FL Gators:

rotflmao. training ko.

davidif:

O fi won le, awon oni yeye.

I wonder how you'll describe the pic attaches:

Anyway, those that are in the best position to describe what happens within the walls of NDA are the officers of the Nigerian military. I guess we have a few here on nairaland.

ocelot2006:

I wonder how you'll describe the pic attaches:

This is military training, not the yeye pushups and dance moves those pix illustrates

FL Gators:



This is military training, not the yeye pushups and dance moves those pix illustrates

Push-up is a basic exercise done in every military/paramilitary schools/academies all around the world. Besides, the pic I posted wasn't exactly about the push-up itself, but the fact that Desert Warfare training has been introduced into the NDA. That training, along with other specialized training from Jungle Warfare to Airborne was always left for the Infantry Training Centre, Jaji, where Army grads of the Academy are sent for more advanced infantry training. But the poster of this thread tries to make it look as if beasting/capital punishment makes up all/most of the training exercises that occurs within the NDA, and that is a BIG LIE. It's too bad that there are not much pics on the activities of the institution on the net. Those I've seen from parades, leadership classes, marksmanship to live fire excercises and battle-tactics are owned by a friend, and I can't post his pics without his consent.

So standing on your head. . . . while your head is toughing the stone is training?

Training for. . . . ?

FL Gators:

So standing on your head. . . . while your head is toughing the stone is training?

Training for. . . . ?

It's obvious from the pics that those guys were being punished as they're being kept in stressed positions. Besides, the punishment, apart from instilling discipline, conditions their bodies to withstand more pain and stress. That's why products of the Academy, along with those from the Army Depot (Zaira) are able to push themselves beyond physical and psychological limits that we civilians can't cross.

Balancing your head gingerly on a stone. . . No wonder these guys are brutal!
But I guess military training isn't a walk in the park anywhere. These guys are trained to kill.

On a lighter note. With all the collapsed structures in 9ja and lack of emergency services, the army is always called in. . . If bulldozer no de, dis guys fit use skull do de job sha!

For those who don't know; NL has its own army, our training is easy; just report to the pepper soup joint https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-288053.0.html

It's obvious from the pics that those guys were being punished as they're being kept in stressed positions. Besides, the punishment, apart from instilling discipline, conditions their bodies to withstand more pain and stress. That's why products of the Academy, along with those from the Army Depot (Zaira) are able to push themselves beyond physical and psychological limits that we civilians can't cross.

That training dehumanizes them, that's why they act like animals. Look how they treat civillians as if they are sub-human. See how they handled the insurrection in the Niger Delta and in the North 2 weeks ago, they just went about shooting indiscriminately, THAT IS CALLED INCOMPETENCE.

why are they all having their head on a rock ? no wonder they came out all confused !

davidif:

That training dehumanizes them, that's why they act like animals. Look how they treat civillians as if they are sub-human. See how they handled the insurrection in the Niger Delta and in the North 2 weeks ago, they just went about shooting indiscriminately, THAT IS CALLED INCOMPETENCE.

Are you aware that US marines not only kill innocent people and label them collateral damage and are you are that some US soldiers rape women and then kill them after doing so?

If you are not aware of any of these please, type Iraq in your search box and take time to go through some of the materials you will come across.

The army is not the police. Soldiers are trained to kill not to arrest or beg people to fall into line.

The thing no one is thinking about, is that there must be much worse awaiting them if they either can't or refuse to do this head f uck.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/153357_NDA_7_jpgf97047216780e626cadf2e8151f217b0

tpiah: . . .Corporal punishment isnt part of Naija culture, abi?

Don't punish anyone you know (or don't) like this.

this thread is making me nostalgic o. . .i was going to go to NDA(my parents didnt want me to tho) but i missed the exam date by a week. . .lol. . .it clda been me in those pics o

For those complaining, I wonder how you'll explaining the training for these South-African Policemen:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eFU_r_H_gg

davidif:

That training dehumanizes them, that's why they act like animals. Look how they treat civillians as if they are sub-human. See how they handled the insurrection in the Niger Delta and in the North 2 weeks ago, they just went about shooting indiscriminately, THAT IS CALLED INCOMPETENCE.

