The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn\u2019t exist. – Roger “Verbal” Kint
\nYes, Verbal said that in \u2018Usual Suspects.\u2019 Unlike the legendary Femi Fani-Kayode did with his \u2018quote\u2019 from \u2018The Iliyad,\u2019 I am not going to falsely claim the movie quote is from some medieval literature and a quote I took to heart from childhood, no, it was from a movie I heard it \u2013 Usual Suspects.
\nIt is official: the Nigerian army is jeopardized, sabotaged, underfunded and under supported. Serial mutiny events of the soldiers drafted to the conflict northeast; serious complaints of low quality and scarce equipment, defunct drones, scrounge numbers of bullets, poor habitation conditions, even meals; and international including US expert reports have all verified that despite a huge portion of the nation\u2019s budget being allegedly set aside to fund and support Nigeria\u2019s military, the service is being wholesomely undermined.
\nIt is easy to overlook this as simply corruption in Nigeria, another day, another sector. It is also convenient to classify the failures of properly supporting a military hitherto recognized as one of the best in Africa, as simply being due to the \u2018cluelessness\u2019 of the Nigerian president. But are we being too simplistic? Is there possibly more behind the way Nigeria\u2019s military are easy prey for Boko Haram and how Boko Haram conveniently raids military posts and barracks and seizes tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers, APC\u2019s, and sophisticated weaponry which they use without recourse on the farmers of the northeast?
\nWhen one analyzes issues in such simplistic fashion, one tends sometimes to overlook what might otherwise be glaring. It will be na\u00efve to assume the decisions of Nigeria\u2019s governance are made by President Jonathan, who we say is clueless, alone. Decisions are made by many in his regime who are as smart as the smartest of us. Jonathan may be clueless, but the people around him, his cabinet and service chief\u2019s are not. Thus, perhaps the underfunding and undermining of the Nigerian army is not an inadvertent error or accident but a deliberate plan and strategy. Perhaps the maintenance of this war with both sides just kept strong enough to continue fighting and inflicting losses on each other, but the Nigerian army never being given the necessary land and air tools to finally terminate Boko Haram in their open hideouts, is no accident, but a strategy to cripple \u2013 the army of Nigeria, that is.
\nThere is little question that if President Jonathan declares to contest in 2015, he will not get up to 10% of the electorate to vote him. His messages and those of his spokespersons have been clear on this \u2013 a victory for any opposition\u2026 as Dokubo says, \u2018if Jonathan does not do his \u2018rightful\u2019 two or three terms, get ready for war.\u2019 What is the confidence of the Niger Delta who supposedly turned in their arms in the amnesty program, to wage war against Nigeria? To answer this question, one has to look at Nigeria\u2019s first private army; the army of Tompolo. Nigeria\u2019s President has officially transferred billions of naira to fund a Tompolo private army to supposedly \u2018protect Nigeria\u2019s Niger Delta from vandals. Oil theft from the creeks has risen since this private army was constituted to levels not seen in recent history, this spells out the fact that the Tompolo army is not serving the supposed function for which it is paid handsomely. So we must ask; what is the true aim of the Government Tompolo Niger Delta private army?
\nIs it possible that Nigeria\u2019s president has a plan to undermine the capacity of Nigeria to defend itself from a war to be waged by his loyalists in the Niger Delta in the event of his defeat come 2014, or in 2019 after his tenure expires if by some mad miracle he does win? Should we continue to ignore the rumors of arms build-ups in the Niger Delta and not weigh this in light of the sabotage of the nation\u2019s military?
\nAs our soldiers and civilians die in the northeast in this meaningless, unduly protracted war, we must start to ask ourselves the other, uncomfortable questions.
\nClueless or deadly calculated?
\nDr. Peregrino Brimah for http:\/\/ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something]
\nEmail: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn\u2019t exist. – Roger “Verbal” Kint Yes, Verbal said that in \u2018Usual Suspects.\u2019 Unlike the legendary Femi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n