Buratai And Soldiers’ Disloyalty

For the umpteenth time, the Presidency and Nigeria’s Military High Command have publicly admitted that intelligence reports indicate that Boko Haram insurgents have infiltrated the nation’s armed forces leading to setbacks in achieving set out targets and objectives.
Similarly, President Muhammadu Buhari, last year, told a bewildered citizenry that the intelligence community revealed that there were strong indications that members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect might have found themselves in the fold of the country’s security agencies, and this, no doubt, could lead to a leakage of national classified information on the tactics, strategies and operational plans against insurgency.
Also, the President was quoted as saying that such ugly development had the tendency of sabotaging and undermining the successes recorded towards achieving a total victory against terrorism.
As if that was not worrisome enough, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, last week, lamented what he described as “insufficient commitment to a common national and military cause by those at the frontline” as he decried some soldiers’ lackadaisical attitude on the battlefield.
Describing such soldiers as “bad eggs” with waning fighting spirit in the on-going anti-insurgency war, the COAS implored them to get out of the way or be kicked out.
It is, indeed, unfathomable that after a decade of Boko Haram’s insurgency, Nigeria is still lamenting over the activities or lack of it, of our armed forces, especially against the backdrop of billions of budgetary and extra-budgetary allocations to the defence sector.
Time after time and over successive dispensations, namely, Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari’s presidency, billions of public resources had been expended on executing the military and diplomatic campaigns against terrorism in the country.
Sadly enough, the war is still raging and taking its tolls on every area of our national life as hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of Naira worth of properties go down the drain while millions of innocent but helpless citizens are displaced virtually daily. No thanks to insurgency!
Though the military has dismissed reports quoting Buratai as categorically indicting some military personnel “for disloyalty to national service” as enshrined in section 217 of the 1999 Federal Constitution, we think that dismissal may not be substantially correct as there were reports in the past of soldiers that were court-martialled for mutinous-related offences.
It is our strong conviction that the Nigerian Armed Forces urgently require some house cleansing and purging to ensure the sanctity of the nation’s security architecture. A thorough and holistic overhaul of the security community is virtually becoming inevitable and imperative.
Whereas eminent Nigerians had clearly advocated the sacking of service chiefs in the last lap of Buhari’s first tenure because of the increasing spate of insurgency, banditry, gangsterism, armed robbery, kidnapping and other criminalities in the country, it is our view that we also need to adopt pro-active, innovative and dynamic approaches to stem the security challenges plaguing the country.
The Federal government should and must muster sufficient political will to rejig the nation’s security architecture as anything contrary may have far-reaching effects on the Nigerian state.
The callous blood-letting in the country must stop now. It is, indeed, time for action. Nigeria needs action, not rhetorics!
The notion in certain quarters that Nigeria’s military have been overwhelmed by security challenges rocking the country must be addressed now or never. No more excuses! Indeed, Nigerian troops on the frontline need a reinvigoration of their strategy and operational tactics.
Over 200 million Nigerians need to know whether there are truly, enough personnel to confront the security challenges facing the country or not, or that motivation and morale of our military personnel have reached a low ebb or could it be that our approach and weaponry are not good enough for the current realities staring us in the face?