The combined arm of US military (army, airforce,marine) along with the militaries of NATO-ISAF currently find it difficult to route the Taliban as the conflict there has escalated with more soldiers flown home in bady bags. Then there's Iraq that's been one big mess for a LONG time, `though things have calmed down a bit. These nations boast of the best military training, yet they can't defeat the enemies in these two countries. So I wonder what you'll call their failures. Yet the Nigerian military that you so happily look down on has won practically every major military engagement from the 1st World War in East Africa, the 2nd World War in the jungles of Burma, and our own civil war to the operations in Liberia and Sierre Leone. Compared to problems the US faces in Iraq, the conflict in the Niger-Delta definitely isn't intense, but the terrain (swamps) is far more unforgiven than the plain arid lands of Iraq.

The army is not the police. Soldiers are trained to kill not to arrest or beg people to fall into line.

You kidding me? In America, the army is taught 3 very important things. THEY ARE TAUGHT NEVER TO DO ANYTHING IMMORAL AND TO NEVER (EVER) OBEY A SUPERIOR COMMANDER WHO ORDERS THEM TO DO SOMETHING IMMORAL. They are also taught to protect and defend helpless people. That does not seem to be something that they teach your boys at NDA.




BTW, on a side note, they are also taught TO NEVER PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS but to leave it to the civillians.

The combined arm of US military (army, airforce,marine) along with the militaries of NATO-ISAF currently find it difficult to route the Taliban as the conflict there has escalated with more soldiers flown home in bady bags. Then there's Iraq that's been one big mess for a LONG time, `though things have calmed down a bit. These nations boast of the best military training, yet they can't defeat the enemies in these two countries. So I wonder what you'll call their failures. Yet the Nigerian military that you so happily look down on has won practically every major military engagement from the 1st World War in East Africa, the 2nd World War in the jungles of Burma, and our own civil war to the operations in Liberia and Sierre Leone. Compared to problems the US faces in Iraq, the conflict in the Niger-Delta definitely isn't intense, but the terrain (swamps) is far more unforgiven than the plain arid lands of Iraq.

Wow, where do i even begin to start on this one. Do you think that your Nigerian soldiers can win the war in Afghanistan or Iraq. If so why not send troops there and help relieve the US of there duties so that they can give you more aid money. Also, your assertions on winning the war in East Africa and Burma is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge joke. We were under the command of the british commanders and we were very small in number (less than hundred) so don't talk as if our boys went there and "won" the war (no be ordinary ECOMOG where them dey slaughter your boys and the fed. govt had to be lying about the body count because it was so embarassing). By the way, let's not forget that we won both World Wars.

Your assertions that the conflict in Iraq is less intense is incredibly ridiculous and YOU KNOW THAT. Do your MEND boys have RPG's or do they plant roadside bombs. Heck, didn't i see one of your guerilla's accidentally shoot himself. The boys that we face in Iraq were former soldiers in the iraqi army. In fact, some of them were members of Saddam's elite republican guard. Let's not also forget that the Iranians are partly funding the insurgency by supplying and training some of this fighters. Also, last time i checked, the violence in Iraq is leveling out since we kicked out Rumsfeld and the Iraqi's are about to take over because our job is almost done that's why the president is removing 20,000 troops from Iraq and sending them to Afghanistan. Yep, you hear of the occasional bombing but its just in certain parts of the country. Also, in case you didn't know we won the war (in just a couple of weeks), the only problem we've had was in securing the peace and that had to do with a cowardly enemy who hides in the civillian populace and some stupid blunders by the civillians (like paul bremer's decision to disband the iraqi police and army after the war, and Rumsfeld failure to send in an overwhelming amount of troops). But despite all this, we unlike your soldiers in naija have restrained ourselves to not randomly killing civillians indiscriminately, yes we made some mistakes because we are not perfect but you can't compare us to your war criminals that you call an army.

ocelot2006:

It's obvious from the pics that those guys were being punished as they're being kept in stressed positions. Besides, the punishment, apart from instilling discipline, conditions their bodies to withstand more pain and stress. That's why products of the Academy, along with those from the Army Depot (Zaira) are able to push themselves beyond physical and psychological limits that we civilians can't cross.

