In what looked like an SOS (Save Our Soul) message directly to the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and his Senate counterpart David Mark by a commanding officer incharge of the nations Army at the vulnerable NorthEast Region which had of recent being under series of attacks by the Boko Haram terror group advising the nations number one citizen on what had been the botttlenecks preventing the Nigerian Army from crushing the long overdue terror group.
In his annonymous letter, the Officer listed issues plaquing the Army and if not handled with care might lead to total crumbling of the nation and its Military noting that his own life was also at stake.
According to the Officer, the major issues bothers around
. Corruption,
. Lack of resources and troops and
. Poor Motivation.
In a piece of the letter by the Sahara reporter, it reads
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.
From observations and the tone of the letter, could this serve as an eye opener for the president to take quick moves whilst pursuing his dream of being re-elected come 2015 general election?
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