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Making A Curse Of Been A Nigerian Peace Keeper By Mohammed Adamu
The well - being, and even the existence of every nation could only be assured if its military is structured and maintained on sound discipline. Its Officers must be the honest guardians of their mens' rights, instructions and discipline. The loyalty and obedience of the soldiers must not be compromised.
Based on this and many other reasons, all notable military strategists and tacticians from Karl Von Clausewizt to Tsun Zu, from Napoleon Bonaparte to Field Marshal Montgomery have a shared conviction that , discipline is the bedrock of every successful military.
Unfortunately, in Africa and Nigeria in particular, so many crimes have been and are still been committed under the guise of imposing military discipline. Ever since the launching of our crusade against corruption and corrupt individuals as well as all financially related crimes, little or no attention have been paid to the monumental acts of corruption that has pervaded our military institution.
This perhaps could not be unconnected with the fact that, the few bad elements who had always headed its affairs have tried to insulate it from the larger society. However, no matter how much cover-up is there in the military, it has now dawned on many Nigerians that, the Nigerian military, and the Army in particular has over the recent years ranked high amongst the most corrupt institutions in the country where nothing works properly due to high level of corruption within the leadership.
Some very clear disgraceful acts of corruption and betrayal of our national interests by the military top brass came to light during the popular National Truth and Reconciliation Commission a.k.a Oputa Panel, of 2ooo/2oo1, during which very senior military officers who have held various strategic and sensitive commanding positions engaged one another in what could be termed as a childish expositions each others secrets.
Some of the startling revelations made during that time were that, Nigerian soldiers who served under the then West African Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in Liberia and Sierra Leone were actually supposed to be paid 45 US dollars a day instead of the 5 US dollars they received, making a total sum of 1350 US dollars per month and not 150 US dollars as they were paid. This short payment affected over Twenty Thousand soldiers over a period of Ten years from August 1990-april 2000.It was during the commission's sitting that Nigerians were made to understand that even the combat helmets supplied to the soldiers were actually motor cycle crash helmets lacking in the quality to serve as a protection against riffle fires and bomb fragments.
That was why it became very common during the 1990s to listen over the BBC's Focus on Africa program, for letters reportedly sent by Nigerian Ecomog soldiers lamenting over the pathetic situation they have been subjected to, including the cases of their rations being sold to collaborative Liberian/Sierra Leonean traders by their officers. It is from proceeds like these and others that so many now retired and even serving Generals and senior officers purchased/built air conditioned mansions by the sea sides and hill tops , on the sweat of junior ranking soldiers who had put their lives on the line of duty for the nation laboring like jackasses.
This greed and deprivation by the Nigerian military leadership to make money at all cost even at the expense of their soldiers' lives , confirmed as truth, recent testimonies by the former Liberian warlord and President, Charles Taylor at the International Criminal Court for Sierra Leone sitting at the Hague that , some Nigerian Ecomog officers were involved in the arms and diamond deals that characterized the Liberian civil war.
By the time Ecomog came to an end in the early part of 2000, hundred of soldiers bearing all sorts of physical deformities and injuries were still laying in several military hospitals all over the country, with some of them having been in bed for over eight years. It was until the advent of democratic governance by 1999, that lucky ones amongst them were batched for further treatment (mostly surgery), at an Egyptian hospital, and that was when their third ordeal began, the first been the deprivation of their rightful benefits and rations in the war front and secondly, the agony of getting wounded in battle which in some cases involved losing an eye, limb or leg.
It was during the first batch's trip to Egypt that, the wounded soldiers expressed their displeasure at the senior officers who led them, after alleging that, what they were paid on arrival in Egypt did not reflect the amount they signed back in Nigeria (the amount been far less than what was supposed). A quick and polite intervention by the Nigerian high Commissioner in Egypt helped calmed the soldiers who were immediately returned to Nigeria even before doctors certified them fit to leave.
That exhibition of defiance by the junior soldiers at what they claimed the denial of their full medical/travel allowances by the officers did not go down well with the authorities in the Defence Headquarters ,who moved in swiftly to institute a court martial that tried the soldiers for mutiny and pronounced them guilty, passing various jail terms on them, with many of the victims proceeding to prison cells with POPs, bandages and on clutches.
Today, Nigeria is a democratic country or at least so we claimed to be, and the political affairs of the country are in the hands of men and women who are representatives of the people, and not those from the profession of violence of the days of yore. But sadly, the same deprivations and abuse of authority that characterized the era of military dictatorship and looting still persists in the military, where senior officers keep reaping where others have sown.
Just last year July, a contingent of soldiers who had just returned from a peace keeping assignment in Liberia made their feelings known to the Nigerian public in a peaceful way in Akure, Ondo State. This followed what they called the illegal diversion of their operational allowances running into Thousands of US dollars by some of their officers. The military authorities as usual instituted a court martial which found the accused officers guilty of stealing money belonging to junior soldiers, and the soldiers guilty of voicing out against the stealing of their rightful earnings.
In a ridiculous verdict, the Brigadier General Ishaya Bauka headed court martial only cautioned the thieving officers with lose of rank, while the soldiers, the actual victims of the theft were sentenced to life imprisonment (before international out cry forced the Army to commute it to seven years imprisonment).
Now, by this verdict of Brigadier Bauka's, the perpetrators of a crime that has brought great shame to the country and lose of legitimate income to poor families have been allowed to walk home to wine, dine and sleep in peace with their families, while the victims of their nefarious acts were sent to die in prison with their families losing their bread winners for ever, RULE OF LAW AT WORK INDEED! By freely setting up kangaroo court martials and using them as tools of oppression anytime they wish, the blood sucking Nigerian military top brass, now has the capacity to destroy anyone or group that threatens their interests, especially if that threat is from within.
Disappointedly enough, even the National assembly members who invited the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to brief them on the issue could not overturn the verdict after the COAS briefed them (in his own way) of the implications of the soldiers' action at the diversion of their entitlements.
Who knows, the Chief of Army Staff, himself a possible beneficiary of this type of crimes, might have cajoled and frightened the Honourables into believing that, allowing soldiers to voice out or react anytime they are cheated, could spell doom on the general interests and safety of all our elites, who themselves are ensconced in the comforts they derive by stealing from the masses, of which class the junior soldiers belong.
It is really disheartening that, despite the campaign and much talked about adherence to the Rule of Law and Zero tolerance for corruption by the present regime, to those who head affairs in our military. A blood sucking predatory class, who live by reaping where others have sown, proudly dangling medals of shame, it is BUSINESS AS USUAL .
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