"Why We Could Not Defeat Boko
Haram"- Army Commander
Writes A Powerful Letter To
President Jonathan
In a desperate letter to
President Goodluck Jonathan
and Senate President David
Mark leaked to SaharaReporters
this past weekend, a
commanding officer stationed in
Nigeria's northeast details
several troubling issues plaguing
troops combatting Islamist
terror group Boko Haram in the
region. In a desperate letter to
President Goodluck Jonathan
and Senate President David
Mark leaked to SaharaReporters
this past weekend, a
commanding officer stationed in
Nigeria's northeast details
several troubling issues plaguing
troops combatting Islamist
terror group Boko Haram in the
region.
President Goodluck Jonathan
The officer stated that,
corruption, maladministration,
lack of resources and troops
motivation has militated against
a successful campaign to end
Boko Haram's deadly reign of
terror in the northeast.
The officer's lengthy complaint
which he claims would lead to a
threat to his life forewarns that
if his pleas continue to be
ignored by the country's
leadership that both the
Nigerian Army and the country
will crumble under the
insurgency.
"If all issues raised in this letter
are not urgently addressed, the
Nigerian Army will soon be
history and by implication there
will be no country called
Nigeria," the officer gravely
states. "No country without a
strong army will survive."
Below is the full text of the
officer's letter addressed to
President Goodluck Jonathan
PLEASE MR PRESIDENT SAVE
THE MILITARY AND NIGERIA
FROM COLLAPSING
1. Sir, I am constrain to write
you this letter which I consider
it a matter of more than great
importance for me to inform
you and put to record issues
that are happening in the North
East (Operation Zaman Lafiya). I
choose this medium to write
you this open letter because I
have written similar letter but
no action was taking which I
believe some forces have
blocked it are now after my life.
Sir I have served in 7 Division as
staff officer and presently I am
the commanding officer of
103Bn in the field. My combined
wealth of experience as a staff
officer and now commanding
officer are the disturbing fact
that necessitated me to write
you this letter. While as a staff
officer, I was among those who
believed that the commanders
in the field are not doing well.
But presently, as a commander
in the field, I found out that it is
not the fault of any commander
that the defeat of the so called
BOKO HARAM (BH) has not been
achieved.
2. First and foremost sir, the
Nigerian Army is poorly
equipped in the North East, if all
the battalions are well-equipped
as required; it will not take the
Army more than two weeks to
flush out the BH. Presently there
are four units in my location
here in KONDUGA including 21
Armoured Brigade HQ. If all the
units are provided with all their
requirements, we can advance
and flush out BH out of North
East. Mr. President sir, the
Nigerian Army is well-trained
and capable of defending our
nation. It has demonstrated the
capacity to even successfully
enforce peace in other nations.
Why not in our own country
Nigeria?
3. The fact about NE operation
is that we are poorly equipped,
understaffed, high corruption
from Army Headquarters down
to battalion level. Commanders
see it as opportunity to make
money. My predecessor has
complained of the same
problem. Instead of ASA
addressing the issue raised by
him, the army authorities
decided to Court Martialled him.
All the units in NE are
understaffed, but on payroll
their strength are complete just
to collect more allowances than
what each unit is supposed to.
The commanders see it as a
personal money making venture
rather than taking care of men
and equipment. This ugly trend
led to loss of many officers and
soldiers and thereby having
adverse effect on the moral (sic)
of troops. Majority of soldiers in
the operation area wear mufti
(civil cloths) under their military
uniforms in case there is an
attack and the troops cannot
withstand the BH, they found it
easy to disguise as civilians to
enable them escape. This is not
the traditional practice in the
NA. Though it is lack of adequate
equipment and poor
administration from the higher
authority that resulted to this
ugly trend by our troops
4. Sir, another bad and
unprofessional act is that
soldiers don’t take to orders
from their superior officers
because they have lost
confidence/trust from them. The
case of former General Officer
Commanding 7 Division Major
General A. Mohammed is
enough evidence to show that
all is not well in the Nigerian
Army. It will interest you to note
that worse cases has been
recorded before that of the
former GOC and more are still
happening, but nobody is ready
to investigate the root cause of
problems facing the troops in