LOL, dude, you actually don't see any wrong in that?

Are you trying to recruit ppl. Make you stop am o

@Dafidi
Jo bami so fun o

davidif:



Wow, where do i even begin to start on this one. Do you think that your Nigerian soldiers can win the war in Afghanistan or Iraq. If so why not send troops there and help relieve the US of there duties so that they can give you more aid money. Also, your assertions on winning the war in East Africa and Burma is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge joke. We were under the command of the british commanders and we were very small in number (less than hundred) so don't talk as if our boys went there and "won" the war (no be ordinary ECOMOG where them dey slaughter your boys and the fed. govt had to be lying about the body count because it was so embarassing). By the way, let's not forget that we won both World Wars.

Your assertions that the conflict in Iraq is less intense is incredibly ridiculous and YOU KNOW THAT. Do your MEND boys have RPG's or do they plant roadside bombs. Heck, didn't i see one of your guerilla's accidentally shoot himself. The boys that we face in Iraq were former soldiers in the iraqi army. In fact, some of them were members of Saddam's elite republican guard. Let's not also forget that the Iranians are partly funding the insurgency by supplying and training some of this fighters. Also, last time i checked, the violence in Iraq is leveling out since we kicked out Rumsfeld and the Iraqi's are about to take over because our job is almost done that's why the president is removing 20,000 troops from Iraq and sending them to Afghanistan. Yep, you hear of the occasional bombing but its just in certain parts of the country. Also, in case you didn't know we won the war (in just a couple of weeks), the only problem we've had was in securing the peace and that had to do with a cowardly enemy who hides in the civillian populace and some stupid blunders by the civillians (like paul bremer's decision to disband the iraqi police and army after the war, and Rumsfeld failure to send in an overwhelming amount of troops). But despite all this, we unlike your soldiers in naija have restrained ourselves to not randomly killing civillians indiscriminately, yes we made some mistakes because we are not perfect but you can't compare us to your war criminals that you call an army.

I strongly suggest that you go through my post again. Did I say that the Niger-Delta conflict and that of Iraq were of the same intensity? And speaking of intensity and one the issue of militants armed with RPGs, may be you've not been following the news. These guys are armed to the very teeth with RPGs, GPMGs, light arms like AK-47s and HK G-3s, and 50 cal machine guns mounted on some of their boats. And yes they have explosives, or how do you think they've been able to blow up pipelines and police stations? I've personally witness these guys operate TWICE within Port Harcourt (2007). The 1st one was at my old place of work were they killed a number of policemen and innocent civilians, one of the victims being my own uncle. In the 2nd, the city metropolise (close to the waterline) was under siege and so bad that Airforce gunships (Mi-35 Hinds) had to be called in. So IEDs/VBIEDs may not be going off with suicide bombers setting themselves up as in Iraq, but it was quite bad. Still, the military, when called in, performed excellently in later and did an excellent job in mop-up operations that followed clearing militants and cultists from their hideouts within the metropolis. The same military that you critize from the US were the same ones that civilians ran to for protection during that crisis. That army (along with the police) opened the gates of their barracks and provided shelter and security to innocent people. The very same army were the ones courteous during stop-and-search operations without asking for a single dime from anyone.

