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Continued from Part 6

When you keep getting the wrong answers, try asking better questions (Jonathan Lockwood Huie)

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination (Albert Einstein)

There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human hatred (Thomas Paine)

his column has maintained times without number that the war against the insurgents has lingered because of sabotage, as that was the main reason the Nigerian military has previously failed to rout the insurgents. The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, James F. Entwistle, reiterated this point, last week in Yola, when he said that the Boko Haram's killings in the north-eastern part of Nigeria has endured and that the crisis was getting stronger due to the political undertone and internal sabotage by the people of Nigeria. In his words: "In the past six months it is very clear the manner Boko Haram is getting stronger that there is internal sabotage. The deadly gang has efficient military operations, the way they operate is clear that they receive military training based on the tactics they employ to operate.

The American Ambassador also gave insight into why the Nigerian military is facing difficulty procuring arms from the United States to combat the extremist Boko Haram sect wreaking havoc in Nigeria’s North Eastern region, leading the Nigerian government to desperately opt for the controversial discreet purchase of arms in South Africa.? According to Premium Times, the American Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, said cases of human rights abuses by Nigerian troops in the North-East in the past years have stood out as a sore thumb as the United States considers the Nigerian military’s request for arms. In the Ambassador’s words “Before we share equipment with any country, whether it is a government to government grant or a commercial sale that requires government approval, we look at a couple of things. Does it make sense in terms of that country’s needs? The second thing we look at is the human rights situation in that country. And as we look at equipment transfers, we look at the situation in those countries in the past few years. And as you all know, there have been instances (I’m not saying across the board) of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in the North-East. So the kind of question that we have to ask is let’s say we give certain kinds of equipment to Nigerian military that is then used in a way that affects human situation. If I approve that, I’m responsible for that. We take that responsibility very seriously.”

Human rights abuses by the Nigerian military are not new. The Nigerian military has been perpetrating atrocities and getting away with them, like it did during the civil war, and still, it doesn‘t know again where to draw the line. Before now, whenever the Nigerian security personnel accosted the insurgents, some of them ran into the bush while others looked for a foreign country to run into and hide. When it comes to the innocent civilians, the military personnel will become powerful and start maltreating them, but become powerless when confronting the terorists. To buttress this point, we just read that the military has discovered that some soldiers and officers are inventing pranks to avoid deployment to the battlefield while others faked strange ailments. Also, about seven military personnel battling to rout out Boko Haram terrorists from communities seized in Adamawa State recently shot themselves in parts of their bodies, which were not life threatening, with a view to escape being drafted to the battle field to confront Boko Haram terrorists. After allegedly shooting themselves in the arm, hip, foot and making sure that the bullets did not affect any bones in these parts of their bodies, the officers ran to a military hospital and claimed that they were shot by terrorists. The military said that the alleged attacks on the seven soldiers were carefully masterminded by the troops, so for it to look as if the Boko Haram terrorists actually attacked them. Medical experts attached to the hospital in Vintim, where the “wounded soldiers” ran to, after carrying out several checks and x-rays on the gunshot wounds, discovered that the officers had 'clean gunshot wounds' which meant the injuries were 99% self inflicted.

While seven officers shot themselves to escape deployment against the insurgents, a colonel and 15 of his soldiers decided to destroy their military vehicles and equipment rather than face the enemies. But when it comes to maltreating the innocent civilians, the soldiers will persevere. The military has said that a colonel and 15 of his soldiers abandoned battle after first destroying their own Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and armored tanks and then lied about the destruction of the vehicles by ascribing it to insurgents. According to the Tribune: “the colonel and his soldiers "were pushing forward towards the terrorists in Adamawa Sate, while other troops surrounded them. And as the troops were moving towards the insurgents with air support and passing information to the troops, the pilot informed the commander that the Boko Haram insurgents were coming in six Hilux vehicles. Then, the commander and his troops jumped down from the Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and armoured tanks, set them ablaze and took to their heels. The colonel and the soldiers reported to their superiors that the equipment were destroyed by insurgents. Consequently, a board of inquiry was set up only to discover that the APCs and armoured tanks were set ablaze by the troops. Following the indictment of the troops, a court martial is soon to be convened to try the officer and the 15 soldiers. A top military source disclosed that since the commencement of court martials, the attitude of the troops to the war against insurgency has changed, hence they were able to record victories in Konduga, Michika, Madagali and other places”. The Chief of defence Staff, Badeh, angrily said few days ago, when asked why all these court-martialling of soldiers for mutiny: "soldiers just jump out of APCs because you want to donate APCs to Boko Haram, and somebody is there talking about constructive mutiny. The laws are there, if you run away from the enemy, you will die and that is what the military law says. Apart from the old Nigerian law, we abide by the military law. Nobody forces or conscripts anybody into the military; it is a voluntary service, and so if we have this type of challenge, you should be able to confront it and not run away."

