Nigerian Military, Yesterday And Today By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

I n 1983, some Chadian soldiers invaded some communities in
Nigeria. Chad had been in a prolonged civil war and its soldiers
were known to be ruthless.
Nigerian armed forces were under the simple going but honest
President Alhaji Shehu Shagari as its Commander-in-Chief
and the COAS or CDS was Wushishi (forgive my memory). The
then GOC of the 3rd Division in Jos under whose command the
Northeast fall was Maj. General Muhammadu Buhari. Surely,
northerners dominated the top command positions in the
military then.
Without hesitation, the GOC in Jos was given the signal to flush
out the Chadians. But on his own, the stern Buhari was
determined to, in addition, teach them a lesson they will never
forget.
In a twinkle, Buhari mobilized his soldiers and personally led
them in the field. Within few days Nigerian soldiers not only
got the Chadians to flee but they chased the latter right into
Chad. Buhari couldn’t stop. It took quite some effort to get
the soldier in him to pull the brakes. Later, he will claim that he
didn’t know that he was already deep into Chad.
Buhari the GOC had an excellent relationship with his soldiers.
He never allowed superiors to oppress their juniors or edit their
allowances. He was riding a 504 saloon car and lived in a simple
bungalow along Bauchi road adjacent to the Unijos Main
Campus. When he was appointed the head of state after the
coup, his soldiers in the barracks went wild in happiness. He
bade them farewell, not knowing that it will be forever.
Well the Chadians never dared encroaching into Nigeria again.
Buhari has permanently imprinted a lesson in them: Nigeria is
mighty and no rat should dare step in its foot. The success was
possible because the military chiefs and officers then were
truly Nigerian. They believed in their hearts, not in their words
only, that that the territorial integrity of this nation is not for
bargain, its military must be strong and well catered for, and
money was not their goal. When the Maitatsine riots resurfaced in the Northeast during
his regime, Buhari was the C-in-C and the story of how they
were crushed ended in the burial of that sect forever.
No insurgency in Northern Nigeria surfaced again until when
Obasanjo came to power. Like a joke, a group calling itself
Nigerian Taliban surfaced in Yobe state. It engaged the police
and the authorities in fights using guns and explosives. It was
unbelievable. They were overcome but not wiped out. They had
the chance to shift their base to Maiduguri and get patronised
by the governors of Yobe and Borno states who gave them
positions in government as a strategy of appeasement.
But the group couldn’t be appeased. It continued to organise
itself and train for a showdown to the full knowledge of the
authorities in Abuja and at the dismay of the then SSS
Director, Gadzama, who was from Borno and knew the risk his
community and the nation at large would face in future.
When I raised this point at a conference in Kano, one of the
former governors involved tried to discredit me, something I
immediately objected to. These are facts, hard facts. Obasanjo
as the C-in-C didn’t do enough. By the time Yar’adua made
an attempt to suppress the group extrajudicially, it was too
late and, he too, didn’t live a year longer than Muhammad
Yusuf.
The death of Yar’adua was a loss for the nation and its
military. He gave the Niger Deltan terrorists a choice between
war and peace. They chose peace. He sacked the then Chief of
Defence Staff then, Andrew Azazi, for his involvement in
arming the Niger Deltans and playing the fifth columnist in
the fight against them. An army investigation report warned
the nation of the existence of politicians from that region who
nurse secessionist ambitions and who could become leaders of
the country one day. A probe into their activities and level of
involvement in the arms theft, the report said, was necessary
to avoid putting our national security at risk. Yar’adua,
unfortunately, didn’t institute the probe that would have seen
Jonathan impeached. And he died, shortly and sadly. Thus,
those fears expressed in the COAS office report in the theft
of armoury from Kaduna and Jaji depots became real.
Jonathan, a Niger Deltan, became President. He returned Azazi
as his National Security adviser and with that a different
course was charted for the military.