Anyway, the overall aim of my previous post was simply to make a point on the so called 'incompetence' of the Nigeria armed forces. The West (the US especially), with all the hi-tech gizmos and weaponry, couldn't stop the killings in Iraq and the technically inferior Taliban in Afghanistan, but I doubt you'll call them incompetent. Yet the Nigerian military, one that has limited platforms yet can boast of its own military successes, is seen as incompetent.


By the way, due to the sensitivity of the issue faced in the Niger-Delta, do you think that the military will go into the creeks with their guns blazing? Most times the military have always restrained their actions.

And with regards to WW1 and WW2, yes the Nigerian Regiment fought under the crown and was lead by British officers, and no they were not soley responsible for the overall success of the Burmese campaign. But they were successfull in every engagment they partook in. The then Nigerian Brigade was responsible for the capture of Mogadishu from the Italians in 1941 and also played a major role in the defeat of the Japanese in Burma through the recapture of the Maku peninsular and the subsequent capture of the port in Gwa. As a matter of fact, it was in Burma that the then 23 Nigeria Brigade was really feared as the tend to decapitate the heads of japanese soldiers during battles in the thick jungles of Burma and submit the heads to their british officers. This dealt a psychological blow to the Japanese fighting for their emperor as they felt that they would not be accepted in paradise with their heads missing. Some thought that we actually ate these heads .

By the way, less than a hundred soldiers? Huh, So, how many soldiers make up a regiment/brigade?

FL Gators:

LOL, dude, you actually don't see any wrong in that?

Are you trying to recruit ppl. Make you stop am o

@Dafidi
Jo bami so fun o

Did I post any ad asking you to join the Nigerian military? It's not a must to join.

And no, I don't see anything wrong in their action. The NDA is NOT a summer camp or resort. It is a military institution created to produce officers that will lead men into battle, and part of that involves discipline. So if those actions instills discpipline among the cadets, then I'm all for it.

ocelot2006:

Did I post any ad asking you to join the Nigerian military? It's not a must to join.

And no, I don't see anything wrong in their action. The NDA is NOT a summer camp or resort. It is a military institution created to produce officers that will lead men into battle, and part of that involves discipline. So if those actions instills discpipline among the cadets, then I'm all for it.

You don't stand on your head during battle.

FL Gators:

You don't stand on your head during battle.

No, but you stand on your head when you commit an offence within the NDA.

ocelot2006:

No, but you stand on your head when you commit an offence within the NDA.

Apart from health risk, what's it supposed to do?

FL Gators:

Apart from health risk, what's it supposed to do?

How about detering them from not committing that offence, and sending a message to other cadets?

I strongly suggest that you go through my post again. Did I say that the Niger-Delta conflict and that of Iraq were of the same intensity? And speaking of intensity and one the issue of militants armed with RPGs, may be you've not been following the news. These guys are armed to the very teeth with RPGs, GPMGs, light arms like AK-47s and HK G-3s, and 50 cal machine guns mounted on some of their boats. And yes they have explosives, or how do you think they've been able to blow up pipelines and police stations? I've personally witness these guys operate TWICE within Port Harcourt (2007). The 1st one was at my old place of work were they killed a number of policemen and innocent civilians, one of the victims being my own uncle. In the 2nd, the city metropolise (close to the waterline) was under siege and so bad that Airforce gunships (Mi-35 Hinds) had to be called in. So IEDs/VBIEDs may not be going off with suicide bombers setting themselves up as in Iraq, but it was quite bad. Still, the military, when called in, performed excellently in later and did an excellent job in mop-up operations that followed clearing militants and cultists from their hideouts within the metropolis. The same military that you critize from the US were the same ones that civilians ran to for protection during that crisis. That army (along with the police) opened the gates of their barracks and provided shelter and security to innocent people. The very same army were the ones courteous during stop-and-search operations without asking for a single dime from anyone.

Sorry for the loss of your Uncle but what you are trying to do is to portray the Nigerian army uniformly as good guys but we all know that generally they are not that good infact they have a reputation for being merciless and instead of defending the helpless and defenseless citizens they mistreat them. Just look at several check points in the country or whenever the army has been called in to restore order, they have been usually EXTREMELY heavy handed, using tactics that are unnecessary.