Is that not reprehensible that seven officers shot themselves to escape deployment against the insurgents and a colonel and 15 of his soldiers decided to destroy their military vehicles and equipment rather than face the enemies; but, when it comes to maltreating the innocent civilians, the soldiers will persevere. That was partly what the United States’ Ambassador was referring to when he said that his country will not sell weapons to the Nigerian military. Report from Michika, according to elombah of October 13, says that “soldiers have tortured some Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) to death. The case of gross human rights abuses have continuously been in the fore of the Nigerian troop’s activities in the ongoing war against insurgency. A displaced person from Michika local government area of Adamawa State, Ali Ibrahim, told reporters in Yola that soldiers tortured him and some other IDPs, leading to the death of some of them on the mere suspicion of being members of the Boko Haram sect. The allegation of Ali Ibrahim is coming few hours after soldiers allegedly killed three IDPs at Durumi, a suburb of Abuja. Speaking to journalists in Yola, the victim who said he survived the torture after the military thought that he, like other victims, had also died as his body was dumped in the bush alongside other corpses. He said he was attacked by vigilante at Betso village when he and one Haruna Abdullahi escaped from Michika the day Boko Haram took over the town. “The vigilante boys manhandled us and robbed us of money and phones before taking us to the soldiers,” he disclosed. He also noted that at the time they were arrested, none of them was bearing any weapon or anything that could attract such suspicion to them”.

The above points notwithstanding, America was wrong here for not selling weapons to Nigeria. America has committed human rights abuses in so many other countries more than any other country. America plays double standard when it comes to human rights. America is not a “saint” and should stop preaching. America can only defend itself that most of the human rights abuses recorded against it were mostly perpetrated by the lower ranks and not by the upper echelon of its military, and when detected, the perpetrators are punished accordingly, unlike in Nigeria, where human rights abuses have turned into the military’s unofficial official policies, as the officers and lower ranks engage in them without any consequence. This writer concurs with this:

https://odili.net/news/source/2014/oct/13/313.html

On the other hand, the Ambassador made an incontestable point when he admonished Nigeria not to think that the war against Boko Haram could be won only by buying hi-tech equipment, saying to achieve result in the campaign, the country must take the welfare of its troops even more seriously. His words: “I would say as we support the military in the struggle against Boko Haram, obviously equipment is part of the equation but I think it’s more than that. It bothers me when I talk to soldiers in the North-East and they say they are in the frontline with only a few bullets. I think what’s more important is the basic needs of soldiers on the field, making sure … they are well trained and they have ammunition for their rifles. If you don’t focus on taking care of welfare of soldiers on the ground, buying hi-tech equipment does not solve anything.”

On Corruption, the US Ambassador said it was the major problem militating against the development of Nigeria, as it had detained the growth of both democracy and the economy of the country. In his words: “Corruption is a huge problem in Nigeria, everybody knows about this. Corruption can be tackled in Nigeria only when there are strong institutions like the security agents, judiciary and others. Individuals should be bold to challenge public office holders on how they get money to buy big cars, build houses in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the world. The members of the media should be courageous to put Nigerian leaders on the public scale for members of the public to judge their activities in office”.

Due to sabotage, those leading our soldiers turned them into a national embarasement by ill-equipping them, while pocketing the money meant for their weapons, as some of us watched a video showing how some of our soldiers and civilians were fleeing for their lives in Mubi, Adamawa State, on September 9, 2014. The shameful clip was a clear case of the “hunters becoming the hunted“. From what we know now, no one is surprised that our miltary was failing in the war against the insurgents, because, at a point, there was insuinations that the Nigerian Armed Forces were not better armed, responsive and service oriented when placed in comparison with their Cameroonian counterparts. And that must have been the reason the Cameroonians were killing the insurgents at a point in the war while Nigerian soldiers were looking for a foreign country to run into and hide, but, Jeff Cooper (1920- 2006), who was a US Marine, wrote: "An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."

