I have been really pained by the articled posted in NVS a few days back titled “Why I Served and Why I left the Nigerian Army” by Chizoba C. Chukwurah. There is no need repeating what Chukwurah and so many other commentators revealed about the abuses going on in the Nigerian Army. All I can say is that the horrific accounts as expressed by Chukwurah are true, because I lived in the barracks for 2 years in the decade of the 1990s, and was a first party witness to all the abuses suffered by not only “ciyawa”[i] but by other commissioned officers who were hated by their superiors.

Bootlicking, Sycophancy and Survival

The army is a place where only the sycophants and bootlickers are fit to survive. There are occasional parades called the “durbar”, where the men line up and are given opportunity to make their voice heard in terms of their well being in the army service (read slavery). This happens when a higher commander visits the unit. During such events, some men are pre-selected to speak glowingly about how they are well treated and how they enjoy the job. Everyone was free to indicate by the raise of his/her hand to speak during durbar. God save you if you mentioned anything negative!

In spite of this, there are brave “men” who dared to speak the truth and spent days in the “guard room” and/or donkey years without promotion. Most often, they needed to go and prostrate before another officer (or an officers wife or girlfriend!) to “beg” their commander to “unbundle” them from the ‘curse’. Any such brave soldiers (and sometimes officers to their seniors) are promptly labeled as “having the propensity for mutiny”. If they failed to quickly and successfully “appease” the “offended” Officer, they had no peace at all, as they remained potential candidates for frame-ups that are followed with kangaroo court-martial processes.

The ’63 NAs, the ’79 NAs and the ‘90 NAs

In the Nigerian Army, there are common labels and categories based on when they enrolled in the Army. These include [19]’63 NA: those that joined the army on or around 1963 to the entire 1970s, but before 1979; The ‘79 NA were those that joined from 1979 to before 1990, then the 90 NA were those that joined from the year 1990. I do not know whether there is a 2000 NA as I have lost connection with the barracks since 1995.

The 1963 NA were the typical “apes obey” soldiers, one could not blame this category because they had little or no education. They know nothing but to obey every order of the superior officer. They are bootlickers to the core. If a young officer ordered a ’63 NA to “go and find me 3 privates to go to my house and wash my cars”, the ’63 NA was likely to quip back before the young officer finished: “is can get 5 SAAA”!!!, while stamping his boots at attention and saluting and then running out in a flash! ’63 NAs can do anything, in fact, overdo anything for the officer, including running into a raging flame: the maxim is “obey before complain”.

The ’79 NAs constitute some of the more or most knowledgeable in terms of education. There are many graduates among this category. Few of them get commissioned and become officers, but the larger percentage gets tired and not a few ’79 NAs have abandoned the Army and are doing very well in respectable professions not only in Nigeria, but across the world. The collective officer corps was never comfortable with the “too much education” of the ’79 NAs

The ’90 NAs are the proper “ciyawa”. I was living in the barracks during the time of Sani Abacha, when the army lowered the qualification for recruitment to Junior Secondary School (JSS) certificate! So many motor-park touts, with pockets of educated and young Nigerians (like Chukwurah) who had to hide their secondary school leaving certificates, diplomas and NCEs to get a place in the army of slavery. During the same Abacha era, it was also “rumored” that soldiers could only be released to go to school after 12 years of service!

The Zombie Phenomenon

God bless Fela Anikulakpo Kuti for rightly describing the Nigerian soldier as a “zombie”.

Sometimes, I wonder why some of the “men” behave the way they do. But you can never blame them, for their training and years in the barracks turns them to zombies that can walk to death as a mark of “loyalty” to the officer. It was in my undergraduate years when students spilled out and blocked traffic for more than twelve hours in popular protest. By the time we opened traffic, some of us thought it our responsibility to make sure traffic flowed smoothly. Then came a military car, breaking a more than three kilometer queue of vehicles and speeding down on the opposite lane. It was a one-star general. One student activist blocked the car with a log. There was still quite a huge number of students that could turn into a violent mob at the slightest provocation, but the “zombie” orderly in the front seat of the general’s car had no sense to think correctly, he made to pull a pistol from his shoulder! His “principal” saved the day by gently tapping his orderly on the shoulder, and then we saw the driver reversed with speed. They turned and headed in the opposite direction. We never saw them again. The “zombie” could not see that he had no chance against angry students, only the one-star general sensed they could not return alive if a trigger is pulled before a mob of hundreds of students!