In world war 2, the americans fought guerrilla warfare against the japanese in the jungles of the pacific and they got the job done so please don't even compare a bunch of rag tag boys with hardly any millitary experience to more sophisticated soldiers. The problem with Afghanistan is that Afghanistan is is extremely HUGE and the terrain is very, VERY, VERY difficult (the niger delta is not like that) it easy for this guys to hide in caves or to sneak across the border and hide in Pakistan or Waziristan then lauch raids across the border.


Now back to the main issue, what i am trying to say is that those training dehumanizes these guys so that they act savagely. In the 20's and 30's when the japanese still had ambitions of world domination. They trained there soldiers to be merciless, brutal and extremely ruthless so that when they invaded other countries they would unleash terror on them. An example was in China, when they invaded to annex manchuria, a mineral rich province, the terror they unleashed on this people was beyond genocide. Till today it is still called the "rape of nanking". The training the japanese soldiers had recieved dehumanized them and they looked at the chinese civillians as sub-human so they decided that hey if i was brutal tortured in millitary barracks, i would do much worse to you, my "enemies" so they unleashed hell on the civillian population on men, women and children. This partly explains the way they dealt with American POW's. Nigerian soldiers did almost the same thing (but not on that level) in sierra leone and Liberia and let's not forget there "saintly" and "heroic" exploits in Odi, Choba, Ogoni and other places. You also seem to forget the "amazing" exploits of Chris Garba in quelling riots in the North back in the day (this are the same brutal tactics that have been passed down to the present day soldiers). Its like when we were in boarding school and we were brutalized up till we got to SSS 3, then when we got there we turned around and unleashed hell on our juniors because by then we were all "hard". These is why i say that that form of punishment is unnecessary there are other creative ways of disciplining a soldier like letting him run 10 kilometres at night instead of telling him to "plant" on a stone for that matter.

Also, lets not forget that recently, in Sudan, our "competent" boys were killed by the poorly trained supporter of APC.

davidif:





Sorry for the loss of your Uncle but what you are trying to do is to portray the Nigerian army uniformly as good guys but we all know that generally they are not that good infact they have a reputation for being merciless and instead of defending the helpless and defenseless citizens they mistreat them. Just look at several check points in the country or whenever the army has been called in to restore order, they have been usually EXTREMELY heavy handed, using tactics that are unnecessary.

In world war 2, the americans fought guerrilla warfare against the japanese in the jungles of the pacific and they got the job done so please don't even compare a bunch of rag tag boys with hardly any millitary experience to more sophisticated soldiers. The problem with Afghanistan is that Afghanistan is is extremely HUGE and the terrain is very, VERY, VERY difficult (the niger delta is not like that) it easy for this guys to hide in caves or to sneak across the border and hide in Pakistan or Waziristan then lauch raids across the border.


Now back to the main issue, what i am trying to say is that those training dehumanizes these guys so that they act savagely. In the 20's and 30's when the japanese still had ambitions of world domination. They trained there soldier to be merciless, brutal and extremely ruthless so that when they invaded other countries they would unleash terror on them. An example was in China, when they invaded to annex manchuria, a mineral rich province, the terror they unleashed on this people was beyond genocide. Till today it is still called the "rape of nanking". The training the japanese soldiers had recieved dehumanized them and they looked at the chinese civillians as sub-human so they decided that hey if i was brutal tortured in millitary barracks, i would do much worse to you, my "enemies" so they unleashed hell on the civillian population on men, women and children. This can also be seen through the way, they dealt with American POW's. The Nigerian soldiers did almost the same thing (but not on that level) in sierra leone and Liberia. Also, lets not forget that recently, in Sudan, our "competent" boys were killed by the poorly trained supporter of APC.

