THE INSIDER: Spare a thought for Nigerian soldiers fighting Boko Haram for N15,000

Nigerian soldiers fighting Boko Haram insurgents earn a monthly allowance of N15,000 (as against the N30,000 official rate), are entitled to three sachets of “pure water” per day in the desert heat and lack sleeping kits at night.

By contrast, delegates to the National Conference take home N4 million a month, eat as many delicacies as they desire and sleep in air-conditioned rooms after spending the day discussing north and south and Islam and Christianity.

Our soldiers carry the good, old AK47 rifles while the terrorists are armed with the good, new Browning Machine Guns (BMGs). The mere sound of BMGs is enough to strike the “fear of God” into the hearts of Nigerian soldiers.

These poor soldiers are battle-weary, some of them having been on duty for two years, and in serious need of psychological upgrade. They are thrown into a war in which Nigeria does not have superior strategies while the service chiefs are in far away Abuja backslapping and talking tough.

By the way, these allegations are not new. In fact, Defence spokesman, Major Gen. Chris Olukolade, has tried to deny or explain them.

Sacrifice

Speaking to the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) last week, he said the military authorities were doing their best in the circumstance.

“Most of these complaints are based on misunderstanding on the part of the soldiers and the journalists who believe them,” he said.

The truth, according to him, is that a lot of sacrifice in being made behind the scenes to ensure that everyone is paid his due.

“The required patience may be lacking on the part of those affected who would not understand the efforts of the authorities to solve their problem. We can only assure everybody – the soldiers, journalists and Nigerians that there is no way any soldier can be denied his allowance. If he is not paid now he would be paid sooner or later,” he said.

Good, old AK47

He spoke about processes that have to do with “financial regulations. We pay them as we get funds. So they need to be patient. Everybody will get their entitlement”.

This is not good music to the ear in the midst of a raging war that has put Nigeria in a global spotlight, what with the abduction of 276 school girls.

Our soldiers are expected to continue to risk their lives confronting the insurgents with “sacrifice”.

Olukolade extolled the virtues of the good, old AK47 and reminded his interviewer that Nigeria has tanks, unlike the terrorists.

But Boko Haram keeps slaughtering students, destroying villages and bombing bridges.

Amnesty International

The defence spokesman has also taken on Amnesty International over their report that there was a four-hour window for the military to stop the Chibok attack.

Amnesty said on Friday that it had credible information that the military was informed that some armed men were asking for the location of Government Secondary School but the soldiers did not act on the information probably because they could not confront the Boko Haram militants.

“Contrary to the organisation’s claims, troops in Maiduguri did not receive four hours forewarning about the attacks.  Rather, they received information of an ongoing attack on Chibok community from troops on patrol who on noting the attack engaged the terrorists and called for more reinforcement to contain them.

“As the troops on reinforcement traversed the over 120km rugged and tortuous road from Maiduguri to Chibok, they ran into an ambush by terrorists who engaged them in fierce firefight and a number of soldiers lost their lives. Another set of soldiers also mobilized for the mission arrived after the terrorists had escaped due to a series of misleading information that slowed down the pursuit.

“It must therefore be clearly stated that contrary to the claim by the Amnesty International, the information received by troops at the Division Headquarters in Maiduguri was not a forewarning but the call for reinforcement by troops on patrol.  Considering the vastness of the mission area, deployment has been more of patrols than static.

Cowardice

“The imputation of cowardice on the part of troops is particularly confounding as the military has internal mechanism to deal with such tendencies.  These spurious allegations are obviously a continuation of the campaign intended to cause disaffection, portray the military in bad light and undermine the counter-terrorism efforts.”

Amnesty has never been a friend of the military authorities because of its reports on the insurgency which tend to paint them in a bad light.

But Nigerians need to know more about the military operations. There is something the authorities are not telling Nigerians. We all have our suspicions though.