The news of the massacre of over 100 Nigerian soldiers of the 157 Task Force Battalion, Metele in Guzamala Local Government Area, Borno State between November 18 and 20, 2018 purportedly by the West Africa arm of ISIS, a breakaway faction of Boko Haram in Nigeria, was devastating to a nation that has been writhing in pains over the years. It is evidently clear that the declaration of the Presidency that the deadly sect had been technically decimated is a ruse after all. It is on record that the present administration has committed more money and resources to the war against the Boko Haram insurgency than its predecessors and yet Nigeria has witnessed the highest military casualties since the inception of the needless war by the rag tag armed insurgents. Why? There are no weapons anywhere. So, where did the huge budgets go? Your guess is as good as mine and yet the Federal Government is boasting that it is waging war on corruption. The soldiers are being sent to the war front with obsolete equipment and they are dying in droves. In August 12, 2018, a group of soldiers stationed at the Maiduguri International airport staged a mutiny protesting moves to deploy them to the frontline without adequate weaponry to match the insurgents and instead of addressing their concerns, they were court-martialed.
Nigeria has never been this divided along regional, ethnic and religious lines and the economy is comatose which has led to an unprecedented number of suicides in the nation’s history. Fighting corruption alone has never made a nation when the citizens are dying of hunger and poverty
Given the trend of events since the unfortunate Metele’s incident, it is obvious that the Buhari administration was determined to conceal the mass killing of the soldiers in order not to jeopardise his re-election but for an online media, Premium Times, that broke the news to the nation. Even at that, it took the Nigeria Commander –in – Chief a whole week to admit the attack and another week to visit the injured troops in a military hospital in Maiduguri and even was a chanced visit because the original purpose was the official opening of the Chief of Army Staff annual conference. An anonymous soldier of the battalion under attack alleged that over 75 of his colleagues fell to the superior fire power of the insurgents. Agence France Press reported a casualty figure of 44 while the Nigerian Army belatedly said 33 soldiers were killed and 31 others were injured two weeks after the attack after a public outcry of its deafening silence. This is in contrast to the assertion of presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, on a private television that no nation gives a true account of the mortality of its soldiers in a war situation. What a big lie! It is a known fact that the government of ‘’Mr. Integrity’’ speaks from both sides of the mouth and this is a disservice to the nation.
For a nation that lost over a hundred soldiers in a single attack, a responsible Commander – in – Chief would immediately report at the theatre of war to rekindle hope in his troops to boost their morale, which he never did and no national broadcast or declaration for the nation’s flag to fly at half mast in honour of the fallen soldiers. Why are our African leaders like this? I can imagine an American President or Isreali Prime Minister in a situation like this. They would have deployed troops and heavy arsenal to pursue and give the insurgents a run for their money but Nigeria is not America or
Israel.
But then, the bootlickers would want us to believe that without Buhari, there would be no Nigeria, that he is the most honest Nigerian and his integrity is unequalled. My heart bleed watching intellectuals and those who ought to read between the lines championing the nauseating dirge when each step of the President says the contrary. The song does not match his dancing steps. The fact is that Nigerians are in for greater troubles if Buhari is returned into power. The man is old and Nigerians know the cabals that is the ‘’voice of Jacob but the hand of Esau’’ in government. Ii is amazing that a mass population of undiscerning Nigerian are still being goaded into a political and economic ditch by the rhetoric of a few who just want to remain relevant in government.
I wish to state that I am not a fan of any Nigerian politician and have no interest in any political office but there is a gathering storm waiting to explode if Buhari is re-elected for a second term in office. Nigeria has never been this divided along regional, ethnic and religious lines and the economy is comatose which has led to an unprecedented number of suicides in the nation’s history. Fighting corruption alone has never made a
nation when the citizens are dying of hunger and poverty. The President’s men should stop bamboozling our people with their deceptions as posterity would be harsh on them.
The President should wake up to his responsibility by massively deploying men and machines to crush the Boko Haram soldiers that perpetrated the atrocities at Metele to show that we have a Commander – in – Chief in Nigeria. My people’s wise saying states that ‘’it is better not to be a king that to say that I can not control my subjects’’. A king that turned a forest to a city and the one that allowed a city to degenerate to a forest would be long remembered.
Olumide Ojo
olumide028@gmail.com
