by Waheed Odusile

The cost of the wars to Nigeria, especially Liberia’s was enormous both in terms of human and material resources.

There is a saying in Yoruba that if your neighbour is feeding on house rat and you fail to warn him, by the time he begins to cough at night you will not be able to sleep. Since the fall of the Moammer Ghadafi regime in Libya about two years ago the rest of North Africa has not been able to sleep due largely to the terrorist activities of armed supporters of the late dictator displaced by the Libyan revolution.

Working in concert with other terrorist groups aligned with al Qeada in the Maghreb region, the ex Ghadafi boys trained by the slain dictator are all over North Africa causing havoc and are beginning to show their hands in West Africa.

For the over three decades that Colonel Ghadafi was in charge in Libya he harboured and trained terrorists from other African countries who later returned home to destabilize their countries. Remember Charles Taylor and his NPFL rebels in Liberia including Yommie Johnson’s? They were all trained by Ghadafi in Libya and funded by him to cause the civil war that later engulfed the West African country. The Sierra Leonean civil war and the general instability in the Mano River region including Guinea and to some extent Cote D’Ivoire could all be traced back to Ghadafi and his band of terrorists. The Chadian civil war in the 80s had its roots in Libya.

Throughout his stay in the Presidential Villa in Tripoli, Ghadafi was never at peace with his Arab neighbours as well as he was once accused of sponsoring an assassination attempt on late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia at one Arab League summit. Yet with all his terrorist tendencies and destabilization activities in the continent and beyond well known, nobody in the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU) did call him to order. Citing a provision in OAU’s charter that forbids member States from interfering in the internal affairs of another member country, African leaders looked the other way as Ghadafi was causing trouble all over the place even when his activities amounted to interference in those countries he was destabilizing.

Shortly after his fall these band of terrorists spread across North Africa and some, especially the Touaregs of West Africa moved back into the region with all their arms and ammunitions and West Africa has known no peace ever since. After unsuccessful attempts at having a foot hold in Mauritania, these terrorists took a large chunk of Mali, especially the north, last year and were beginning to spread to the south on their way to overthrowing the government in Bamako when French forces intervened and drove them back.

France, acting under a United Nations resolution last week sent Special Forces and fighter jets to Mali to confront the rebels and their al-Qeada allies pending the arrival of a West African force to be led by Nigeria’s Major General Shehu Usman Abdulkadir. The Nigerian led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) will draw troops and equipments largely from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin Republic.

Last week the Nigerian senate approved a request by President Goodluck Jonathan to deploy 1,200 Nigerian troops to Mali and over the weekend the Nigerian Air Force sent two fighter jets join the war.

Not a few Nigerians are worried about the deployment of our soldiers in Mali and their worries are well founded. In the 90s Nigeria was at the head of a West African intervention force called ECOMOG that was dispatched by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene in the Liberian civil war. Our troops were also involved in Sierra Leone where another civil war was raging. In both instances we had bitter stories to tell. Though the wars were eventually halted and peace restored in the two countries, our soldiers were bruised and our efforts largely unappreciated especially by Charles Taylor who eventually became president of Liberia. The cost of the wars to Nigeria, especially Liberia’s was enormous both in terms of human and material resources. Many Nigerian civilians were massacred by Taylor and his NPFL rebels in Liberia just because our troops came to intervene in the war. Many of our soldiers were killed and millions of dollars spent (much of which was wasted) prosecuting the war which most Nigerians believed we had no business being part of. I doubt whether Nigeria has recovered fully, especially militarily from the effect of that war and now that we are getting involved in another West African war, the rule of engagement and the tenure of our involvement must be well spelt out to avoid a repeat of what we went through in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

While some might want to argue that Nigeria being far away from the theatre of war in Mali has no business sending soldiers there, the fact that some of the Boko Haram militants threatening the peace in northern Nigeria had reportedly confessed to receiving training in Mali is enough to convince that the Malian civil war is a threat to the Nigerian nation. The facts also that some elements of al-Qeada have been found to be offering support to Boko Haram and the weekend attack and killing of two members of Nigeria’s contingent to AFISMA by a hitherto unknown terrorist group somewhere in Kogi state are further justifications for our involvement in Mali.

But in sending our troops to Mali, care must be taken to ensure that all the necessary equipment and logistical support were provided for them, including their allowances. It is hoped that those being sent have been properly trained both in peace keeping and enforcement, and the rules of engagement properly spelt out. The scandals that accompanied our involvement in ECOMOG must be totally avoided in AFISMA. Our soldiers must behave well especially in their relationship with local civilians including the women.

Now that we are in Mali, the likelihood of the terrorists and their allies in Nigeria particularly Boko Haram targeting strategic places and even military installations in the country should not be ruled out hence the need to scale up security protection around such places. Areas with high civilian congregation should also be properly protected while some high profile individuals both within and outside government should also be given increased protection. Nobody could say for sure the reason behind the gun attack on the convoy of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero in Kano at the weekend. People like him could be vulnerable.

It will also not be out of place for the Foreign Affairs Ministry to issue a travel advice to Nigerians living in Mali in particular and neighbouring West African countries to be less visible and avoid volatile areas where they could be singled out for attack by the terrorists or their sympathizers.

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