WHY NIGERIANS DON’T SUPPORT THEIR SOLDIERS.

WHY NIGERIANS DON’T SUPPORT THEIR SOLDIERS.

BY

TERTSEA TYODOO

Mr Denis is a magistrate in one of the customary courts in Abuja. On his way back from Lafia where he spent the weekend he is stopped at a military checkpoint on the Abuja keffi road. He and other drivers waiting to be searched by the military men are instructed to get out of their cars and walk up to a tent a few meters ahead. They tried to find out what was going on but the soldier simply told them to shut up and keep moving they were asked to turn off their car engines and move quickly, a quick count and Mr Deniss could tell they were more than thirty of them taking the long walk. As they approached the tent they saw about twenty other people squatting on the bare floor in the middle of the road in the hot sun waving at passing vehicles, Dennis realized the same fate awaited him, but what was his offence? The lady beside him mustered the courage to ask and was told to shut up! He reached for his wallet and pulls out his ID, a quick examination and the soldier tells him he can leave. Worried about the others he enquires why they are being punished, “Oga na because you be judge oooh” just go back to your car and don’t ask questions. The other drivers with him assumed their positions under the sun and began waving.

Much has been said about the lack of apathy by Nigerians towards their army, recently more voices have joined the discussion on the need to boost the morale of our troops by showing them love. The fact is simple Nigerians don’t love or show respect to its soldiers and who can blame us? More than anyone else the Nigerian army has etched a trade mark of brutality for itself, always happy to humiliate and brutalize ordinary civilians and the slightest provocation.

Many have argued that the problem is deeply rooted in the foundations of the army long before it became Known as the Nigerian Army. The British colonialist established the \Nigerian regiment as an offshoot of its own army not to defend Nigerians but to suppress them and bring them under British control. From its base in Lagos the army was used across the lengths and breadth of the country destroying villages and towns in a bid to bring them under British control. This culture followed until independence and even after that, no effort was made to change the ideology that had become the culture of the army, to them the civilian is the enemy that needs to be brutally crushed at all times.

A clear demonstration came during the Tiv riots of 1965 this was the first time the army was used post-independence to quell a riot, the turnout was bloody, dozens of tiv villages and towns were wiped out and hundreds died. The same armies will Invade Tivland again in 2001 killing close to a thousand civilians in the infamous Zaki Biam Massacre.

Almost everywhere you go in the country the story is the same, a town in Plateau state recently turned down the Nigerian Armies offer of protection from Fulani herdsmen who have been terrorizing the village. The Village elders preferred to face Fulani herdsmen themselves than suffer the horrors than come with housing the army in your locality. There have been accusations of Rape torture and outright murder against our army countless times. From Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, and Bayelsa the stories are the same. One cannot forget the Odi killings made famous by the Bayelsa artist Timaya.

You take a drive around the country and you will get a first-hand experience of how rude and brutal the army can be on Nigerians, like the famous writer Martin Meredith once said in his book (State of Africa) the Nigerian army behaves like an occupying force, treating its own people like citizens of a different country. Someone once said the Army has been terrorizing Nigerians long before Boko Haram came to lime light which is why many Nigerians see the insurgency war as a fight between two bullies over who gets to pick on the skinny kid first.

If the Nigerian army is to enjoy the love respect and support its counterparts around the world enjoy, it needs to overhaul its public relations and retrain its officers and men on its responsibility to Nigerians. We want to see and army that defends its people and not humiliate and oppress. We need an army that distributes relief materials and helps with logistics during Natural disasters as is obtained in other parts of the world. Above all the army must teach its men to serve with honor. And honor comes with respect for the people you are sworn to protect, only then can Nigerians begin to give the army the support it deserves.