MIGHTY ARMIES ON PAPER BY
Mahmud Jega
I am not surprised that Nigerian Army’s spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu came out with [oral] guns blazing at The Economist of London, which last week published an uncomplimentary editorial on Nigeria’s government and its army. It called Nigeria “A crime scene in the centre of Africa.” Which I think is okay because Britain itself is a historic crime scene in the centre of the world, of slavery, colonial exploitation, unprovoked warfare, economic undermining of nations and subtle instigation of conflicts dressed up as fine diplomacy.
The magazine said Nigerian Army “is mighty on paper” because it has not been able to end Boko Haram insurgency in ten years or, more recently, to defeat bandits and kidnappers. Well, if that is the yardstick for determining a mighty army on paper, I think The Economist should more appropriately direct that label at the US Army.
Nigeria’s military has been battling Boko Haram for only 12 years now, with a relatively meagre budget because the national treasury is beset by other problems. In contrast, the US military spent 20 years and $6 trillion battling the Taliban in Afghanistan. What was the result? Taliban is back in power in the country even as the Americans escaped with their tails between their legs.
The British Army wasn’t any better in that respect. In twenty years until 1992, it proved wholly unable to defeat the Provisional Irish Republican Army [IRA], the “Provos” as they were called then, or even to end what the Irish called “The Troubles” in their province. It took the signing of the Good Friday Accord in 1992 to end the British Army’s agony. Now, the British Army is several hundred years older than, its armoury a hundred times more lethal and its annual budget is several times bigger than Nigerian Army’s. In addition, IRA were lightly-armed thugs compared to Boko Haram. So which of the two armies is mightier on paper, if truth be told?
All conventional armies in this world have difficulty fighting asymmetric warfare, essentially because they are not trained for it. Guerillas also have many advantages, including lack of scrutiny of their actions by human rights organisations. The Economist said many of our soldiers are “ghosts” who exist only on the payroll.
This allegation has routinely been made with respect to some Local Government Councils and some MDAs in Nigeria. This is however the first time that anyone is making this allegation against the Army, whose troops are always seen at the numerous battle fronts fighting insurgents, bandits, militants, secessionists and other criminals. Almost everyone in Nigeria can see that the number of our troops is inadequate for our current needs, but no one ever said the number is adequate on the payroll.
The Economist also made the strange allegation that “much of [Nigerian Army’s] equipment is stolen and sold to insurgents.” It should please cross-check with MI6, the British intelligence service. Much of Boko Haram’s weapons came from Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenal, which NATO countries bombed despite pleas from the African Union [AU] to desist. What about the weapons that have destabilized other Sahelian African countries all the way from Mali to Burkina Faso to Niger Republic to Darfur, South Sudan and Somalia? Were they all sold to insurgents by rogue Nigerian soldiers?
What is true is that in the earlier phase of this conflict, Boko Haram overrun many army posts and seized their weapons, a happening which ended with the consolidation of army posts into super camps. That is not the same thing as “selling” weapons to insurgents. In any case, you Western guys withheld from us much needed equipment and material needed to end this war based on allegations that our troops abused human rights of captured insurgents.
That was another hypocrisy. Were weapons denied to the US Army in Vietnam because of the My Lai massacre, when soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and Company B, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division of the US Army massacred 504 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in March 1968? More recently, were they denied weapons because of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq?
Nigerian Army needs assistance from friendly countries to finish off insurgents and bandits. Sniping from the sidelines with false allegations, such as The Economist did, will only prolong everyone’s agony.
Quick Intervention in 21st Century Chronicle, Tuesday, October 26, 2021.
Lateef Taiwo Bamgbose
Good Publicity for the Nigerian military, it is a mere justification for what Nigerian military has become, as ” beautiful’ as this publicity stunt , for every keen observer of events in Nigeria, the Economist may not be far from the fact even as one might be tempted to concede without admitting that some of the problems mentioned here were as a result of years of politizations and religionalize of the military, recall that it was general Salisu Ibrahim, the former Chief of Army Staff , who first described Nigerian Army as the ” Army of anything goes” following the entrenched promotions and appointment of officers based on where you come from and the god you worship.
Nothing has changed several decades after he left the military. What we have today in Nigeria is Army of occupation backup by regional and ethnic Bloc, if not business men in uniform.
You have indeed demonstrate your patriotism like your days in New Nigeria Newspapers.
Olasupo Bamidele
As much as I commend the writer’s view to a certain extent, especially in reaction to the Economist’s prejudicial piece, I must also mention the fact that if there is no crack in a wall, the Lizard will not make it a dwelling place.
Yes. We can go on and on with Britain’s hypocrisy and hypocritical antecedents, especially Britain’s role in Iraqi invasion. In fact, Tony Blair, a war criminal was never tried or reprimanded after a 1,000 page Chilcott’s report exonerated Saddam and Iraq from wielding WMD. Such is the magnitude of hypocrisy of the West.
To our own problem and the state of the nation, how many people had been indicted or sent to the gallows for aiding Boko haram and bandits? The government even has audacity to consider amnesty for a group that has rendered about 3 million people homeless and hopeless. What about the 400 Bureau de change operators, 6 terrorism financiers indicted by UAE, 5 Emirs aiding bandits and 20 security operatives??
What about Wadume who the men of the Nigerian army killed 2 men of IRT to rescue?
What about NSA Monguno’s allegation about missing arms money that he later made a U-turn on? When the immediate past COAS was quizzed about the arms money by the senate didn’t he refer them to Buratai for questioning? What was the outcome? Buratai was rewarded with an ambassadorial position.
The most ironic and ridiculous aspect of the Buratai issue was when he asserted that the war against insurgency cannot be won in 20 years with arms alone. So he knew this all along, and he kept requesting for billions of dollars to buy weapon? What a deceitful and repugnant being he was?
The writer should not pretend or turn a blind eye to all the events listed above. We know Economist deliberately exaggerated the narrative, but are some of the narrative far from the truth, even though a response is necessary in order not to demoralize our army?
Abdul Oroh
Thank you Mahmoud for this excellent analysis and support for our military’s information management team. I must admit they are doing a difficult job and they need support.
I agree with you entirely but we cannot use the Western standard and values to judge ours. We should have higher standards. To that extent, let’s investigate or interrogate the “ ghost” Army allegation and other troubling reports that have turned our Country into the “crime scene in the heart of Africa”. Do we have more troops on paper( salary roll) than in reality? Are our troops or officers selling arms to the insurgents, irrespective of what we know about the capture of arms by insurgents?Are there any incidents of some officers and /or soldiers leaking information about troops movement, battle plans etc to the insurgents? Did our Airforce or Army buy anti- Aircraft guns from the bandits as alleged by the New York Times? Then, this is a political question: are the bandits terrorists or not? Who is funding the terrorists? Why is it that nobody civil or military has ever been brought to trial for colluding with the bandits/?insurgents/ terrorists? There have been local reports and allegations even by governors and the AGF of politicians, emirs,National Assembly members etc colluding with bandits, why has there been no single prosecution? Are they above the law? Let’s not worry so much about what they are saying about us. Let’s worry more about these issues that trouble us as we fight to defeat our enemies and restore peace in our country. To say that Information Minister Lai Mohammed has been a total failure and an absolute disaster is to say the obvious. I don’t know what or how he feels when he saw the cover of The Economist.
