Wearied, deprived, demoralised … Lamentations of Nigerian soldiers in Boko Haram war

The repeated attacks by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, in recent weeks bring to mind a popular African proverb which asks, “If persons who slept inside the building at night wake up to report of a ghost attack, what then would be the story of the homeless who regularly sleep outside?” This implies, in this context, that the frequency of the attacks in Maiduguri is merely a tip of the iceberg when compared to the unreported attacks in remote villages of Borno, particularly in Damboa and Chibok Local Government Areas.

Two days before I left Chibok, there was a Boko Haram attack in Omdi, a village in Damboa, but things would have got out of hand for the villagers had the soldiers in Chibok not quickly moved into the troubled spot to impede the attack.

According to the residents of Damboa, soldiers in Chibok are more willing and zealous in the fight against the insurgents than their counterparts in Damboa, hence the pockets of attacks still being recorded there are higher within the two local government areas.

“If the soldiers in Damboa work like those in Chibok, the fight against Boko Haram in the region would be a lot better. Like the attack that happened recently in a Damboa village, it was soldiers in Chibok that came to the rescue of the villagers. Yes, I know it is because the place is close to Chibok, but the soldiers could have declined going there because Damboa is under another command. They decided to go because soldiers from Damboa did not show up to foil the attack,” a member of the civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) told me in Damboa.

According to him, another reason soldiers in Damboa are finding it harder to deal with incessant attacks than their counterparts in Chibok is that many youths in Damboa embraced Boko Haram ideology and radicalisation, unlike youths of Chibok who have refused to be intimidated or induced to accept it.

“Before now, who are you to follow this road? Boko Haram boys will block you, kill you, and carry whatever they want. We lost so many people on this road. There were so many killings here. Our eyes saw something here. But the presence of Boko Haram here is no longer as it used to be,” he told me on our way from Chibok to Damboa.

“The bombing that took place in Maiduguri a day before Acting President Yemi Osinbajo visited was planned by those who didn’t want him there. It was meant to scare him. But I was happy that he ignored it and came to Maiduguri. Many were happy for him, particularly the manner he related with the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The Boko Haram thing is a project of the Borno State government, and local governments in the state like Chibok who rejected Boko Haram are financially punished,” he alleged.

Like the parents, soldiers and the teachers in Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, this JTF member, who later showed me the talismans hidden underneath his clothes, also accused Ali Ndume, a senator, of being part of those financially backing Boko Haram.

When we came out of the car that brought us to Damboa from Chibok, he led me to an inn where, incidentally, I met another soldier who was among the 13 surviving soldiers that engaged in a gun battle with Boko Haram the day the Chibok schoolgirls were abducted.

Plight of soldiers fighting insurgents

There are several social and emotional needs whose absence makes life unbearable for the Nigerian soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgents. As I interacted with soldiers in Damboa particularly, the issue of lack of water kept interrupting our discussion. Some of them complained that inadequate water was one nightmare they fervently prayed God to take away.

Another acute source of worry for the soldiers is having to travel long distances away from their respective bases to get cash since Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are not available in locations where they are battling insurgency. This is worsened by strict restrictions imposed on the soldiers by the authority, a situation which often compels them to give their banking security detail to residents travelling to places where ATMs are available.

“We are not allowed to go out even when we are in need of cash and, unfortunately, there is no ATM here. Oftentimes we go hungry even when we have money in our bank accounts. The provision of the army authority is not enough for us. This has made life more than hellish for us here. The only alternative we have is to give our security code to residents who are either going to Maiduguri and Mubi or Yola, where there are ATMs,” one soldier told me in Damboa.

“If a resident is to withdraw N10,000 for you, for instance, he will withdraw N1,000 or N2,000 extra for himself depending on the amount you negotiated with him before he left. You know it is unwise for us to be giving our account security detail to people, but that is the only option we have for now,” he said.

