Nigeria has voted about N2 trillion for security in the past two years, a huge chunk of which is spent on the fight against Boko Haram in the North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
In the first four months of 2014 alone, Abuja gave the military N130.7 billion, according to Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who said another N3.8 billion has been approved and will soon be released.
About N968.127 billion is budgeted for defence this year, from which N130.7 billion was disbursed between January and April.
That means the military has spent N32.675 billion each month this year, from January to April, or N1.089 billion per day, the lion share of which was consumed in the battle against Boko Haram.
Yet, the military is ill-equipped and poorly motivated to counter Boko Haram. As a result, two mutinies have taken place in Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri in a space of one week, one of which almost cost the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Abubakar Mohammed, his life.
Angry soldiers complained of not having the kind of arms and ammunition Boko Haram fighters flaunt every time they engage them in a fight, hence the cause of the several deaths of their colleagues.
The low morale among soldiers confirmed what Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, said in February about the federal government’s handling of the insurgency.
“Honestly, Boko Haram (people) are better armed and better motivated than our own troops. I am an eternal optimist as I have always said, but I am also a realist.
“Given the present state of affairs, it is absolutely impossible for us to defeat Boko Haram,” Shettima told journalists after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on the worsening security in Borno.
But the Presidency insisted that the military is well equipped to deal with Boko Haram.
“If the insurgents have not been completely routed, it is due to the fact that our armed forces are severely constrained because of the fact that civilian settlements are also co-located in this vicinity, making selective engagement tenuous and difficult if heavy civilian casualty is to be avoided,” Presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, said at the time.
It turned out that the abduction of over 200 girls at the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, made Okupe’s argument untenable.
Because of the inability of the military to stop the Boko Haram terrorists, they took over Ashigashiya and Chinene villages in Borno State last week, hoisting their flags, to prove that the villages have fallen under their control.
A report in The New York Times on May 24 said: “There is a view among diplomats here (Abuja) and with their governments at home that [Nigeria’s] military is so poorly trained and armed, and so riddled with corruption, that not only is it incapable of finding the girls, it is also losing the broader fight against Boko Haram.”
Daily Mail of the United Kingdom published a more damning report in its Mailonline edition on May 28 that Nigerian soldiers are issued only “60 bullets” for an operation against Boko Haram.
“Nigerian troops have complained they are not properly paid, are dumped in dangerous bush with no supplies and that the Boko Haram extremists holding the girls are better equipped than they are.
“Some soldiers have said officers enriching themselves off the defence budget have no interest in halting the five-year-old uprising that has killed thousands,” the newspaper said.
The Economist of London, in its edition of May 10, also took a swipe at Nigeria’s military.
It said: “America has operated drones from a base in neighbouring Niger since 2012, but Nigeria’s government has long refused American requests to be allowed to do the same from Nigerian territory.
“Moreover, Nigerians are proud of their army, the biggest in Africa, with its long history of contributions to peacekeeping missions, most recently in Mali.
“And they are also notably secretive and prickly about its operations – and the low standards of soldiery which foreign experts would see.
“Though Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the north-east a year ago, his army has dismally failed to defeat Boko Haram.
“Corruption, Nigeria’s great scourge, is another reason for foreign military advisers to keep their distance. Nigeria’s soldiers say that commanders pocket the bulk of their salaries, leaving them with little incentive to fight a well-equipped guerrilla movement that knows the rugged terrain and forests.
“Why risk death at the hands of Boko Haram for no reward? It is hard, in such conditions, to see how outsiders could raise Nigerian troops’ morale, let alone improve their military skills.”
To justify the effectively handling of Boko Haram, however, Jonathan and his Defence Chief, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, argue that the government is not just dealing with Boko Haram, but Al-Qaeda in West and Central Africa bent on destabilising Nigeria.
A retired Major, Shankara Ibrahim, urged the government to do a thorough audit of the budget of the Defence Ministry, particularly allocations to the military in the past four years.
He said there is a possibility that some generals have been profiting from the insurgency by diverting money allocated for soldiers’ pay and logistics.
