<\/p>\n
Below is the full text of the officer’s letter addressed to President
\nGoodluck Jonathan<\/p>\n
PLEASE MR PRESIDENT SAVE THE MILITARY AND NIGERIA FROM COLLAPSING<\/p>\n
1. Sir, I am constrain to write you this letter which I consider it a
\nmatter of more than great importance for me to inform you and put to
\nrecord issues that are happening in the North East (Operation Zaman
\nLafiya). I choose this medium to write you this open letter because I have
\nwritten similar letter but no action was taking which I believe some
\nforces have blocked it are now after my life. Sir I have served in 7
\nDivision as staff officer and presently I am the commanding officer of
\n103Bn in the field. My combined wealth of experience as a staff officer
\nand now commanding officer are the disturbing fact that necessitated me to
\nwrite you this letter. While as a staff officer, I was among those who
\nbelieved that the commanders in the field are not doing well. But
\npresently, as a commander in the field, I found out that it is not the
\nfault of any commander that the defeat of the so called BOKO HARAM (BH)
\nhas not been achieved.<\/p>\n
2. First and foremost sir, the Nigerian Army is poorly equipped in the
\nNorth East, if all the battalions are well-equipped as required; it will
\nnot take the Army more than two weeks to flush out the BH. Presently there
\nare four units in my location here in KONDUGA including 21 Armoured
\nBrigade HQ. If all the units are provided with all their requirements, we
\ncan advance and flush out BH out of North East. Mr. President sir, the
\nNigerian Army is well-trained and capable of defending our nation. It has
\ndemonstrated the capacity to even successfully enforce peace in other
\nnations. Why not in our own country Nigeria?<\/p>\n
3. The fact about NE operation is that we are poorly equipped,
\nunderstaffed, high corruption from Army Headquarters down to battalion
\nlevel. Commanders see it as opportunity to make money. My predecessor has
\ncomplained of the same problem. Instead of ASA addressing the issue raised
\nby him, the army authorities decided to Court Martialled him. All the
\nunits in NE are understaffed, but on payroll their strength are complete
\njust to collect more allowances than what each unit is supposed to. The
\ncommanders see it as a personal money making venture rather than taking
\ncare of men and equipment. This ugly trend led to loss of many officers
\nand soldiers and thereby having adverse effect on the moral (sic) of
\ntroops. Majority of soldiers in the operation area wear mufti (civil
\ncloths) under their military uniforms in case there is an attack and the
\ntroops cannot withstand the BH, they found it easy to disguise as
\ncivilians to enable them escape. This is not the traditional practice in
\nthe NA. Though it is lack of adequate equipment and poor administration
\nfrom the higher authority that resulted to this ugly trend by our troops<\/p>\n
4. Sir, another bad and unprofessional act is that soldiers don\u2019t take
\nto orders from their superior officers because they have lost
\nconfidence\/trust from them. The case of former General Officer Commanding
\n7 Division Major General A. Mohammed is enough evidence to show that all
\nis not well in the Nigerian Army. It will interest you to note that worse
\ncases has been recorded before that of the former GOC and more are still
\nhappening, but nobody is ready to investigate the root cause of problems
\nfacing the troops in the field.<\/p>\n
5. This brings me to a recent occurrence which is my main purpose of
\nwriting this letter. As I mentioned earlier, due to the failure of the
\nauthority to address issues that I made mentioned, when a unit is attacked
\nand overran by the BH not because the soldiers are unable to fight, but
\nlack of weapons, ammunitions and communications equipment, the soldiers on
\nmany occasions will ran away, and a commander cannot stand and fight alone
\nas a result of this. Presently seventy percent of commanders in the NE are
\nfacing Court Martial due to the reasons mentioned. We the commanding
\nofficers are very worried over this development. This is because we many
\nsoon find our self as victims of this maladministration from our higher
\nauthorities.<\/p>\n
6. There is no sincerity in this operation; this is because the present
\nacting GOC has never visited any location outside Maiduguri town not to
\ntalk of principal staff officers in Army Headquarters or even the COAS.
\nBut we keep on hearing all sorts of lies that Generals are leading the
\nfight against BH. These are facts that can be confirmed from officers and
\nsoldiers in this operation including those in the 7 Division Headquarters.
\nThe GOC is so afraid that even with the Divisional Headquarters; he
\ndoesn\u2019t go out and always locked himself inside his office. Infact it is a
\ncommon knowledge among officers and soldiers in this operation that the
\nacting GOC is here to make his money and earn his promotion to the
\ndetriment of the operation. The completion of his mansion at No 8 Gwamna
\nRoad in Kaduna which the GOC ignorantly disclosed that when he completed
\nit, will be among the best houses in Kaduna, has turned to be a subject of
\ndiscussion among troops.<\/p>\n
7. The former 21 Armored Brigade commander is facing Court Martial
\ntoday because the acting GOC does not want to see him and his garrision in
\nMaiduguri town simply because of the huge monthly allocations from the
\nBorno State government to the brigade garrision. He wanted to be
\ncollecting his money by using 7 Div Garrison, but in reality 7 Div
\nGarrision does not have troops to claim such money. It is worthy to note
\nthat the GOC received 33,000litres of AGO and PMS each, 600 bags of rice
\nmonthly from Borno State government. All these items are diverted for his
\npersonal use.<\/p>\n
8. Recently the newly appointed 21 Brigade commander lead 3 units to
\nflush out the BH, that operation was successful, almost 300 BH were
\nkilled, weapons and vehicles were recovered from them, in the process the
\ntroops exhausted their ammunitions from the Div, the GOC simply replied
\nthat there was no ammunition this made all the troops to withdraw back to
\nKONDUGA.<\/p>\n
9. Presently more than 3000 officers and soldiers are either killed in
\naction, deserted, captured as POW or on AWOL. But due to lack of proper
\nadministration the army directed that their salary should be stopped. This
\naffect the families of those that are either genuinely killed in action or
\ncaptured as Prisoners of War. It has also affected some of the troops that
\nare still participating in this operation.<\/p>\n
10. Mr. President sir, if all issues raised in this letter are not
\nurgently address, the Nigerian Army will soon be history and by
\nimplication there will be no country called Nigeria. No country without
\nstrong army will survive. I decided to write you this letter because the
\nlife of officers and soldiers trusted in my care are no longer save. My
\nlife is also at the stake because the NA authority as usual will say I
\nhave communicated directly to you as the Commander in Chief of the Armed
\nForces and may sanction me. As a citizen of this country and a commander
\nin the operational area, with all the points I have mentioned in this
\nletter, it is clearly that the Military authorities have failed the
\ncountry, as such they should be held liable for their misdeeds. I have
\nconsulted seasonal constitutional lawyers if writing you this letter will
\nbe an offence, but they said it is my constitutional right to inform the C
\nin C about what is happening in the NE and within the military which if
\nnot address will affect the survival of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Courtesy:Saharareporters<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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