Now, Nigerians have seen what a different calibre of leader
Jonathan is. Also, the world has witnessed the mettle of the
people – from the former Eastern region – he has chosen to
lead the military and fight the insurgency. Their estimation in
the eyes of the world is very low. Never in our history has a
Nigerian president been so much a subject of ridicule by world
leaders and press. Never in the history of our military has it
performed so disastrously bad in the protection of the
Nigerian citizen and became a subject of international disdain
and contempt to the extent that the Americans said they will
not share intelligence with it. How could they do so when they
knew among our military are sponsors of Boko Haram, as
Stephen Davies recently disclosed. (And believe me I have not
seen a soldier in Ihejirika because he instantly became rattled
by the disclosure, failed to put even a faint defence but
resorted to blaming the president and Elrufai for
underfunding the military.)
From Ihejirika to Minimah, various international and local media
reports have shown our soldiers as neglected, ill-equipped,
underpaid and many of them sadistic – taking delight in
torturing Nigerians and killing them – as we have seen in the
reported massacres of Baga and the latest slaughter video
which the authorities said they are still investigating.
The Nigerian military is certainly witnessing its lowest moments.
Soldiers are deserting it, as the authorities themselves
confessed, and in moments of attack on civilians, they are seen
running along with civilians for their dear lives. In one or two
occasions, they fled to Cameroon in their hundreds where they
were disarmed, packed into schools and escorted, like women
and children, back to Nigeria. They arrived Mubi looking
haggard, hungry and in need of help. Even in the battles that
saw the fall of towns like Gwoza, Banki, Gamboru, Izge,
Damboa, Bama, Gulak, Michika and Bazza, our soldiers were
seen outrunning civilians for safety as their officers outrun
civilian elites in building posh houses and riding the latest
brands of cars.
What a depressing moment for every true Nigerian! What a
moment of truth for our military! It is not a time for denial or
pride, as a diplomat put it last week, because there is nothing
to deny and nothing to be proud of when bandits earlier
described as “ghosts” by the President can now capture large
towns and keep them, one after another, and get our soldiers
fleeing.
The Chadian soldiers that we could easily liquidate in 1983
today, in contrast, stand with their shoulders high. Three
weeks ago, when Boko Haram abducted some 85 Nigerians and
moved them across to a forest in Chad, Chadian soldiers
instantly located them, fought them gallantly and freed the
hostages, handing them back to Nigeria. Chad, for God’s sake!
Our Chibok girks and other abductees on Nigeria continue to
languish in the hands of Boko Haram for my months now,
awaiting for a rescue that will never come. Their government
tells them: “You see, we can’t rescue you because we don’t
want to see you harmed. You’re safer there.” What an excuse!
Cameroon too has been defeating the insurgents at every
encounter, sometimes even crossing the border to assist
Nigerian soldiers as it was reported in Ngala two weeks ago.
Even yesterday, they routed the insurgents at a border town
where they killed more than 100 of the latter.
Nigeria, where are the GOCs like Buhari, the chiefs like
Wushishi, and Presidents like Shagari? Where are your
courageous commanders like Shagaya and Malu who as true
Nigerians earned us respect in Liberia and Sierra Leone?
The present GOC of the same 3 DIV, Zaruwa, must prove his
mettle to Nigerians. His hometown, Bazza, is in the hands of
Boko Haram, and so is Michika and Gulak. We want to see the
reinvention of Buhari, Malu or Shagaya in him. Incidentally, the
Chief of Defence Staff, Barde, is from neighbouring Mubi, a
town that is half-deserted as it awaits its turn in the invasion
tsunami of Boko Haram. Its people have been fleeing to Yola in
their thousands. He too, we want to see a Wushishi reinvented
in him. Let us see in the duo the reinvention of the ancient,
legendary Margi warrior. We hope, but only hope can we afford,
that the C-in-C and the COAS will give them all the support
they need.
The comparison between yesterday and today for the Nigerian
President and his military is truly odious. Nigerian leaders and
indeed its military need to take a long, hard look at themselves.
What went wrong and who are responsible for this state of
shame? If we are serious, heads must roll. We also need a
different set of leaders and commanders that are truly
Nigerians in their past and future.
The spokeman for the Nigerian military, Olukolade, said
Nigerians should not be discouraged with these setbacks and
lose hope in the military. But, sincerely, where can we find the
courage, where can we see the hope?