Talking of sabotage, the Defence Headquarters has said that it was aware that members of the outlawed Islamist sect, Boko Haram, were in the habit of looting its armoury. These lootings can only be possible with the connivance of some senior military officers and their lower ranked cohorts. The top military commanders were feeding large on the entitlements of the rank and file, while the demoralized soldiers were forced to trudge on, as the slightest yaff from them would be deemed a mutiny. Sabotage permeates all strata of the Nigerian military, as we now know that several soldiers leaked vital security information on the troops' strategies and tactics to Boko Haram which led to a series of ambush and killing of over 30 Nigerian soldiers in recent times. What made the matter grievous was the fact that many of those compromised soldiers were orderlies or aide-de-camps, ADCs, to Commanders of Troops on the field. What those orderlies and aides of Commanders were doing was to immediately pass on the information to the terrorists, through calls, after operational briefings and troops take off. An act of sabotage by some soldiers, who have been arrested by the military authorities for leaking information on the deployment of soldiers from Maimalari Barracks in April this year to the terrorists, led to an ambush and killing of so many soldiers of the 101 Battalion that consequently led to soldiers' mutiny and the shooting at the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed. The leaks which enabled the terrorists to ambush the troops, hence the heavy casualties being recorded by the troops, must have been the reason the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, justified the death penalty imposed on 12 soldiers who were earlier tried for mutiny. Badeh was so angry that he even suggested trying errant soldiers in battlefield and giving them summary execution if found guilty. He rightly pointed out that "the day you join the military, you have signed off, whether life or death, and it is "obey before complaint." This writer is telling Badeh that in the case of the 12 convicted soldiers, they should be pardoned, because, their actions were caused by their compromised colleagues. As human beings, the mutinous soldiers felt betrayed, because, when they knew what was going on and nobody addressed the issue, leading them into more danger, they reacted the way they did, although they know that the norm in the military is “obey before complaint” and that once somebody signs to join the military, he or she should be ready to live or die in defence of the fatherland.

We read that Commanders on the field had for long wondered how information on strategies for deployment, type of weaponry and fall back tactics easily filtered out to the terrorists to the extent that soldiers' movement, timing of deployment, and routes to take, became known to Boko Haram insurgents without knowing that their own “right hand “men were the leaks. So, nobody did anything to plug those leaks until it was too late. Actually, it must be admitted that it took the military such long time to detect these breaches, because, nobody could have suspected that an orderly or the ADC of a Commander will be the one giving out information as he does everything for the Commander and he is with him all the time. Really, orderly or ADC is the last person that would be suspected. Look at what the passing of information about its strategies and operational road map in the North East to Boko Haram terrorists by orderlies and close aides of commanders on the field caused: We learned that it led to recent shooting down of the Nigerian Airforce Alpha Jet on September 12 which took off from Yola airport and the killing of one of its pilots. The situation also led to mutual suspicion among fellow commanders, the Brigade headquarters and even the Division headquarters. Now, the commanders are afraid to make calls in the presence of their orderlies not knowing whether they will in turn inform the Boko Haram terrorists that the troops are coming to attack them.

It’s unfortunate that many Nigerians in the north-eastern part of Nigeria trusted the Nigerian military for protection against the inurgents not knowing that the personnel in the field were shortchanged by some of their superiors and collagues who were compromised or were seeking personal advantage from the responsiblity given to them. Before those Nigerians in the north-east realized what was going on, many of them have been killed, displaced or made to lose all they had. If there’s a second chance for these victims of sabotage, they would never trust anybody again for their defence, no matter whatever anybody tells them, as Edmund Randolph (1753-1813) wrote that "A people who mean to be free must be prepared to meet danger in person, and not rely upon the fallacious protection of armies".

The Nigerian military is having the upper hand in the war now, but, only after many had lost their lives and property due to sabotage, in one way or the other. How can those victims be succored? TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCr99hhNNIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8W0qihE3oA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-04pxoduiI

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 6