Still on Failing State & Fading Peacekeepers By Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai

Last week’s column on our nation’s
peacekeeping failures ruffled more
than a few feathers both within the
defence establishment and corridors
of executive power. That was
expected, because when those
wasting our resources in the name
of our defence become exposed in
the way our peacekeeping capacity
has rapidly deteriorated, all kinds of
motives will be imputed to divert
attention from the wanton looting of
the defence and security budgets
going on between the presidency
and the agencies concerned.
Far more humbling and sobering for
me were the number of military
officers, both serving and retired
that called, wrote, tweeted and sent
emails to confirm the essence of
what we wrote last week, and
offered further stories, anecdotes
and facts about the general decline
of our once-proud military and
peacekeeping capabilities. It seems
according to one commentator, that
the Nigerian military now has
acquired all the sad constituents of
decay that have bedeviled the
country. We will share some of
these today, looking a little closer at
the quantity and quality of the
equipment of the Nigeria Army,
facts about the declining levels of
our peacekeeping capacity and the
disorganization and
mismanagement of our defence
infrastructure in the last few years.
The backbone of any Army is the
Infantry, Armoured and Artillery
Corps. They are the ones that fight
the wars. All other corps largely
provide support services. Let us look
at information published in Failed
States – 2030 authored by some
colonels of the US Air University in
2010. So consider first, some of the
equipment holdings of the
Armoured Corps of the Nigerian
Army, of the 129 T-55 main battle
tanks owned, 29 are out of service.
Similarly, only 36 of 150 Vickers Mk
3 battle tanks are functional. Out of
120 AML Reconnaissance vehicles,
only 40 were functional in 2010,
and only four Saxon Armoured
Personnel Carriers were operational
out of 75. No wonder, we can only
send a few broken-down APCs to
Darfur.
Take the Artillery Corps. They
initially owned 48 155mm FH-77B
Howitzers but only 25 are working.
Out of 200 122mm D-74/D-30 Field
Guns, only 84 worked in 2010,
while all the eight 122mm BM-21
rocket launchers we had had broken
down. The anti-tank weapons cache
is slightly better, though pathetic by
the standards of modern warfare.
We have 3,000 RPGs for the entire
Infantry Corps, explaining why our
soldiers in Darfur cannot have any
to repel rebel attacks. We had 240
of 3.5″ RL M20 anti-tank guns but
when you have a country where
equipment continually depreciates
with no effort or resources put into
maintenance or replacement, barely
10% (24) of those guns are
functional. It does not get any
better; only 12 of the 50 40mm
Bofors L/60 air defense weapons are
still doing what they were
purchased to do. The list goes on
and on with barely any of the
categories having all their
equipment ready for the defence
job for which they are meant. And
yet, we budget over nearly 1.2
percent of our GDP on defence!
It is also sad to note that one brand
of the Armoured Personnel Carrier,
Cobra which is in the holding of the
Nigerian troops in Darfur is a topic
of jest amongst other country
contingents. It is reputed to be
Chinese manufacture, but the
engines were sourced from another
country. The Cobra APCs are not up
to 7 years old, yet they have all
broken down. In saner climes,
whoever purchased such
refurbished contraption should be
court-martialled or put on trial, but
in Nigeria, he probably got a
promotion and national honour!
Apart from our major military
equipment which to a large extent
are broken-down, there are quality
issues with the personal equipment
such as boots, blankets and bullet
proof vests, which to say the least is
pathetic. Some of the troops
deployed to UNMIL in August to
September 2010 lacked beds and
mattresses; some had only
mattresses, while others slept on
the bare floor, and the conditions
have not changed for the better.
As is usual in the case of Nigeria,
the decline in quantity and quality
of defense equipment is ironically
not as a result of funds allocated to
the sector; instead it is quite the
contrary. As the government
allocates more resources to the
sector, there is a corresponding
decline in the quality of our
peacekeeping capacity. It is also
evident that the defence ministry
specializes in purchasing sub-
standard equipment that are not
durable. There appears to be no
procedure or consideration made to
replace already broken-down
equipment until the troops are left
with nothing thereby giving room
for a huge allocation to be made for
the purchase of such equipment
which eventually never happens.
Besides the sorry state of defence
equipment, the quantity and quality
of the peace-keepers are on the
decline. Quality, as shown in last
week’s article, is a function of
training, both in hard military
fighting skills which we
demonstrated in Congo in 1960 and
ECOMOG in Liberia and Sierra Leone
in the 1990s, but are unfortunately
losing as shown by the ease with
which our troops are being routinely
disarmed and killed in Sudan
sometimes without fighting back.
Training in “soft skills” required in
modern peacekeeping operations to
address human rights and sexual
exploitation, disarmament,
demobilization, and reintegration
(DDR),etc. are absolutely necessary
to enhance our peacekeeping
capabilities. These soft skills training
has never been our forte and it is
disheartening to observe that no
efforts have been put towards
changing the status quo.
