Desperate Army Commander Writes Letter To GEJ:'Why We Could Not Defeat Boko Haram'

In a desperate letter to President Goodluck
Jonathan and Senate President David Mark leaked
to SaharaReporters this past weekend, a
commanding officer stationed in Nigeria's
northeast details several troubling issues plaguing
troops combatting Islamist terror group Boko
Haram in the region. President Goodluck Jonathan
The officer stated that, corruption,
maladministration, lack of resources and troops
motivation has militated against a successful
campaign to end Boko Haram's deadly reign of
terror in the northeast.
The officer's lengthy complaint which he claims
would lead to a threat to his life forewarns that if
his pleas continue to be ignored by the country's
leadership that both the Nigerian Army and the
country will crumble under the insurgency.
"If all issues raised in this letter are not urgently
addressed, the Nigerian Army will soon be history
and by implication there will be no country called
Nigeria," the officer gravely states. "No country
without a strong army will survive."
Below is the full text of the officer's letter
addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan
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.
Source:http://saharareporters.com/2014/12/15/why-
we-could-not-defeat-boko-haram-army-commander-
writes-powerful-letter-president

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