the field.
5. This brings me to a recent
occurrence which is my main
purpose of writing this letter. As
I mentioned earlier, due to the
failure of the authority to
address issues that I made
mentioned, when a unit is
attacked and overran by the BH
not because the soldiers are
unable to fight, but lack of
weapons, ammunitions and
communications equipment, the
soldiers on many occasions will
ran away, and a commander
cannot stand and fight alone as
a result of this. Presently
seventy percent of commanders
in the NE are facing Court
Martial due to the reasons
mentioned. We the
commanding officers are very
worried over this development.
This is because we many soon
find our self as victims of this
maladministration from our
higher authorities.
6. There is no sincerity in this
operation; this is because the
present acting GOC has never
visited any location outside
Maiduguri town not to talk of
principal staff officers in Army
Headquarters or even the COAS.
But we keep on hearing all sorts
of lies that Generals are leading
the fight against BH. These are
facts that can be confirmed from
officers and soldiers in this
operation including those in the
7 Division Headquarters. The
GOC is so afraid that even with
the Divisional Headquarters; he
doesn’t go out and always
locked himself inside his office.
Infact it is a common knowledge
among officers and soldiers in
this operation that the acting
GOC is here to make his money
and earn his promotion to the
detriment of the operation. The
completion of his mansion at No
8 Gwamna Road in Kaduna
which the GOC ignorantly
disclosed that when he
completed it, will be among the
best houses in Kaduna, has
turned to be a subject of
discussion among troops.
7. The former 21 Armored
Brigade commander is facing
Court Martial today because the
acting GOC does not want to see
him and his garrision in
Maiduguri town simply because
of the huge monthly allocations
from the Borno State
government to the brigade
garrision. He wanted to be
collecting his money by using 7
Div Garrison, but in reality 7 Div
Garrision does not have troops
to claim such money. It is
worthy to note that the GOC
received 33,000litres of AGO and
PMS each, 600 bags of rice
monthly from Borno State
government. All these items are
diverted for his personal use.
8. Recently the newly
appointed 21 Brigade
commander lead 3 units to flush
out the BH, that operation was
successful, almost 300 BH were
killed, weapons and vehicles
were recovered from them, in
the process the troops
exhausted their ammunitions
from the Div, the GOC simply
replied that there was no
ammunition this made all the
troops to withdraw back to
KONDUGA.
9. Presently more than 3000
officers and soldiers are either
killed in action, deserted,
captured as POW or on AWOL.
But due to lack of proper
administration the army
directed that their salary should
be stopped. This affect the
families of those that are either
genuinely killed in action or
captured as Prisoners of War. It
has also affected some of the
troops that are still participating
in this operation.
10. Mr. President sir, if all issues
raised in this letter are not
urgently address, the Nigerian
Army will soon be history and by
implication there will be no
country called Nigeria. No
country without strong army will
survive. I decided to write you
this letter because the life of
officers and soldiers trusted in
my care are no longer save. My
life is also at the stake because
the NA authority as usual will
say I have communicated
directly to you as the
Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces and may sanction
me. As a citizen of this country
and a commander in the
operational area, with all the
points I have mentioned in this
letter, it is clearly that the
Military authorities have failed
the country, as such they should
be held liable for their
misdeeds. I have consulted
seasonal constitutional lawyers
if writing you this letter will be
an offence, but they said it is my
constitutional right to inform
the C in C about what is
happening in the NE and within
the military which if not address
will affect the survival of Nigeria
Source: saharareporters.com/2014/12/15/why-we-could-not-defeat-boko-haram-army-commander-writes-powerful-letter-president

Commander... I feel your pain but I am too busy for all that. #secondterm on my mind. ...okay.

This is too convenient for our enemies as a Nation for it returns the narrative of this war, which has turned out to smack of Western interference and sabotage- to say the least- to one of Nigerian army infighting and corruption.



Whose work is this letter, Western Agents or actual concerned Nigerian solider? We should keep an open mind

So why is it taking the world more the two weeks to flush out issis? Yeye dey smell!