By Austin Isikhuemen auxtynisi@yahoo.com
During the Shehu Shagari Presidency some Nigerian Army soldiers were killed in cold blood in the sea by soldiers that were later identified as belonging to Equatorial Guinea. The outrage in Nigeria was palpable and the call for a revenge overrun of the tiny banana republic then led by Marcias Nguema, was shared by all Nigerians who felt that our sovereignty was challenged. The entire population of the tiny country on was less than that of our armed forces and they dared to kill our soldiers on legitimate patrol?
The Shagari Government, led by a dove, calmed the situation and offered Equitorial Guinea the safer and face-saving diplomatic option of apologizing to Nigeria and paying massive compensations which we learnt they did. Tension was defused and good neighbourly relations continued and a shooting war was avoided which some say, let France off the responsibility of taking sides with its tiny colonial appendage and its puppet.
Then, in 1999, some soldiers were murdered in Odi, Bayelsa State. Chief (General) Olusegun Obasanjo was President. He gave matching orders and Odi was leveled on 20th November 1999. Women were alleged to have been raped with videos and photos passed around as evidence. The soldiers denied it. The Government kept mute. The Army argued that some of the soldiers seen doing unsoldierly stuff had red rags tied around their gun barrels and they cannot be Nigerian Army soldiers! Ditto for some that wore bandanas. The wearing of those two pieces of evidence disclaimed have since become commonplace among our soldiers and policemen.
The heavily armed special forces policemen I met at Ofosu yesterday had three long-loaded magazines combined to each of their rifles in an ingenious way and wrapped in red masking tape. What was more foreboding was that they wrapped their heads in scarves made popular by the Palestinian and Yemeni fighters! Those non-regulation issue accoutrements make it easy for officialdom to offer alibi when ‘Odi’ happens again anywhere.
During Obasanjo’s regime, despite the Odi example, some people in Zaki Biam still touched the tiger’s tail. Foolishly, callously and beastly. They killed some policemen and, it was even alleged that they disembowelled them – a euphemism for ‘tear open and removed their innards’! The reaction was swift and unforgiving. Zaki Biam burned and people transited through hot bullet-induced instant deaths. The Chief of Army Staff then (now retired) who implemented the Odi ‘pacification’ cried out that his aged blind uncle was killed in the operations and blamed the government to no end. He demonstrated selective amnesia because when journalists asked him why people were massacred in Odi, he had responded that soldiers are trained to kill and not to arrest. Now that the shoe was on his leg, he felt the pinch and shed tears.
The Odi and Zaki Biam examples ought to teach us a lesson. That our troops and policemen, who stay awake so that we can sleep, ought not to be used for target practice by sundry violent elements and agitators no matter their grouse. That there are dire consequences of such misadventure. And that the impact will reverberate through the nation and no matter what you think your reason is, you have just waged a war against Nigeria’s symbols of our national sovereignty, even, Nigeria’s very existence! Government, or put differently, the Nigeria State, will always exert a devastating revenge, cry all you like. This is a lesson those who did the killings of the 17 Army personnel in Opuama refused to imbibe.
That dastardly act, of ambushing and callously killing our soldiers on a peace mission, is condemnable in all its ramifications. People forget that soldiers and policemen are not equipment, but are fathers, husbands, wives, bread winners and have dreams of a future that is bright and happy. When you kill them and their dreams, you hurt their dependents and loved ones irretrievably. You burn down a resource that our commonwealth has invested heavily in through specialized training with which he would have served the nation for many years yet. Additionally, you demotivate serving officers and soldiers who will be sent on, or are on such missions or deadlier ones, to keep Nigerians safe and secure. You also create an image problem for the Armed Forces and the Police and make their jobs more difficult by creating a narrative of a vengeful lot that kill indiscriminately once their comrades are hurt or killed. The current Army Chief that I know – Major General Taoreed Lagbaja – is not your blood-thirsty soldier. He is kind, urbane, spartan & regimental minded, fully conscious of, and in complete agreement with, military subordination to civilian authorities, he takes responsibility for his troops’ welfare as top on his mandate. He does not send his troops to a mission he cannot go himself. Ask those around Okene – Abuja Road during the height of kidnapping and banditry in that axis. Ask the troops!
The trending videos of scorched-earth events said to be revenge actions in Opuma is horrendous and heart-wrenching. Innocent people have been put in harm’s way by the callous and terrorist actions of a few who may or may not be from that community. What if a group decided to create problems for Opuama and Okoroma by taking this action at that place? What if a far-away militant group that feels it has an axe to grind with government or the armed forces who have been stopping its oil theft and bunkering businesses decided that this was an opportune time to strike?
I think too, that communities seeing the initial tentacles of youth restiveness and criminality springing up should do something about it. These youths first used to attack oil companies and other entities for pecuniary benefits that some elders deploy and fund, eventually achieve uncontrollable status and can bring harm to the communities and the nation at large. So, be careful, because when ‘Opuama’ happens, the youth can run and escape leaving the elderly, the infirm, the women and children in the path of the forces of revenge. And the poverty that was the reason for agitation get worsened when homes are reduced to ashes and a landlord transforms to an IDP overnight.
Let us stop killing our soldiers who volunteered to put their lives at risk to keep our territorial integrity inviolate. It is bad enough that we are deploying them to police duties for which they are mostly not trained. A soldier dying at war to defend his nation is a worthy death. But being killed in cold blood by the citizens for whom they put their lives at risk is the worst form of death for a serving soldier or a veteran. It must stop. Now.
The government should also strengthen the police and gradually take the military out of civil police roles. This over-exposure of our armed forces to the populace and their involvement in some practices considered antithetical to military ethos and discipline is capable of “see finish” phenomenon and a lack of respect. The police should be well-resourced personnel-wise, trained well and oriented to their role of the society’s protector. Policemen should not be buying their uniforms and shoes from their meagre salaries that are not even commensurate with the risks they face nor the harsh conditions they work and live in.
The police deserve to be well paid and provided with serviceable vehicles with which to do their duties. Driving a vehicle that is incapable of catching up with a tricycle does not do the police any favours nor earn them respect among the populace. So are the decrepit barracks where they live. A friend of mine who worked with me as an Engineer in Guinness Nigeria and relocated to the United States decades ago to work with a global brewing behemoth has just joined the police and proudly donned his uniform and posted on social media. Can that happen here?
Will the pay justify it? Will the living conditions and ramshackle vehicles the Nigeria Police drive be attractive for someone with SUVs packed in his garage? Let the government think on these things. And act. May God bless our armed forces and the police.
Lagos, 20th March 2024