I totally disagree with you on the last statement you made. Yes we lost brave soldeirs when the supporter of APC attacked the our base in Sudan, but do you really know what went on? During the period of that incident, there were a total of 7000 AU troops (Nigerian and Rwandan station) in country and they were tasked to protect an area roughly the size of FRANCE. That meant that the troops were stretched to the limit with various outposts placed at considerable long distances. Then there's the issue of the roads (or bush tracks) that are simply bad and tend to go worse when it rained. To make matters worse, there was just one helicopter (mi-17) within the country, and it is a utility helicopter. Overall, our boys had absolutely no air assets to call on for combat air support (CAS) and it took a considerable longer time for each outpost to be reinforced.

On the night the Nigerian outpost was attacked, our soldiers held their ground against an enemy that was not only numerically superior (10:1) but were armed technicals (pickups) with 50 cals mounted on them and RPGs. The only platform we had in that outpost to provide heavy firepower was ONE Grizzly APC. That was it. They had no combat air support, no reinforcement, and there's a limit to the ammo they carry. With all these stacked against our soldiers, what else do you think they could do? If you had a battalion of US marines in the same shoes as ours, do you think they would have done better?

Anyway, in my first post, I made a comparison between Iraq's terrain and that of the Niger-Delta, not Afghanstan. I know that Afghanistan terrain is extremely harsh and rugged, but that of Iraq is just one flat land. Our's is a maze of creeks and mangrove swamps that provides excellent cover for militants to hide their camps.

I do not deny that our boys can be harsh sometimes. Afterall, they are not saints. But most times, the military tend to keep to themselves and restrict themselves to their barracks unless being called upon. But the same military is the one that opens the gates of its barracks to provide shelter to innocent people in times of crisis. The 2007 crisis in Port Harcourt isn't the only example. Residents in the North (christians and muslims) ran to the military for security and refuge during the religious crisis, and the same occured during reprisal attacks in the South, especially in Rivers state. In the case of checkpoints, I personally have been subjected to a number of searches, but I can tell you that I was truely impressed with the way the soldiers handled themselves.

Afterall, they are not saints. But most times, the military tend to keep to themselves and restrict themselves to their barracks unless being called upon. But the same military is the one that opens the gates of its barracks to provide shelter to innocent people in times of crisis. The 2007 crisis in Port Harcourt isn't the only example. Residents in the North (christians and muslims) ran to the military for security and refuge during the religious crisis, and the same occured during reprisal attacks in the South, especially in Rivers state. In the case of checkpoints, I personally have been subjected to a number of searches, but I can tell you that I was truely impressed with the way the soldiers handled themselves.

Really , have we forgotten there "heroic" exploits in Odi, Choba, Ogoni and other places. You also seem to forget the "amazing" exploits of Chris Garba in quelling riots in the North back in the day (this are the same brutal tactics that have been passed down to the present day soldiers). Its like when we were in boarding school and we were brutalized up till we got to SSS 3, then when we got there we turned around and unleashed hell on our juniors because by then we were all "hard". These is why i say that that form of punishment is unnecessary there are other creative ways of disciplining a soldier like letting him run 10 kilometres at night instead of telling him to "plant" on a stone for that matter.  Please let's not make excuses, these guys have a looooooooong track record of being ruthless and it starts at the top and its trickled all the way down (infact, its an institutional breakdown in the chain of command or worse lack of oversight by the civillians over the millitary, this is why its wrong to put an ex soldier as minister of defence).
I can excuse one or two incidents or the fact that they are not "saints" but when these incidents becomes too much, then we have to sit down and re-examine our "training" methods. Soldiers are supposed to have mercy and compassion on the defenseless that they have sworn to serve not just strip them, harass them or shoot at them indiscriminately.
When i talk about competence, i mean the ability to get the job done with MINIMUM collateral damage, not just spraying bullets into the crowd and shooting on sight. The millitary has always been called to restore order in Nigeria since Awolowo and Action Group used to hire thugs like Adedibu to rig elections back in the 60's. You would think that with all this "experience" they would have learnt by now, but obviously they haven't. They always perform woefully (in terms of collateral damage). These guys should have been trained in urban insurrections, and guerilla warfare (rather than planting there heads on stones) but they are not that's why they have a competency issue and it stems right from the top to the bottom. The NIGERIAN MILLITARY IS AN INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE.

