SaharaReporters has obtained a memorandum, signed by Major Ja Dada, threatening punishment against Nigerian army officers who spoke to this publication about their maltreatment by their commanding officers.
On Monday July, 4th 2016 SaharaReporters published a report detailing the list of grievances and maltreatment of soldiers and officers stationed at the frontline of the fight against Boko Haram in Borno State.
Several soldiers lamented that, since first being stationed in the war zone in 2013, they have never been rotated to a less intense location.
SaharaReporters wrote that: “a number of the soldiers complained of a prolonged loss of a sense of normalcy in their lives. Two of the soldiers, who are both married, stated that they had had neither physical contact nor communication with their spouses, children and other loved ones.”
The day after SaharaReporters published its report the army published a memorandum disparaging those who spoke about this mistreatment.
The report stated, in part, that “the [Brigade Commander] stated that the act portrayed the height of indiscipline and portrayed a high degree of disloyalty to the Nigerian Army.”
“He further stated that he held all officers and Senior Commanding Officers responsible for the act especially as ASA had previously addressed them personally on the issue of their stay in the theater and had told them that it was being addressed.”
The message continued saying “that anyone found associated with such [disclosure of information to SaharaReporters] would be severely dealt with in line layed down service laws.”
Mr. Dada’s memorandum follows a long history of threats of punishment against soldiers crying out against their maltreatment. It will be recalled that the Nigerian Army indicted soldiers who fled the frontlines because they were not properly equipped to fight against Boko Haram.
The Nigerian Army has also been under mounting public pressure following the release of details by SaharaReporters of lavish properties belonging to the Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai. Mr. Buratai has not been able to explain publicly how he was able to afford these properties on the salary of a career soldier. Mr. Buratai was also present during the appalling Zaria Massacre where more than 350 Shiite Muslims were murdered by the military.
Source;Sahara reporters.

That's their way, bl00dy id10ts.

If you investigate further, you'll find that the Oga's are to blame. Unfortunately, the average Nigerian is so brainwashed as to the true state of things that the next retort you hear from them is "Yes, didn't they know what they were signing up for?"

Yes, honey! They signed to serve and to protect and to even lay down their lives doing that, if necessary BUT THAT DOES NOT REDUCE THEIR LIVES TO THE LEVEL OF TOILET PAPER THAT IS DISPOSABLE AFTER USE!

A deeper foray into the Nigerian Military & Paramilitary Services will show you that these officers [mid-level & Junior] have no rights at all. Their very lives are misdirected and abused by trusted, but corrupt Oga's and policy makers, and they are caught in such web that they can't extricate themselves from except to comply.

The whole system needs a Service Reform, this time, performed by reliable Private Sector HR bodies instead of the same corrupt Public Servants, Ministers and government corrupt govt idiots who got us here in the first place.

Before you shout, "MUTINY, SABOTAGE, INSUBORDINATION", you need to understand that:

1. Nigeria Military's systemic rot got to this stage to the effects of politicization, tribalism, nepotism, greed for pecuniary gains & aggrandisement etc. Get it now, if didn't get the point before, "Awon Politicians ti Take OVER!"

2. Most, if not, all Nigerian service chiefs, agency Comptrollers, top leadership and managements are deep in the pockets of politicians (Senators, various Boards and non-functional Service commissions etc)

3. Majority of all the inefficiencies, complicity and corrupt practices of the Armed Forces & Paramilitary SErvices leadership misadventures always come back to the Junior Officers, who bear the brunt of it all.

4. The former culture of Ministers exercising, almost godlike, powers over their ministries also affected the Ministry of Interior most pervasively under Abbah Moro, and those agencies are yet to recover. The Armed Forces also had their fair share of such as the present administration's continuous findings are shining the light on all the "Uniformed Roaches & Rot" that we paid host to, right from the ONSA to the Service Chiefs.

The picture of the Military & Paramilitary agencies that most applicants want to die to get recruited into is often a bubble that readily bursts once they get in and are confronted by the Godfatherism etc that is needed to make any reliable progress in their fields.

Any average US Police Force officer would get jittery on being told that he's being investigated by "INTERNAL AFFAIRS". And why? because such an organization was instituted to be a Control FActor against the various types of excesses attendant with Force and Regimental Environments.

What measures do Junior & Mid-Level officers have for redress in our military?

Take time to listen to "EMBELEMBEM", a Wazobia FM programme hosted by Ahmed Isah and you'll be surprised how at how far things have gone.

The excesses the Oga's and their antecendents for institutionalizing corruption can not be excused any more. There is need for the people to take back the power of determining the kind of military that polices and secures them.

DesChyko:
Old Story. Why else do you think they vent their frustrations on civilians? It's because of the maltreatment in the barracks and how they are expected to be quiet about it all.

God Bless You! That's why I advise folks not to argue anyhow, with soldiers, at checkpoints. They'll just mess you up. They're already frustrated, oppressed and scre.wed over themselves.

Old Story. Why else do you think they vent their frustrations on civilians? It's because of the maltreatment in the barracks and how they are expected to be quiet about it all.

Obviously, no one is happy with the state of affairs in this country today.
To many people are already frustrated.