These creatures enlisted into the army and other security services are embedded enemies whose loyalty cannot be trusted.
Clem Aguiyi
‘Dear Santa. Get in your sleigh; go to the front where our soldiers battle the bad guys. Protect them and where possible bring them home for they deserve to be with their families at Christmas’
READ ALSO: APC says PDP politicising Nigerian soldiers’ killings in North-East
This essay is dedicated to our soldiers who died in the battle of Metele. Over a hundred lost, which translate to hundred fathers, hundred husbands of now hundred widows and a hundred brothers and breadwinners, all perished in one day with their commanders.
I salute the courage of these brave officers. May their souls rest in peace. Though let down by the military high command whom they trust and serve, their death shall never be in vain because in their sacrifice I see a brighter future for Nigeria
The pride of every nation lies in the strength and heroism of her military. In a world with such vices as terrorism and global conflicts, the Military remains ever so important. No wonder that they are perhaps the most funded governmental in terms of logistics and training and equipment.
The heroism of our military is no different even though we have often times belittled our achievements. The military comprising of the Army, Navy and Air Force have brought great pride to us through victories in preventing chaos and protecting the people in different conflicts across the nation. It is the military that fought to keep Nigeria one and in many ways prevented external aggressions. And in peace keeping our military excelled to become the proudest characteristics of our nation.
Despite the corner turned, the military unfortunately do not make their own decisions. The president and the politicians decide for them. The politicians decide when and how the military conduct its affairs. The military obeys command just like our troops in Metele who were obeying the last order. With obsolete weapons, they knew it’s a question of time before death will come knocking.
Eventually, what they feared most happened. The base at Metele was burned down with 100 soldiers killed by militants, a huge loss. Many soldiers reportedly remain unaccounted for. Armour tanks and weapons were lost to the insurgents. Additional number of soldiers who went to evacuate and retrieve the bodies of the dead and the wounded were ambushed and killed raising more questions about our troops’ combat readiness. Before this very attack, hundreds of soldiers had been killed in rapid succession by the so-called technically defeated insurgents who in recent times have become more emboldened and daring in their attacks.
My heart and my prayers go out to the family of these soldiers who laid down their lives so that we may live peacefully. I sympathise with their families and colleagues.
While we mourn and pray for the repose of our soldiers, we must find ways to address our deteriorating security situations and operational tactics against the insurgents. We know that soldiers who enlisted into the military signed to die protecting the nation but they didn’t sign to be ill-equipped, unappreciated and exploited by the very system they trusted and served.
We have heard complaints concerning nonpayment of allowances, poor feeding and supply of obsolete equipments. These issues are enough to demoralize the troops in the front line hence the need to quickly probe the allegations and sanction those found wanting.
We have all seen the videos in circulation posted by the insurgents and also some soldiers. It is obvious that, the insurgents that attacked Melete had better weapons and that our men offered no strong response hence they were killed in their numbers. Who is equipping the insurgents with superior fire power? By now we should know their supply chains and expose them.
It is common knowledge that majority of the insurgent fighters are Sunni Muslims. There may be some truth in the rumor that the honcho of a prince in Saudi Arabia who from every indication is unhinged may be funneling money and weapons to the insurgents in his madness to advance the Sunni supremacy.
Our politicians must quit playing games with the lives of our soldiers. I see no reason why military officers will risk their lives to capture insurgents who are released back to the society without trial and even when brought to court are discharged and acquitted on technical ground. Those who for any reason bear arms against the state or fought against our peace are enemies of the state and must be treated as such.
The military has also been weakened as a result of the regimes policy of recruiting known and confirmed terrorists into the army. These creatures enlisted into the army and other security services are embedded enemies whose loyalty cannot be trusted. Otherwise how does a terror group acquire better intelligence than our military to the extent of swooping on a military base and killing over a hundred soldiers and still have the temerity to ambush the team that came on rescue days after, thus inflicting more casualties. From available reports, our men don’t even know who and what they are up against and from which angle to dodge bullets because the bullets were coming from both the embedded enemies and the attackers. No military survives with too many saboteurs and enemies within.
It’s a dumb act to recruit confirmed insurgents into sensitive institutions like the police and armed forces. We know the reasons why these policy was adopted in the first instance and now that it is backfiring need I remind our bigoted defense policy makers that there are able bodied men and women who are ready to serve the nation with pride and honor, not insurgents who have sworn to Islamisation and deception.
Again, politicians must stop all their unnecessary romance with insurgents and be genuine protectors of the constitution, the people and the nation. Political leaders indicted for their romance with insurgents are far much worse than the insurgents and must not escape justice.
The nation is defeated when her military is defeated, not when the politicians lose elections. Service chiefs must be held accountable over performance of our soldiers. Corrupt service chiefs who embezzle or divert defense budgets for any reason other than for the protection, training and equipment of our military should be sanctioned along with their civil collaborators, the defense contractors who supplied obsolete equipments.
Attack they say is the best form of defense. We must not continue to wait for the insurgents to attack only for us to defend. We must pursue the insurgents into their caves and attack them.
We must get rid of all forms of militants using our forests as militant bases. Special Forces must be deployed to ensure militant groups have no foot anywhere on our soil from the deserts to the Atlantic oceans. May God bless our military and give us good leaders who will think Nigeria first.