret, even while the deaths of enemy combatants are trumpeted. In spite of all the promises from President Goodluck Jonathan and the military hierarchy, it is clear that the Nigerian soldier is far more likely to be put on trial for insubordination, mutiny or cowardice, than to be publicly honoured for bravery.
Instead of being openly acknowledged by a grateful nation, the deeds of gallant soldiers are often limited to scattered mentions on social media, such as tweets, and posts on blogs and Facebook. The story of Wing-Commander Chimda Hedima who was beheaded by Boko Haram is a case in point. Instead of just bailing out after his plane was hit, Hedima deliberately crashed his aircraft into a column of insurgents, thereby causing the death of 63 of them. Rather than confirm reports of Hedima’s death, the military high command preferred to stonewall the media, as if the late pilot had disgraced the armed forces in some inexplicable way.
If Nigeria wants to become the nation of heroes that it can be, it must learn to bestow honour upon those who are deserving of it. The courageous members of the armed forces should be at the forefront of this distinguished group. They must be properly motivated and equipped, adequately led and fully briefed. When they are injured, immediate evacuation and comprehensive medical care should be the top priority. And when they are killed, they must be mourned and celebrated like the heroes and heroines that they are.