While he was still talking, one of his colleagues interrupted him and narrated how a fellow soldier’s bank account was emptied by a colleague whom he had given ATM card to help him withdraw some cash in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

“What we have not experienced from the residents was what our colleague did that day. This particular soldier was going to Yola and another soldier serving in the same camp gave him his account password to help him withdraw some cash. He was supposed to spend just two days but he ended up spending four days. When he came back from Yola, he claimed that there was no money in the account of the person who sent him. The victim could not ascertain whether he was lying or not because he did not receive alert due to absence of network coverage.

“But surprisingly, when the debit alert finally came, it was discovered that the same debit card was used to withdraw N80,000, which was his entire salary and the only money inside the account for that matter. That was how the authority ordered his arrest. He later confessed to withdrawing the money to solve his personal problems. But he was humiliated. After serious beating, he was tied and left in the sun. But if we have ATM close to us, since we are not allowed to go far because of our work, no one will be taking the risk of exposing confidential information to a third party,” he said.

All the soldiers who spoke to me on this subject believe that if the will is there, it is possible for the army authority to work with banks in Maiduguri and in Yola to have ATMs installed in strategic locations, like Command Headquarters where the battle against Boko Haram is raging, for the exclusive use of the soldiers.

“We are already protecting the lives of Nigerians and their property with our lives, so you should know protecting ATMs installed in army centres for our convenience wouldn’t be a big problem. Soldiers in this place are having a difficult time getting their money and anybody, including Boko Haram, who wants to threaten such convenience should be ready to die.

“Soldiers are capable of guarding the cash van from wherever to either Chibok or Damboa. Doing this for us would have enlivened our dying spirits. Such arrangement would have been a great idea but the army authority doesn’t think we deserve such treatment. They actually consider us as animals that have entered into death contract,” he said.

N1,000 daily allowance

If my interactions with the soldiers in Chibok, Damboa and Gwoza are anything to go by, then each Nigerian soldier fighting Boko Haram in the Northeast may be receiving a monthly allowance of N1,000 which is usually paid at the end of the month.

What each soldier receives as allowance depends on number of days in a given month – N30,000 for a 30-day month and N31,000 for a 31-day month – a grossly inadequate and non-motivational reward, the soldiers say, for the kind of war they are involved in.

“We are like slaves. We are just self-motivated. What the authority is giving to us as daily allowance is very ridiculous. In a place where a litre of petrol is sold for between N250 and N300, the army authority is paying soldiers N1,000 as daily allowance. Their (army authority) worst sin is that seeing the money to collect at end of the month is a major problem. When month ends, they will bring N10,000 in cash to you and promise to put the remaining balance into your account and they will be paying the rest little by little. They still owe us our allowances.

“I joined the army in 1990 and yet, my monthly salary is still N80,000. You may want to ask why I am still in the army. I am still here because I am trapped. I was trapped by hope that things may improve as time goes by, but now I have put in many years. It’s difficult to quit now. But I will never allow any of my children to become a soldier. That is why I am doing my best to ensure that they are appreciably educated. But many Nigerians don’t know this,” he said in resignation.

Soldiers want relocation

Between Chibok, Gwoza and Damboa, I was able to discuss with no fewer than 30 soldiers and 99 percent of them are totally frustrated by their current location, having been posted there since 2014, and are now desperately seeking to be transferred to new assignments outside the Northeast.

The soldiers, who admitted to losing inspiration, citing overstay, explained that it was not the best war strategy to leave soldiers for too long in same location, arguing that such approach easily makes a soldier who has overstayed vulnerable to security traps set by wicked individuals the soldier may have inadvertently stepped on their toes in the discharge of his duty.

“I have been here for more than four years now. It’s not a good thing to have soldiers staying too long in a place. When a soldier stays too long in a place of war like here, he could easily be killed by those planning to kill him. It is those who know him that will work with the enemies to kill him. It is part of military strategy to from time to time change soldiers who are at the warfront, but we simply don’t understand why the authority is allowing soldiers to stay in a place for this long.

