It is understandable that the military authorities would strive to pass off last week’s embarrassing skirmish by soldiers in Maiduguri’s Maimalari Cantonment as a mere storm in a tea cup. For a military whose activities have come under global scrutiny in the last one month, it is natural that it would seek to downplay any untoward developments that can only further dent its image. However, after the reassignment of the General Officer Commanding the Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed barely 24 hours after the Maimalari Cantonment incident, followed by the convening of the Military Board of Inquiry to probe the incident, I don’t think anyone, least the military authorities would dare to suggest that the events are anymore, routine.
There is simply no denying that the military is on the spot. That, in fact, is an understatement. As far as the current state of insurgency goes, the institution would appear to be on trial. Indeed, the Maimalari Cantonment blow-out has merely brought to the fore, a dangerous dimension to the current unease across the land, a plausible explanation for what is increasingly the military’s inability to contain the Boko Haram menace.
While the outburst of anger by some disgruntled soldiers as widely reported may not have come as a surprise given the not too infrequent reports of grumblings among the ranks of the fighting men in recent time, the development would appear to mirror a deeper problem in the rank which the military institution, nay the nation as a whole, can only ignore at its peril.
The problem here isn’t just that the soldiers were said to be disenchanted with their top brass; there are in fact, insinuations that their bosses, by acts of omission or commission, are increasingly complicit in bringing their men in the harms way. That obviously is a new dimension, a dangerous one with grave potentials for the management of the insurgency. It is one fire that the military authorities will have to douse, and very quickly too.
However, as yours truly has always argued on this page, the problem with the Nigerian military is not in any significant sense different from the problem of the larger society. While the idea of an army riven by the Nigerian cleavages of ethnicity and religion is hardly anything new, and, in any case, it isn’t as if the military institution as an organic part of the society can be insulated from the general societal debility, the extent to which the current orgy of bashing is justifiable is what I consider open to debate. Now, I would go as far as to argue that the virulent testimonials in the wake of the Chibok abductions are unhelpful. By this I do not mean the outrage against the abduction – which is justifiable; I do not think that anyone denies that the military’s response is anything but lethargic particularly given the blanket state of emergency imposed in the North-east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. I refer to the picture of an ill-equipped, undisciplined and terribly ill-motivated Nigerian army being served the world in the last one month. It is quite frankly, exaggerated. In the same vein, the brutal denunciation of the military which has lately become fashionable is, most certainly, unwarranted.
I have said it before, if there is anything that the raging insurgency in the North-east in particular has revealed, it is the comprehensive failure of our institutions across the board. Indeed, if the Nigerian military stands accused as a failure, it is only because other institutions of the Nigerian state which ought to give the military the wing to fly have also failed. They failed them as much as they failed us. From the confederates of Abuja who ought to have provided the institution with the necessary logistics and equipment but neglected to do; the military top brass alleged to have sat on personnel rations while fighting men go hungry; authorities at the state and local levels who yielded the ground to the anti-social elements thus allowing their reign of impunity to fester; to these we may add the hordes of local leaders – better described as dealers – whose indifference helped create the environment for the monster to thrive. See how everyone is now chanting #BringBackOurGirls!
We need our girls back alright – all in one piece. The job is for none else than the military. We might as well admit it: the military needs help – not vilification. No doubt, there is a lot that our emergency friends can do to help us; pulling our chestnuts out of the raging fire for us is not one of them. When the chips are down, it is our fighting men that would still be required to clear the mess called Boko Haram. Admittedly, the Nigerian military may not have done nearly enough to court a working symbiosis with the civilian population; the truth also is that the citizens haven’t always done nearly enough either to provide useful intelligence to our armed forces. I guess– it works both ways!
By the way, I have heard quite a few citizens celebrate the heroism of the Kala-Balge who not only stood up to the terrorists but inflicted massive casualties on them. For me, aside shattering the myth of invisibility, if not invincibility of the loonies, what it does is reinforce the immense possibilities in the partnership between the locals and the military. Much as the single act of communal bravery is welcomed, it comes to the question of whether such limited self-help is what is needed at this time. It might even turn out to be counter-productive in the long run.
As for the current global spotlight on the military, my view is that it may yet do some good to the institution itself. More than anything, it offers the institution the rare chance to redeem itself, to purge its ranks currently believed to be infested with fifth columnists. Time to begin the long walk back to the disciplined path which once commended it to the world as effective fighting force – one able to hold its own against the best in the world. If only for the sake of itself and the nation, it simply has no choice but to return to that path.
