by Gimba Kakanda
Since the past six
years, no people have been so cruelly, and almost unanimously, ridiculed
like members of the Nigerian armed forces. They’ve become the butt of
our jokes, and scapegoat of every security lapse, and our anger, though
understandable, is often misplaced, directed at the wrong party.
Ever since I learnt, or trained my mind to see, the difference
between the Defence Headquarters and the Nigerian troops, I developed a
certain compassion for the latter; the former, however, is only there
for management of the defence organizations’ public relations, and the
“small guys” in the terrorist infested fields don’t even know what those
millionaire bureaucrats and rubber-stamp combatants say of their
failings and victories, and how they’re being employed for political
advantages by both the ruling and the opposition parties.
We’re presently entangled in a rectangle of tragedy: the paranoia of
the armed forces, unaccountability of the executive, the conspiracies
promoted by the opposition party and, the offshoot of the three,
suspicions of the paranoid military and the unaccountable executive
and, to an extent, even the opposition figures by private citizens.
Even a flippant observer must’ve already noticed how this rectangle
brewed an atmosphere of distrust, which has intensified in this election
period, especially with the renewed energy to fight insurgency as
declared by the government itself. The unofficial excuse for the
escalation of terrorism in the northeast, as cited by the foreign media,
aside from the inherent corruption in our government, are the abuse of
human rights by our counterterrorism forces and the infiltration of our
military intelligence by agents of the insurgents, which resulted in
termination of arms deals between Nigeria and the United States. This,
also, is cited as the reason our government patronises international
black markets for its arms.
While the President’s widely reported statements that “Boko Haram has
infiltrated my government”, which, about two years later, he tried
unsuccessfully to deny, validated the theory of our compromised security
arrangements, his shadowy deals in the black markets, like the arrest
of a a Nigerian-owned private jet in South Africa with about $10 million
meant for arms purchase, added more stories to our books of conspiracy.
This was also because the plane belonged to a pastor and loyal friend
of the President, known for bigoted and polarising remarks on the state
of our union.
Whichever excuse the government and its loyal Defence Headquarters
officially provided as reason for the recent victories recorded in its
counterterrorism, ours is to celebrate the outcomes, and even if we must
attack, the Nigerian troops should be seen as different from the
Defence Headquarters.
Tragic, though, how some of us rush to report and celebrate the
“triumphs” of Chadian and Cameroonian forces but ridicule any attributed
to Nigerian Troops. We must be up to cheer the Nigerian troops, whose
efforts and realities are often misrepresented by badly-scripted
propagandas from the Defence Headquarters, for these recent outcomes of
their intensified counterterrorism. We must stand in solidarity with,
and in prayers for, those martyrs like Private Kadiri, Corporal John and
Captain Olusola giving up their all and lives to keep this nation whole
and safe, away from the coverage of televisions.
Perhaps a little perception of theirs, not even solidarity, is all
they want from us. At least for losing friends and brothers, without the
media to convey their miseries to us. Or you think a soldier would just
stand like a statue and let an insurgent shoot him? Let’s redirect our
disappointment in our counterterrorism to the appropriate profiteers
whose decision is the reason the welfare of the Nigerian troops is a
cause for laments.
Thankfully some of us don’t need a photograph, only communication
with the actual victims of terrorism up north, to confirm that some
towns have truly been recaptured, with the insurgents crushed and
fleeing, in northeast Nigeria.
If our President had been half as conscious as that khaki-decked
Commander-in-Chief I saw, in photographs, combing northeast Nigeria,
there wouldn’t have been these many conspiracy theories and and this
much distrust. Sadly, President Jonathan preferred to keep the nation
speculating, that he’s complicit in the escalation of this terror that
consumes us. My own inference is, Mr. President deliberately refused to
be a unifying figure, as he’s seen jumping from one church to another,
even making obvious policy statements there, in expectation of a repeat
of 2011- a period of polarized electorate. Now that he’s seen it bold
and underlined, that Nigerians are better informed this time, his rush
to be a responsible President only elicits pity. May God save us from
us!
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– Gimba Kakanda tweets from @gimbakaknda
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