The comment made by Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Yusuf Buratai, on Tuesday that front-line soldiers in the war against Boko Haram lack the required commitment to further push and finally defeat the insurgents amounts to admission that he and his men are tired and may have totally lost charge.
This view was expressed by a cross-section of security experts and other Nigerians who spoke to BusinessDay on the matter, Wednesday. They said this could account for the recent renewed attacks on citizens, especially in the last week on at least four Nigerian Army bases by Boko Haram backed by the Islamic State West African Province.
Buratai had on Tuesday said the front-line soldiers were not sufficiently committed to the war against insurgency, insisting there were proven cases of soldiers’ unwillingness to carry out assignments given to them.
Mike Ejiofor, a security expert, said that by his comment, the COAS appears to be taking a defeatist position which does not mean well for the nation’s fragile security.
Ejiofor regretted that the army chief, who had been seen as a source of encouragement to the troops, could be making such demoralising comments at a time when tact and confidence are needed.
“As far as I am concerned, such statement coming from the leader can be demoralising to people on the field. Maybe he has his reasons, but I think the best way he would have addressed the issues was to treat it administratively instead of coming openly to admit because that is admittance of failure on his part that the troops are no more loyal to him,” Ejiofor told BusinessDay in a phone conversation.
“Again, it shows lack of control and he has indirectly admitted that he is no longer in control. So again, somebody appointed him. It is only the person that appointed him that can remove him or of his own, he will resign.
“It is a great blow on the fight against insurgency because the people in the field will be demoralised. Don’t also forget that the military, the troops, the officers have been under attack. Some have been killed. I don’t think that statement was encouraging,” Ejiofor, who also served as a Director of State Security Services (SSS), further said.
Some of the soldiers who confided in BusinessDay said they were demoralised by the Army Chief’s comments and wished that government would also understand their plight.
One of the soldiers who spoke on the condition of anonymity asked what the Chief of Army Staff wants from the soldiers, alleging that the soldiers are not been paid their full allowance as and when due.
“Our living condition in the forest is not good, we don’t have enough arms to tackle these Boko boys and instead of the man on top to look for ways to correct the wrongs, he is there trading blames,” the soldier queried. “Is it not when you motivate your troops that you will get their full commitment and support? Some of us have been in this place fighting these terrorists putting our lives on the line and he sits in an air-conditioned hall and says we are not committed?”
Another soldier who wished to remain anonymous said while soldiers die in the line of duty, their wives and next of kin pass through difficulty in getting their benefits.
“How do you expect soldiers to keep dying for nothing? Every time we watch our brothers die in the hands of these ruthless terrorists and then our commanders will come to the media and say another thing.
“You don’t expect a soldier to carry arms that are substandard against Boko Haram boys who carry modern-day arms. The service chiefs should leave. They have run out of ideas and we in the battlefield are the ones suffering it.
“Our allowances are not being paid on time, we don’t have enough ammunition. Even when you fall sick there is no adequate medical attention, even when a soldier dies the military does not treat the families right and the COAS is talking about not been committed,” he said.
Eze Onyekpere, lead partner, Centre for Social Justice, said the Army Chief did not capture the situation on ground, stating that “tactical command challenge is the concern, not commitment from officers in the battlefield”.
“Look at the barracks where they stay, there are checkpoints and strategic coordination, even armoured tanks and constant surveillance. But at the battlefield there seems to be a poor tactical approach to the whole process, and we record many numbers of young soldiers dying in the battlefield, and their young wives made widow,” Onyekpere said.
“I don’t believe it is a question of commitment. There is a fundamental problem. I’m not a soldier but I sense there is tactical flaw in the whole command chain. Oftentimes we hear the insurgents came on bikes and threw their bomb. How do they break through? How do they continuously unleash their mayhem on the people?” he queried.
Moday Osasah, executive director, African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development, advised the military hierarchy to look into the fundamental cause of lack of commitment from these soldiers rather than making it a media issue.
Harrison Edeh & Stella Enenche, Abuja