Quality is also measured by logistic
capability of the contingent which
includes the capacity and ability to
transport a contingent to and from
theatre using a nation’s own air
force, how it maintains those troops
in the theatre in terms of feeding,
medicals, accommodation, water,
sanitation, minor engineering,
transport needs and recreation. This
is the area where countries make
the money UN pays them for
logistics but Nigeria scores
abysmally low here and our soldiers
are among the worst in almost all
operations we participate. Apart
from loss of money, there is the
attendant loss of prestige in fielding
a rag tag army that cannot cater for
itself while other national
contingents from even poorer
African countries are doing far
better with Ghana, Rwanda, and
Ethiopia just to mention a few.
The MOU signed in January 2008,
between Nigeria and the UN for
troops deployment to UNAMID in
Sudan, provides that Nigeria will be
paid a sum of $83,422,020 each
quarter, all things being equal, for
deploying 4 infantry battalions.
However, out of this amount, for a
particular quarter, the country was
only able to claim, a paltry $
15,902,122.07 thus losing a
whopping $67,519,897.93. If one
takes into account that the MOU
was signed in January 2008 at the
beginning of UNAMID, an operation
which is still ongoing, and also the
fact that the logistical situation of
the Nigerian units in the operations
has not improved since then, and
may have even deteriorated further,
the losses as at present (2012)
would be colossal as Nigeria would
have lost a total of at least $804
million since the operation started, a
potential revenue loss of N128
billion, or nearly a third of the
defence budget in 2012.
Sadly, in UNMIL, the Nigerian units
were rated lowest among all
national contingents deployed to
the operation meeting barely 60%
of COE obligations thus forfeiting
another $325,196,93 for the
corresponding period. In typical fire
brigade manner, the Nigerian
government made the necessary
minimal purchases for the
contingents to ensure that the
Nigerian units were not deactivated
following the threat by the UN to do
so.
Nigeria was until recently, the
biggest African contributor in terms
of quantity to global peacekeeping.
Quantity is assessed in terms of the
number of military and police
peacekeepers that each member
state contributes to the UN
peacekeeping. The UN Department
of Peacekeeping Operations,
towards the end of 1999 began to
display and keep monthly records of
peacekeeping contributions by each
country. The countries are then
ranked in order of the total number
of peacekeepers they contribute
monthly to the UN.
It is interesting to note that for more
than 3 years unbroken, Nigeria was
placed fourth largest contributor to
UN peace operations behind only
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and
also the largest contributor among
African countries. Unfortunately,
once again, rather than improve,
Nigeria has slipped back a place
from December 2011 to number 5
and Nigeria’s fourth position is
occupied by Ethiopia, another less-
endowed African country. Another
record which Nigeria held up till the
end of 2011 was being the highest
contributor of female peacekeepers.
Once again, the position has been
taken by South Africa.
Until recently, Nigeria held top
mission leadership positions in the
UN such as Special Representative
of the Secretary General, Force
Commander, Deputy Force
Commander, Sector Commanders
and Police Commissioner. This no
longer obtains due to the
deterioration in the quality and
quantity of our peacekeeping
contributions. For instance, Nigeria
lost UNAMID command to Rwanda
when General Agwai was not given
an extension. Nigeria also lost some
positions in UNMIL Liberia. Currently,
only Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari
of UNAMID and General Moses Obi,
Force Commander UNMISS occupy
such posts. A contributory factor to
Nigeria losing such positions is the
dysfunctional selection process into
the peacekeeping force that allows
for people to be sent for missions
not based on their abilities but on
who they know. Eventually they
compete with the best from other
countries and as expected, cannot
beat the competition and meet the
rigorous standards of the UN.
Finally, corruption within the
Nigerian Army is a major mitigating
factor to any meaningful progress in
the defence sector. Rather than use
the UN peacekeeping
reimbursements (which are not
claimed in full due to our poor
performance) gained from
participation in peacekeeping to
better equip and train the armed
forces, these monies are diverted for
political interests such as funding
political campaigns. In 2010, there
was a case where the
national,assembly raised queries
regarding funds earmarked to buy
equipment for peacekeeping which
was never spent. The issue died a
natural death as soon as the
relevant committee was “carried
along” in Nigerian political parlance!
In conclusion, the hard earned
reputation of Nigeria in international
peacekeeping gained through the
efforts of late General Aguiyi-Ironsi,
Generals Yakubu Gowon, Murtala
Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo
and T Y Danjuma, as far back as
1960 is about to be lost as our
contingents are now rated among
the worst in terms of training,
logistics and professionalism. Even
the fighting reputation we used to
have no longer exists as all it takes
to disarm our ill equipped troops are
rag tag bandits. Something needs
to be done. Is the commander-in-
chief listening, or do all Nigerians
need to take up arms against the
state, become militants, insurgents
or terrorists to attract his attention?