“You can see all of us are grumbling because we are no longer interested in staying here. We have done our best. Besides, it is not even in the interest of the war to have soldiers who are not motivated. Bring in fresh soldiers who have not been here before and take us to another battleground. We are not saying that we are tired of fighting or we are afraid of Boko Haram. Our point is adhering to war rules: give us new assignment. We are tired of the Northeast. You can leave behind soldiers who have spent just a year or thereabouts. I have fought in Liberia and in Sierra Leone and we know how this thing works,” another soldier told me.

Corroborating the soldiers’ stance, a Lagos-based security expert, who pleaded not to be named because the last time he granted interview on the subject both the military and DSS authorities threatened to deal with him, said he also could not understand why some soldiers in the Northeast have been left there for up to four years and above.

Soldiers still angry over dismissed colleagues

Virtually all the foot soldiers that I sat down with expressed disappointment and sadness over how their colleagues accused of abandonment of duty were dismissed from the service by the authority, a decision, they say, has affected their commitment since it appears their lives are valueless in the eyes of high-ranking officers.

The dismissed soldiers had in March this year through Emmanuel Ogbole, the chief commissioner, Public Complaints Commission (PCC), pleaded with the authority to pardon them and the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, had promised that the cases would be studied in their individual merit and resolved in the best interest of the army and the nation.

According to the soldiers, their colleagues did nothing warranting dismissal for running away from death in order to live to fight another day, disclosing that the soldiers had no option than to run away from Boko Haram insurgents because the latter had better arms and ammunition than the former.

“By dismissing those soldiers from service, the message the authority sent to us is that they sent us to the Northeast to die. ‘Don’t try to escape death, even when you have the opportunity to do so. You are paid to die because no value is placed on your life’.

“If that is not the case, how do you expect soldiers who are in an ambush with inferior weapons not to escape to safety first? What do you expect when your soldiers are not better equipped? We have had a situation when soldiers found themselves ambushed by Boko Haram members who were more in number and had superior weapons. Few of the soldiers had only 10 rounds of bullets in their guns. The situation was a no-win for them. They were even smart enough to have been able to escape back.

“Rather than equip them with better weapons and send them back, you now accused them of abandonment of duty and dismissed them from service. Many of us are sad over the decision to dismiss those soldiers because it could have been any of us. It was an unfair decision. Nigerian soldiers are capable of facing any enemy once you provide them with the right weapons. But in this case, the soldiers were ill-equipped, which was the fault of the authority, and yet, it was the soldiers that were dismissed. Which soldier wants to serve his country with 100 percent commitment under such inhumane treatment? But as you can see, we still try to do our best since we are trained to defend the country,” said one soldier as the rest nodded in agreement.

They also complained that the widows and children of soldiers killed in battle against Boko Haram are not adequately taken care of by those saddled with the responsibility, saying that the fear of likely misfortune that may befall their loved ones should they die in battle is strength-sapping for the soldiers.

“When you die in battle you are not sure what will happen to your family. Visit army barracks in the country and see the pain of widows and children of slain soldiers. There have been instances where widows of soldiers were maltreated in the barracks. The ones in barracks are actually lucky; there are those suffering outside the barracks. What we try to do for our family is to ensure that we do our best when we are alive and do everything to stay alive because if anything happens to you, your family will suffer untold hardship while the authority will primarily concern itself with how to use the soldiers who are alive,” another soldier told me in Chibok.

A soldier’s wife impregnated by barracks boy

Although it sounded like a fairytale when a soldier in Damboa was narrating to me how their long absence from home was negatively impacting their respective homes, he repeatedly told me that he was not joking about a sexual affair which involved a wife of a soldier serving in the Northeast and a younger man in a Port Harcourt army barracks.

