Samson Folarin
The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina , has been under fire for reportedly saying that military the world over does not give information on its casualties .
Also , a fact check showed that on the contrary , it is a standard practice by government of developed countries to intimate citizens on the number of casualties during military battles .
There had been conflicting figures on the actual number of deaths in the attacks by Boko Haram on the 157 Task Force Battalion at Metele , Guzamala , Borno State .
The military, in a statement , had confirmed the attacks and condemned casualty figures published in the media. It, however , refused to give the actual number of casualties .
Adesina , during a programme on Channels TV , Politics Today backed the refusal of the government and the military to give the casualty figure .
“ All over the world, the military does not or rarely discloses the figure of its casualties , ” he said.
Nigerians, including Twitter users, who took up Adesina on the quote , referred him to the US , UK , French and Canadian practice of declaring casualty figures .
A check by The PUNCH showed that the United States Department of Defence, on its website , gave up -to -date information on casualty figure in different US military operations.
The last update said in Operation Iraqi Freedom ( casualties that occurred between March 19, 2003 , and August 31 , 2010 , in the Arabian Sea , Bahrain , Gulf of Aden , Gulf of Oman , Iraq , Kuwait , Oman , Persian Gulf, Qatar , Red Sea , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) , a total of 4, 410 US military men were killed .
The United Kingdom , also on the government website provided information on casualty figures .
In a 30 -page PDF document, gave a breakdown on the death of the military officers , including the cause of death .
The French in particular have a dedicated website where they kept the database of military officers who died in different battles .
The Canadian government also published the names and pictures of fallen soldiers .
One Mustafa Haffysa, reminded Adesina that the President had in 2015 criticised the then government of former President Goodluck Jonathan on a similar case .
“ It is unacceptable to ignore or minimise the deaths of Nigerian citizens during elections . It is heart- breaking . This must change , ” Buhari had tweeted on January 13, 2015.
When contacted for clarification on the statement , Adesina did not pick his calls and had yet to respond to a text message sent to him as of press time.



https://punchng.com/presidencys-claim-on-military-withholding-casualty-figure-wrong-fact-check/

God help us under these APC men. They came unprepared for key pressing issues like :
-Herdsmen / farmers clash
-PIGB
-Federal character principle
-Education funding and corrupt learning institutions
-The NNPC underperformance issues.
-Corrupttion
-Restructuring
-Food security
-Diversification of economy from crude sales
-Boko Haram
-Police
-ND oil clean up
-Debt management
-Agricultural plan
-Health sector plan
-Power sector plans
-Ease of doing business