“The Great Nigerian Armed Forces”

My primary school years, I wanted to become an astronaut. I still hope to visit space someday, hopefully as part of the construction team for the first human space colony.

These dreams made me study hard. My parents encouraged this as the way by which I could eventually give life to my dreams.

I wrote the Common Entrance Examinations in Primary Four. Wrote the Federal Entrance, Air Force Secondary School and that of my Private Primary School. I didn’t bother considering interviews for any of the others, I knew I was going to AFSS. I got in.

First year, I joined the Cadet Club; I was an active member for Four Years, then I quit. My illusions of the Nigerian Military were crumbled by new knowledge. There was no longer any strong motivation to join the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Why Do People Join the Armed Forces?

In the movie Jack Reacher (IMDB), the protagonists states the following as main reasons why people join the Armed Forces. They are:

Family Trade: These are those whose parents were/are in the Military, and it becomes the most likely path they follow. Career military families.
Patriots: Those who believe in the values, purpose and nature of their country/state, and wish to serve her in defence of those values.
Job-Seekers: Yes, this occurs even in the US. Persons join the Military simply for employment.

Finally,

Legal Means of Killing: The Military makes trained killers, someone who wishes to sate his curiosity in the art of murder can do so here. In times of war, they are given a license to kill, fulfilling their desires.

To this brilliantly crafted list, I would like to add one.

Citizenship: Joining the Military in the US is one of the fastest ways to become a legal citizen. A good number of Nigerians have taken advantage of this right from the 1970s, when my father worked in the US.

Now, we have five possible reasons. How do they apply to Nigeria. ### Why do people join the Nigerian Armed Forces?

Case 1: Family Trade Being an Ex-JAM, a number of ex-colleagues (Senior and Junior) went down one of the afore-mentioned paths. The closest one to me was the younger brother of my closest friend. His father was an MWO at retirement from the Nigerian Air Force, after 34years of service. This is the highest rank for non-commissioned officers. Having been on the lower echelon of the rank wars (between Commissioned and Non-Commissioned) in the Military, he desired that his sons – all five of them – would become officers and pass through the NDA to be Commissioned Officers. Lucky for my friend who had no military ambitions, he came up lacking in the political requirement (a.k.a “Who is your Godfather?”) that we’ve come to know exists in the NDA. As such, he escaped enlistment. His younger brother was not as lucky though.

Case 2: Patriotism I argue that there are no real Nigerian patriots. What we have are believers in different variations of The Nigeria Project. This is as we do not have national values, purpose and are yet to agree on the nature of our nation-state. As such, the few who profess to be patriots believe in infinite good possibilities for Nigeria. How does this affect our Military? Well, it makes the Military defend a forced sovereignty that has failed to gain legitimacy.

Case 3: Job Seekers Visiting the Nigerian Army Website, one of the first things you see is The Quote of the Year.

”A real soldier is known when he is put in the warfront. The one who is not a soldier will run away and abandon his job. Our soldiers are recruited from Nigerian society and, today, most people are not called to be soldiers, they joined because they are desperately in need of jobs.” – Lt. Col. KTJ Minimah (COAS)

This has been the case in Nigeria for a while. It can be argued that enlistment in the Nigerian Armed Forces are most likely due to this reason, at least for the Non-Commissioned Officers who make the bulk of the army. This large enrolment and lack of real purpose reduces the quality of training soldiers can receive. It can also be a point to consider when you hear of soldiers fleeing in battle or defection.

Cases 4 and 5 have little to no application in Nigeria, at least not to my knowledge.

Where is our Armed Forces Greatness?

Some days ago, someone on Nigerian Twitter referred to the Nigerian Army as a ragtag army. He received a barrage of insults, saying that such a tag was disrespectful to the valiant soldiers we have. Just as in most cases, Nigerians have excelled as individuals but Nigerian Institutions have never been built. Let’s analyse the Nigerian Army’s Structure in particular.

Structure

The Nigerian Army today has 6 divisions. These divisions were mostly formed after the emergence, or perceived emergence, of a threat.

The First Three Divisions (1, 2 & 3rd Armoured) were formed at the onset of the Nigerian Civil War.
The 4th Division (82 Division) was formed after the surrender of Biafra, in Enugu, the former capital of the Eastern Region and Biafra.
The 5th Division, 81 Division in Lagos, was upgraded from a garrison command in 2002.

You may say there was no war then, but do you recall the date of the Ikeja Armoury Explosions? 27th January 2002. This resulted in an upgrade to a Division on 26th May 2002.

The 6th and most recent Division, called the 7th Infantry Division was formed in August 2013. Its purpose is to fight Boko Haram.

With these, one can say that the Army as an institution is a ragtag/cut-and-join Army without being far from the truth. The present and previous Chiefs of Army Staff (CoAS) have/had stated that the army needs proper organisation.

Training

The growth of the Nigerian Army was meteoric during the Civil War. This resulted in a breakdown of training regimens to accommodate more soldiers. A large increase in size, meant a reduction in quality. Here’s some details.

“In Nigeria, from a force of 18,000 in infantry battalions and supporting units, strength rose to around 126,000 in three divisions by the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970”– Scott report, Sunday Telegraph, 11 January 1970, via N.J. Miners, “The Nigerian Army” 1956-65, Methuen and Co. Ltd, London, 1971, p.229

Those soldiers stayed in the Military, most likely till retirement. There has not been a record of the Nigerian Military being downsized.

A former US Marine, Major Stafford, stated this of the Nigerian Army.

“Inexperienced, poorly trained and ineptly led soldiers manifested their lack of professionalism and indiscipline by massacres of innocent civilians and a failure to effectively execute infantry tactics.”– Major Stafford in a 1984 Study.

This happened with the Odi (1999) and Zaki Biam (2001) massacres. There were also cries of genocide as recent as 2013 under former CoAS, Gen. Ihejirika. Great armies have low “collateral damage”.

Logistics

Every Nigerian Institution has issues in this regard, one could say it is somewhat cultural. For many who think our service men have always been well taken care of, here’s what Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) said of his command during the Civil War: there was a “haphazard and unreliable system of procurement and provisioning”. Much like today, isn’t it? There have almost always been arms-dealing embargoes from the Civil War days. _Do we think it is all diplomacy? _

African Peace-Keeping Missions

This has been an endless reference point when people wish to support their greatness claim. We hear of how seemingly loved the Nigerian troops were in other African countries. We allude the stabilisation of Sierra Leone and Liberia to our valiant Army. However, many of us have not bothered to read of the various degrees of Human Rights Violations, rape and more that we were accused of in same Peace-Keeping missions. We hear that we are one of the best in the world in “guerilla warfare”, and we take pride in that.

Peace-Keeping Missions were not funded and managed by Nigeria alone. The United Nations or/and African Union played pivotal roles, including funding and strategy. Nigeria’s role was largely a supply of infantry. You can check the records.

Thoughts

Following the Civil War, Nigeria has had 4 coups. All of them emanated from the Army. Would a great, stable Institution topple itself several times? No!

A Nation’s Armed Forces are one of its most important institutions. While I respect the bravery of our troops, I will not romanticise our past. Our Armed Forces have played pivotal roles in shaping the Nigeria we see today. These problems are more foundational than they are political. Correcting them requires a near complete overhaul of the present Nigerian State, a replacement with one of shared values, purpose and acceptable nature.