According to him, the illicit relationship between the barracks boy and the soldier’s wife lasted about four months before she discovered she was pregnant. The woman, who cited “long suppressed sexual desire” as the reason for her action, gave birth to a baby boy in the same barracks.

“What actually touched me when I heard about it was the fact that the lady did not just get pregnant for a boy in the barracks, she also carried the pregnancy for nine months in the same barracks and gave birth there. She was very daring. The family of the boy that impregnated her is powerful in the barracks. One would have expected her to escape to somewhere else. She was very shameless. I know the girl very well. We were together in Port Harcourt.

“But I don’t really blame her too much. What do you expect from a young woman whose husband has been away in the bush fighting Boko Haram for over two years without reaching home? The woman said she had sexual need which her husband was not available to meet. When the extra-marital affair resulted in pregnancy, she was not willing to abort the baby because she had no child as at that time. She said she was ditched by her husband for over two years. Body no bi fire wood na!

“Since the incident happened, the man is yet to visit Port Harcourt. This is a true story of what soldiers are going through. The soldier was very devastated when he heard about it. Of course, you know the authority will do everything not to allow this kind of news spread,” he said.

Like his colleagues, the soldier also warned against keeping soldiers too long in one location for security reasons, but particularly admonished that not allowing soldiers to visit their families for long intervals is tearing their homes apart.

“The cost of fighting Boko Haram on us and on our families is very high. When the father is not always around, the children can become very wild unless they are grounded in faith. If you are in battle far away from home for two to four years or more, God save you if your wife can’t take it anymore. Some of us have children but we don’t enjoy them. We only talk on phone when the network is available. It will be a thing of joy when the authority starts allowing us to go home and spend minimum of two weeks with our family,” he said.

Life without love and romance

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to the soldiers and watched the expression on their faces as they talked about how deeply they miss the company of their loved ones while these loved ones pray continually for them not to be killed in battle.

But I gathered that the army authority usually allows soldiers to visit home after a long period of time. The leave period is six days, which soldiers whose bases are closed to the Northeast take advantage of. But soldiers whose families are based in the South do not bother using the period since they would spend most of it travelling by road.

More emotionally torturing to the soldiers is the restraint of their natural sexuality which they confessed is making many resort to unnatural means to ease their sexual pressure.

“My brother, being a soldier in a battle like this is not funny. You have a wife at home but you are constantly being starved of sex. Sometimes you hear that there are a lot of gays in the military and people start judging them, but until you are in their shoes you never know what it means to be in the jungle for several months and years without a woman to hold. When the sexual pressure is too much, people device a means to deal with it.

“Your male organs don’t know whether you are a soldier in the jungle or not. It also does not care whether you are religious or not, you can only hold it for so long. Sometimes as a soldier you find yourself securing a community that seriously frowns at any attempt to get close to their girls. You just have to find a way to ease yourself when your sexual desire becomes too intense. It is not easy, my man,” he said.

Efforts to reach the military authority for official comments were not successful as a call to the mobile number meant to be that of John Enenche, Director of Defence Information, nearly resulted in an argument when the receiver said he was not Major-General John Enenche.

But the receiver, a male voice, had first of all patiently listened to what this writer had to say but only got angry when he heard that “soldiers are raising issues”.

“I told you that I am not Major John Enenche and you are going ahead narrating a story,” he said, his voice indicating that he was displeased.

“I am sorry, sir. I thought I heard you say you were Major John Enenchi,” I pleaded and the conversation ended.

But since he did not disassociate himself from Defence Information, I sent a text informing him that I understood he was of the Defence Information and requested of him the mobile number of the director or whoever I could speak with. As at the time of filing this report, he had yet to reply.

When the same number was dialled on True Caller, an app that reveals names of users, “Enenche Enenche” was shown as the names the number was registered with. The source of the number also confirmed it belongs to the Director of Defence Information.

 

NATHANIEL AKHIGBE, just back from Borno State