davidif:

You kidding me? [b]In America, the army is taught 3 very important things. THEY ARE TAUGHT NEVER TO DO ANYTHING IMMORAL AND TO NEVER (EVER) OBEY A SUPERIOR COMMANDER WHO ORDERS THEM TO DO SOMETHING IMMORAL.[/b] They are also taught to protect and defend helpless people. That does not seem to be something that they teach your boys at NDA.

BTW, on a side note, they are also taught TO NEVER PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS but to leave it to the civillians.

1. I don't care about what you teach your soldiers in America because we have information on the web that contradicts what you claim are being taught them as regards disobeying orders.

2. What they teach the guys at NDA is Nigeria's business, NDA is not an offshoot of the US Army

3. Why don't you focus on the issue I raised about US soldiers raping and killing innocent people?

I take great offense in your last statement. Calling the military and institutional failure is simply an insult to the men and women who wear the uniform and serve our nation. It is also an insult to the memories of those that paid the ultimate price serving in our armed forces. And I believe our boys are far bigger and more mature than a bunch of ss3 secondary students.

Yes much is still desired from the military, they've had their dark moments especially during the military regimes, including the event in ogoni. These are moments that they're definitely not proud of. Even the US military that you so cherished has had its own dark times from operation phoenix during the vietnam war to the invasion of iraq (which has claimed thousands of innocent lives), abu-ghraib, and guantanomo base. Oh, and i haven't forgotten the detention facilities at kandahar airbase, the airstrikes that has claimed the lives of innocent civilians (u know, 'collateral damage'), and the mq-9 predator drone attacks in pakistan that also claimed the lives of not only civilians but a number of pakistani soldiers.

I may not agree with the heavy handed approach the military took in odi, but I understand why they were forced to take that actions. The towns youths were responsible for 2 ambushes, the first which claimed the lives of a number of mobile policemen (including an assistant commissioner of police), and a 2nd on the army units sent in to reinforce the police. That lead to the army's response.

But I TOTALLY support the actions of both the army's 2nd amphibious battalion and the 19th mobile police squadron in Choba. It was one operation that I followed from the very beginning to the end, and it was FULLY justified. In the raid on the wilbros engineering yard, a total of 13 people were killed, and ALL of them were among the group of people that siezed that yard. The town itself was a ghost town as people fled Choba as they knew that an attack was imminent (i personally drove down to UNIPORT to pick up my younger brother). No innocent person was killed.

By the way, what makes you think that the   military isn't learning new strategies on counter insurgency (COIN)? My own personal observation from the training given to middle ranked officers (colonels and equivalent) at the national war college abuja as shown that the Nigerian military, particularly those that formulate training policies at the Training & Doctrine (TRADOC) have actually begun to imbibe lessons learnt from operations undertaken both within and outside the country. That's why the military has begun to emphasis on doctrines like riverine patrols, intelligence gathering, special operations (recon, direct action, and hostage rescue), and joint operations with law enforcement and intelligence agencies like the police force, sss, and the NIA.

Those pictures represent soldiers undergoing punishments for various offences. It has nothing whatsoever to do with their formal training.
Cetainly such forms of stress position punishments, often adminitered by peer groups, occur even in some boarding schools in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

@davidif

You are completely missing the point of military training anywhere in the world. It is to train soldiers to locate and destroy the enemy.
To be able to do this soldiers must undergo brutalization. Regardless of what you think there is nothing natural or humane about killing fellow humans so that is why recruits must undergo a period of intense mental and emotional reconditioning before they can be considered as being battle-ready.