Akure Riot: the Only Option

Only last month, soldiers took to the streets and rioted in Akure, Ondo State in protestation to the brazen attempts by their greedy and irresponsible commanders to short-pay them of their own entitlements. Definitely, the officer corps is never short-paid on any legitimate earnings due to them. Yet the military spokesman in reaction to the Akure riots claimed there was a “mix-up” in the payments by the Army Finance Department.

Although the riot was an unprofessional behavior by the soldiers, their action attracts public sympathy because that is the only language our authorities understand. Other country soldiers do get their own monthly allowance intact, their and then, every 30 days! Our soldiers are always turned to beggars in peacekeeping operations while soldiers from "banana republics" live like kings. It is very sad that our leaders understand the language of violence only. Thieves!

Officers, Women, Wine and War

Women, wine and war are the three Ws (3Ws) that characterize most military personnel all over the world. In war time, the military uses every little break time to wine and womanize. Women are periodically shipped to western soldiers taking a break from the frontlines.  Remember during the years of military rule in Nigeria when the military officers enjoyed attention from the most beautiful women around. In Nigeria, majority of the officers are masters of on the first two Ws, women and wine. Their corruption has become an obstacle to any good performance in the 3^rd W, which is “war”. God bless the brave Police Officer, Alozie Ogubguaja for propounding the theory of pepper-soup and coup planning among Nigeria’s lazy military officers.

Hope in the Horizon

There is hope. Military personnel can sue the military authorities, which is constituted by the corrupt officer-corps, to the civil courts. It was so shocking that our naïve defense minister, Yayale Ahmed and even some of our lawmakers recently claimed that it was wrong to take the military to court. Utter rubbish. It is common practice in many countries. Generals and privates often sue the military high commands in civil courts as a last resort to pursuing justice. Court-martials can never be trusted to provide justice in a master-slave archetype military institution like Nigeria’s.

It is heart warming that the Appeal Court in Abuja recently ordered the immediate re-instatement of one Brigadier General Maude Aminu-Kano into the Nigerian Army School of Finance and Administration (NASFA). Aminu-Kano was dissatisfied with a kangaroo military court-martial that kicked him out of the Nigerian Army. This is a good precedence and all well meaning activists in Nigeria must help and encourage the suffering ‘men’ in the military to seek justice in the civil courts. More on the corruption and voices of slaving Nigerian soldiers can be read in defencetimesmagazine.co.uk. 

Robot  Villager

# 1 I have been really pained by the articled posted in NVS a few days back titled “...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 05.08.2008 22:24

Nokia  Villager

# 2 I was living in the barracks during the time of Sani Abacha, when the army lowered the qualification for recruitment to Junior Secondary School (JSS) certificate! So many motor-park touts, with pockets of educated and young Nigerians (like Chukwurah) who had to hide their secondary school leaving certificates, diplomas and NCEs to get a place in the army of slavery. During the same Abacha era, it was also “rumored” that soldiers could only be released to go to school after 12 years of service! The recruitement qualification level was lowered to JSS because of no other reason than to accomodate the hausa/fulani and make sure that their stranghold on the nigeria army does not slip to much more educated ethnic group whom they fear so much to their marrow. They reasoned that if the high recruitment level is maintained for more longer period, it will come back to hunt them as their people are not ready to get education in numbers and be able to fill up their quota during recruitment exercise. It is another well calculated move which only helps in keeping the country down. Yet one village idio-t will want Igbos to work together with them to normalize their rotten country. Monky dey work, baboon they chop. Rubbish people. Posted by Nokia| 06.08.2008 18:16

Abraxas  Villager

# 3 =Nokia;4295080194>The recruitement qualification level was lowered to JSS because of no other reason than to accomodate the hausa/fulani and make sure that their stranghold on the nigeria army does not slip to much more educated ethnic group whom they fear so much to their marrow. They reasoned that if the high recruitment level is maintained for more longer period, it will come back to hunt them as their people are not ready to get education in numbers and be able to fill up their quota during recruitment exercise. It is another well calculated move which only helps in keeping the country down. Yet one village idio-t will want Igbos to work together with them to normalize their rotten country. Monky dey work, baboon they chop. Rubbish people. Hi, Mr. Nokia! Beyond being simplistic, cynical, and abusive, what, precisely, are you trying to say? Muchas gracias. Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III) Posted by Abraxas| 06.08.2008 20:45

Nokia  Villager

# 4 =Abraxas;4295080227>Hi, Mr. Nokia! Beyond being simplistic, cynical, and abusive, what, precisely, are you trying to say? Muchas gracias. Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III) Do you suffer from comprehension problem?? Sorry then, i can't help you. Posted by Nokia| 06.08.2008 21:09