by SM Ifoyike

Today, in our failed state called Nigeria, the goal-post has been shifted by the military authority. They have now arms-twisted the country into believing that the rank and file in the army, who are been libel as “Mutinous”, are the ones sabotaging the effort of government in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.

Most times when we hear or see the training received by Armed Forces, Security Agencies and others, the word “Discretion” is the first point of call. In other words, in a critical situation, your ability to be able to use your discretion, makes you to be an officer. That is why we hear atimes, that “Safety First”, meaning if you can’t tackle an issue completely today, if you save your life, you can tackle that same challenge another day. By so doing, you must have garnered other ideas from colleagues or superiors to go headlong and face that challenge.

Nigeria today is faced with a very difficult situation such that portrays the Army as “weak & cowardice”. Meanwhile, in the real sense of it, they are not to blame in as much as the political will of whoever the Commander-In-Chief may be is lacking. Thus, the reason why the late Military dictator and Head of State, General Sani Abacha opined that “…..if terrorism exceeds 24 hours in a nation, the government is aware of it.”

Little wonder, why most Nigerians keep saying that the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan led FG has kept mute, while over thousand Nigerians are been maimed by some set of riff-raffs called ‘Boko Haram’. Yet, we have a government, who doesn’t see it as expedient to tackle the insurgents using all its myth and strength. This goes to show that in the event that the country is face with a more gruesome situation, our territorial integrity would become questionable. Such that the so called sovereignty which we claimed to have, and fought by our hero’s past to keep the country alive today, is left in the hand of a feeble government.

Recently, we have noticed that in one case or the other, some Army officers are made to face court martial. These are usually due to some offences, as alleged by the Army authority. But am yet to establish a dichotomy between “Indiscipline Offences and Mutiny Offences”, that would make the Army Cabals to either dismiss their officers or sentence them to death. With the still challenges we are facing concerning having the required and necessary manpower to tackle this insurgency.

I want to ask, on what basis would the military authority conclude and pass verdict on these soldiers who risk their lives, despite the challenges they face. Amongst others, the challenges which include and not limited to poor weapons, wrong commanders, corruption at the top echelon and so on. Even as the C-In-C do not want to hear or pretends not to hear from all angles, the complaints by the rank and file in the Army. My believe is that over five hundred Army officer have been subjected to one reprimand or the other. Although, in as much as we may not encourage indiscipline in the Force, we assert that on what ground should we say an Army officer in Battle field has committed any ‘Mutinous Offence’. Is it when their commander seat in the Barrack or Office, and leave these young officers to face the sophisticated insurgents, without a ‘PILOT or CAPTAIN’. Or rather, is it mutinous, when the money meant for the allowances of the officers are diverted by the military authority in HQ, Abuja. May be I should put it this way, that it is mutinous to try to shift blame of the incompetence of the senior military authorities against the rank and file, because they are not meant to question their superiors for wrong doing. The same military authority should know that they are the ones who recruited these soldiers, didn’t they know what and who they were bringing into the Nigeria Army? I wonder what kind of country we live, that a C-In-C would behave like the deaf and dumb, while those rank and file in the army who try their best possible to protect us, are subjugated. Yet, we have a National Security Adviser NSA, who would come out on media to tell us that these boys in the present military are cowards, because they got recruited not to serve Nigeria but for selfish reasons. Did I recruit them? Or is it we in the outside of the military circle that forced them on the military authority. This goes to show that even the person at the helm of affairs, GEJ, is also liable in the aiding and abetting/sponsoring of insurgency in the country. Else, why would you breed half baked or incompetent soldiers to confront Boko Haram? The answer is simple, because you never wanted the insurgents to be defeated. The late Ex-Head of State Gen. Abacha may be right in his dictum, due to the understanding of the running of a State.

Meanwhile, recently, GEJ specifically had an interview with Al-Jazeera TV and he stated thus “….we were not able to crush the Boko Haram insurgents because there was no required weapon”. Similarly, to buttress and corroborate GEJ’s assertion, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh categorically asserted that “… the Military has not been able to end the Boko Haram fight due to some weapon that were not available”. May I say, that this GEJ’s led FG is just being cunning with Nigerians, and allowing the Boko Haram insurgents to maim virtually all citizens in North-East Nigeria.

Today, in our failed state called Nigeria, the goal-post has been shifted by the military authority. They have now arms-twisted the country into believing that the rank and file in the army, who are been libel as “Mutinous”, are the ones sabotaging the effort of government in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents. The reason proffered by the military is that, these officers instead of allowing themselves to be killed, decided to “martay” from the battle field. I do not see it that way, but that the Army authority sends these army officers to a minefield without realising that it is not about defeating the insurgents by getting killed immediately, but leaving the battle for another day after a “tactical manoeuvre” when the ‘jungle was matured’.

Therefore, I would like to define the the dismissal and death sentence on those army officers, as not a mutiny for not repelling the “Sophisticated-Overpowered” Boko Haram, but a way of following the general rule during operations in all Forces and Security agencies as “SAFETY FIRST”.

May God save our hard working military rank and file!

May God save their Intelligence of abiding by “Safety First”.

 

– This is in memory of my friend and University mate Lt. Ibrahim Haruna Erebioga, who died in battle field during the recent attack of Maiduguri and Mongunu by Boko Haram insurgents.

May God bless and save our country Nigeria!!!

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– SM Ifoyike tweets from @smifoyike.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.