THE INSIDER: Frustrations boil over in the army

Wednesday’s gun attack on the General Officer Commanding the newly formed 7 Division of the Nigerian army, Major General Ahmed Mohammed, had long been coming.

His car was fired at by protesting soldiers, who used the opportunity to vent their anger at the senior officers who are perceived to be having fun and enjoying all the benefits of warfare.

Mohammed, sources said, had directed the soldiers to return overnight to their base in Maiduguri from Kalabalge, where they had gone for an operation. For security reasons, they wanted to travel during the day. But they had to obey a superior order.

On their way back, they ran into an ambush by Boko Haram fighters who killed many of the soldiers (official figure is four fatalities, but it is believed to be more than double that).

With pent-up anger and accumulated frustration, a soldier shot at the approaching vehicle of the GOC, who was preparing to address the press. Other officers fired into the air while Mohammed was ferried into safety.

Comfort zone

The Nigerian soldiers thrown into the war front with Boko Haram have been living in frustration, but the sensitive nature of security reporting in the country has kept most of the issues from the media.

There is disaffection among the soldiers – and even resentment towards the senior officers who are perceived to be living in the comfort zone and feeding the lesser mortals to the sharks of Boko Haram.

The soldiers are battling with low morale and grappling with one psychological challenge or the other.

TheCable spoke with some private doctors who have attended to soldiers returning from the Borno war front. The revelations are worrisome.

“One soldier told me their meals for the day are all brought in the morning. They eat their lunch and dinner cold or sour,” he said. “They talk in a very resentful way – resentful of their bosses, resentful of the government. They have no motivation at all.”

It has already been reported that the soldiers claim they get only three sachets of “pure water” per day in the burning heat of the desert, and they do not have sleeping kits. Their monthly allowance, originally N30,000, had been slashed to N15,000 without any explanations.

Lamentations of a returnee

Military spokesman Chris Olukolade has responded to those allegations, saying some of the issues were not the making of the military.

He said any soldier who has any complaint should talk to the appropriate authorities, and not to the media.

An Abuja-based doctor who spoke to TheCable recalled the lamentations of a returnee.

“He told me they live in fear every day. He said they are fighting a war without any clear winning strategy. Poor welfare aside, he believes their superiors are exploiting the war to enrich themselves and do not really care about ending the insurgency,” the medical doctor said.

A constant topic of discussion is the economics of warfare, in which those who benefit have little incentive to bring the war to a close, especially as they are not directly involved.

Contracts

Most of those who are benefiting from the huge budgets for security are in their air-conditioned offices in Abuja. There are various contracts to be awarded – food, water, blankets, trucks. For as long as the war lasts, money is there to be made.

These frustrations have been piling up – but the soldiers are further traumatised by the avoidable death of their colleagues, some of whom had been on duty with them for months and whom they shared a joke or a meal with a few hours to their death in the  hands of insurgents.

The Wednesday mutiny is being investigated by the 7 Division – and the outcome is predictable: the officers who revolted will be identified, tortured, dismissed and jailed, while the real issues remain untouched.

But the senior officers may have no hiding place if nothing concrete is done to address the burning issues.