Culled from Guardian News
BEFORE the recent mutinous actions of soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the Borno axis against their commanders and the recent week’s protest by their wives against their deployment to the front line, a case of violent demonstration carried out by soldiers was recorded on Friday, July 4, 2008 at the 323 Artillery Brigade of the Nigerian Army headquartered in Akure, Ondo State capital.
It was the first time in recent history, at least in the public domain, that an institution credited with high level of discipline, exhibited such an unrestraint unruliness that the command structure, the very pillar on which the military forces rested, was compromised, thereby bringing the entire defence system to public ridicule.
For several hours, beginning from around mid-afternoon, the soldiers in their hundreds, all dressed in their army fatigues, took over the whole stretch of Ondo Road, setting up bonfires, which totally blocked the entrance to the Akure metropolis through the Ondo axis.
Chanting war songs and brandishing sticks and cudgels, they moved in bands and siphoned fuels from hapless motorists who were unfortunate to be caught in the confusion that the whole scenario has been turned into, to wet disused tyres that were immediately set on fire.
The riotous situation was the same inside the barracks as hundreds of others held hostage the Commanding Officer (C.O), Gabriel Umelo, a Lieutenant Colonel, and other senior officers of the military in his office.
The presence of armed guards, who formed a menacing ring around the CO’s office, prevented the officers from being abducted as the atmosphere became more charged with soldiers heaping unprintable insults on their Commander. It would have been an all-out war if the mutinous soldiers were armed.
During the court-martial that followed the mutiny, it was revealed that the soldiers were members of the 850-strong 15th Nigerian Battalion (NIBATT 15) Contingent of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNIMIL) protesting the slashing of their allowances by corrupt superior officers from the USD 1,228 that was allocated to each of them on monthly basis to USD 3,000 for the entire six-month duration.
The 28 of them who were identified as ring-leaders, told the nine-member court martial, headed by Major General Ishaya Bauka, through their lawyer, Femi Falana, that corruption has destroyed the fabric of the army and that in Liberia the Nigerian Troop was known for tattered uniforms and breaking down vehicles and that even when they were kitted, they were made to pay through their noses for materials that were supposed to be distributed freely.
While the soldiers were charged with mutiny, four senior officers, including administrators of Army Finances were charged with stealing, cheating and negligence, but the court, which proceedings was made open, discovered that the money meant for the protesting soldiers, about USD 1.054 million was wrongly credited to the accounts of NIBATT 14, which had earlier completed its tour of duty and which was made up mainly of soldiers from 72 Para-Battalion based in Makurdi.
The first Prosecution Witness (PW 1), Col Lasbry Odunwa who was also the Commander of Second Division Provost and head of Military Police, told the court that the fact was unveiled when his team was interrogating the Deputy Director of Finances at the Army Headquarters, Lt. Col P.A Baba.
Baba was said to have confessed to the investigating team that he made a mistake in crediting the wrong accounts with the money, while the commander of the Makurdi Battalion, who also led the NIBATT 14 Liberian operation, Col. A.A Awotoye, who was accused of stealing and cheating, told the court that he was not aware that his regiment was being wrongly paid the money as at the time of disbursement.
At the end of the long proceedings, the arraigned officers, including Awotoye, who failed to notify the authorities of the anomaly of crediting wrong accounts were demoted by a rank, while the soldiers, “in order to serve as deterrent to others” were sentenced to death.
But public outcry, sustained by Falana and other human rights activists, reduced the sentence to life imprisonment and later to seven years prison sentence, before it was finally commuted to dismissal from the force without any benefit.
With the recent insubordination from the soldiers and the meddling of their wives in matters that are purely military and in accordance with their commission, it is obvious that discipline is on the verge of total breakdown in the command structure of the Nigerian Army.
Although issues like dampened morale, lack of necessary equipment for combat and trainings, infiltrations from enemy camp and suspected compromise by superior officers who are suspected of dual loyalty are yearning for attention, an overall picture of a rag-tag army that lacks the competence to fight is being painted of one of the largest army in Africa.
These, perhaps, are the reasons why the war against terror is being lost at almost all fronts with insurgents hoisting their flags and killing innocent Nigerians with reckless abandon, even as the entire Nigerian Military was made a subject of ridicule on the floor of the American Senate where it was described as lacking the needed competence to curb insurgency.
