Goodluck Jonathan and Senate
President David Mark leaked this past weekend,
a commanding officer stationed in
Nigeria's northeast details several
troubling issues plaguing troops
combatting Islamist terror group
Boko Haram in the region. President
Goodluck Jonathan
The officer stated that, corruption,
maladministration, lack of resources
and troops motivation has militated
against a successful campaign to
end Boko Haram's deadly reign of
terror in the northeast.
The officer's lengthy complaint
which he claims would lead to a
threat to his life forewarns that if his
pleas continue to be ignored by the
country's leadership that both the
Nigerian Army and the country will
crumble under the insurgency.
"If all issues raised in this letter are
not urgently addressed, the
Nigerian Army will soon be history
and by implication there will be no
country called Nigeria," the officer
gravely states. "No country without
a strong army will survive."
Below is the full text of the officer's
letter addressed to President
Goodluck Jonathan
PLEASE MR PRESIDENT SAVE
THE MILITARY AND NIGERIA
FROM COLLAPSING
1. Sir, I am constrain to write
you this letter which I consider
it a matter of more than great
importance for me to inform
you and put to record issues
that are happening in the North
East (Operation Zaman Lafiya). I
choose this medium to write
you this open letter because I
have written similar letter but
no action was taking which I
believe some forces have
blocked it are now after my life.
Sir I have served in 7 Division
as staff officer and presently I
am the commanding officer of
103Bn in the field. My combined
wealth of experience as a staff
officer and now commanding
officer are the disturbing fact
that necessitated me to write
you this letter. While as a staff
officer, I was among those who
believed that the commanders
in the field are not doing well.
But presently, as a commander
in the field, I found out that it is
not the fault of any commander
that the defeat of the so called
BOKO HARAM (BH) has not been
achieved.
2. First and foremost sir, the
Nigerian Army is poorly
equipped in the North East, if
all the battalions are well-
equipped as required; it will not
take the Army more than two
weeks to flush out the BH.
Presently there are four units in
my location here in KONDUGA
including 21 Armoured Brigade
HQ. If all the units are provided
with all their requirements, we
can advance and flush out BH
out of North East. Mr. President
sir, the Nigerian Army is well-
trained and capable of
defending our nation. It has
demonstrated the capacity to
even successfully enforce peace
in other nations. Why not in our
own country Nigeria?
3. The fact about NE operation
is that we are poorly equipped,
understaffed, high corruption
from Army Headquarters down
to battalion level. Commanders
see it as opportunity to make
money. My predecessor has
complained of the same
problem. Instead of ASA
addressing the issue raised by
him, the army authorities
decided to Court Martialled him.
All the units in NE are
understaffed, but on payroll
their strength are complete just
to collect more allowances than
what each unit is supposed to.
The commanders see it as a
personal money making venture
rather than taking care of men
and equipment. This ugly trend
led to loss of many officers and
soldiers and thereby having
adverse effect on the moral
(sic) of troops. Majority of
soldiers in the operation area
wear mufti (civil cloths) under
their military uniforms in case
there is an attack and the
troops cannot withstand the BH,
they found it easy to disguise
as civilians to enable them
escape. This is not the
traditional practice in the NA.
Though it is lack of adequate
equipment and poor
administration from the higher
authority that resulted to this
ugly trend by our troops
4. Sir, another bad and
unprofessional act is that
soldiers don't take to orders
from their superior officers
because they have lost
confidence/trust from them. The
case of former General Officer
Commanding 7 Division Major
General A. Mohammed is
enough evidence to show that
all is not well in the Nigerian
Army. It will interest you to
note that worse cases has been
recorded before that of the
former GOC and more are still
happening, but nobody is ready
to investigate the root cause of
problems facing the troops in
the field.
5. This brings me to a recent
occurrence which is my main
purpose of writing this letter.
As I mentioned earlier, due to
the failure of the authority to
address issues that I made
mentioned, when a unit is
attacked and overran by the BH
not because the soldiers are
unable to fight, but lack of
weapons, ammunitions and
communications equipment, the
soldiers on many occasions will
ran away, and a commander
cannot stand and fight alone as
a result of this. Presently
seventy percent of commanders
in the NE are facing Court
Martial due to the reasons
mentioned. We the
commanding officers are very
worried over this development.
This is because we many soon
find our self as victims of this
maladministration from our
higher authorities.
6. There is no sincerity in this
operation; this is because the
present acting GOC has never
visited any location outside
Maiduguri town not to talk of
principal staff officers in Army
Headquarters or even the COAS.
But we keep on hearing all sorts
of lies that Generals are leading
the fight against BH. These are
facts that can be confirmed
from officers and soldiers in this
operation including those in the
7 Division Headquarters. The
GOC is so afraid that even with
the Divisional Headquarters; he
doesn't go out and always
locked himself inside his office.
Infact it is a common knowledge
among officers and soldiers in
this operation that the acting
GOC is here to make his money
and earn his promotion to the
detriment of the operation. The
completion of his mansion at No
8 Gwamna Road in Kaduna
which the GOC ignorantly
disclosed that when he
completed it, will be among the
best houses in Kaduna, has
turned to be a subject of
discussion among troops.
7. The former 21 Armored
Brigade commander is facing
Court Martial today because the
acting GOC does not want to
see him and his garrision in
Maiduguri town simply because
of the huge monthly allocations
from the Borno State
government to the brigade
garrision. He wanted to be
collecting his money by using 7
Div Garrison, but in reality 7 Div
Garrision does not have troops
to claim such money. It is
worthy to note that the GOC
received 33,000litres of AGO
and PMS each, 600 bags of rice
monthly from Borno State
government. All these items are
diverted for his personal use.
8. Recently the newly appointed
21 Brigade commander lead 3
units to flush out the BH, that
operation was successful,
almost 300 BH were killed,
weapons and vehicles were
recovered from them, in the
process the troops exhausted
their ammunitions from the Div,
the GOC simply replied that
there was no ammunition this
made all the troops to withdraw
back to KONDUGA.
9. Presently more than 3000
officers and soldiers are either
killed in action, deserted,
captured as POW or on AWOL.
But due to lack of proper
administration the army
directed that their salary should
be stopped. This affect the
families of those that are either
genuinely killed in action or
captured as Prisoners of War. It
has also affected some of the
troops that are still
participating in this operation.
10. Mr. President sir, if all
issues raised in this letter are
not urgently address, the
Nigerian Army will soon be
history and by implication there
will be no country called
Nigeria. No country without
strong army will survive. I
decided to write you this letter
because the life of officers and
soldiers trusted in my care are
no longer save. My life is also at
the stake because the NA
authority as usual will say I
have communicated directly to
you as the Commander in Chief
of the Armed Forces and may
sanction me. As a citizen of this
country and a commander in the
operational area, with all the
points I have mentioned in this
letter, it is clearly that the
Military authorities have failed
the country, as such they
should be held liable for their
misdeeds. I have consulted
seasonal constitutional lawyers
if writing you this letter will be
an offence, but they said it is
my constitutional right to
inform the C in C about what is
happening in the NE and within
the military which if not address
will affect the survival of
Nigeria.
Posted By David Aniemeka
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