A country’s military power is one critical index of the level of respect it enjoys in the comity of nations. Our military under former President Goodluck Jonathan as the Commander-in-Chief were easily dismissed by folks within and observers abroad. Not much was known why this was so until recently. The investigation into the $2.1 billion arms procurement scandal appears to have bared it all: a toxic mix of corruption, poor leadership and sectarian splits turned our military to a hollow force — a shadow of the Armed Forces we used to know.
The result was that soldiers were denied sufficient bullets with which to fight; had their welfare reduced; while refurbished aircraft were procured for the airforce instead of new ones. And betrayal became the norm. Alex Badeh, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, admitted, “The activities of fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to the terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult.” And the backlash? It did not only blunt the effectiveness of the fight, as Badeh said, but also led to the needless deaths of numerous officers and men who unwittingly fell into ambushes prepared by terrorists who had advance information of their approach. These were perverse incentives to the Boko Haram that created the myth of its invincibility for too long.
However, those who inadvertently master-minded this fairy-tale through abuse of office are being disrobed with the sordid details of how some military top brass were also sucked in, in the $2.1 billion arms procurement bazaar, as did the political elite. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has grilled some of the former service chiefs, Badeh and Adeola Amosu, the erstwhile Chief of Air Staff, over the incident. It is set to prosecute them. Many more are in the line-up, according to the EFCC.
Army Headquarters had early this month forwarded the names of 12 army officers to the EFCC. The list comprised seven generals and five colonels. The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Sani Usman, in a statement to this effect, said, “This comprised of three serving Major-Generals, and one retired, three Brigadier-Generals, four Colonels and one Lieutenant-Colonel.” A presidential committee set up to audit the procurement of arms and equipment for the Armed Forces from 2007 to 2015 discovered sundry abuses in about 10 contracts amounting to $930.5 million. Part of it was the $136.9 million used to procure two second-hand Mi-24V helicopters, instead of the recommended brand new Mi35 series.
Instructively, a brand new version of the helicopter costs $30 million, which means that the $136.9 million would have procured four helicopters. Besides, the committee alleged that the Office of the National Security Adviser funded the procurement of four used Alpha-Jets for the Nigeria Air Force at the cost of $7 million, but only two were delivered. Strangely, these aircraft were not militarised and therefore, not combat-ready for the North-East military assignment. Dumped for NAF training only, the aircraft now serve as abiding evidence of official recklessness and abuse of the treasury. How low have our military sunk?
Stewardship and moral issues that spew out from these constitute a serious challenge to the military. What happened to contract specifications and adherence to public procurement process? Some officers and their relations have returned huge amounts to the government as enquiries continue.
The ground Boko Haram fighters gained in 2014 that led to the raiding of villages, slaughtering of hapless civilians and soldiers on an unprecedented scale, kidnapping of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls, out of which 219 are still in captivity, seizing control of Gwoza and Damboa axis in Borno State, which they proclaimed their caliphate, was simply because our soldiers lacked superior firing power.
Soldiers buckled as this rag-tag army advanced. This led to military camps in Yadi, Gari, Buni and Goniri in Yobe State being taken over by them. Twice, the soldiers retreated to Cameroon. Their vulnerability gained public attention when their wives protested in Maiduguri. “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,” screamed the women. Many of the soldiers who complained about these deficiencies were dismissed from service, while others deserted.
The odium this brought to Nigeria, especially from international quarters, may have waned now with the change of guards in political leadership. However, the fate of the abducted Chibok girls, the over 20,000 peoples killed so far, and the more than 1.9 million internally displaced people in camps scattered across the country, among them orphans, remains heart-rending images of the seven-year-old display of barbarism.
In war, the life of every soldier counts. But Badeh said he led a military, which lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight an enemy that was invisible and embedded with the local populace. What a tragedy! Military officers, who might be ultimately found culpable of corrupt enrichment in this saga, should be deemed to have committed war crimes and treated accordingly. It is against this background that we ask for the re-engagement of all soldiers cashiered for refusing to confront well-armed insurgents with almost bare-hands.
The serious lessons inherent in this bizarre tale should not be lost on us. Discipline and decorum, the twin values on which the military institution is crested, have been badly eroded. This bodes ill. A military whose strength is denuded by corruption can hardly be a force to be reckoned with. As this was manifestly evident under Jonathan, Nigeria had to rely on soldiers from our immediate neighbours: Chad, Niger and Cameroon, to fight our battle with Boko Haram. With these countries’ full knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses, is our territorial integrity safe?
However, this dreadful scene could easily become a forgotten past with a return of discipline, stamping out impunity from the system and making commanding officers to appreciate the fact that accountability is inherent in leadership. Where allowances of junior officers are creamed off from the top, as the Akure soldiers riot a few years ago underlined, was indeed degrading.
Returning to good soldiery is in our collective interest. President Muhammadu Buhari must act with urgency. He must provide the leadership necessary to restore the military’s pride and fighting spirit. With a sharp focus on leadership, discipline and training, the present crop of service chiefs can make a remarkable difference in a short time. But on the long run, our Armed Forces should be reformed to ensure that only the best in character, training and professionalism reach the top. It is the only guarantee against the country living one day at the mercy of an aggressive and ambitious neighbour, or any belligerent nation afar.
