- The real reason why Nigerian soldiers run from Boko Haram
Despite the continuous killing, situation in the North, the Nigeria senators have refused to to accept the request made by the military to extend the emergency rule in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
This was concluded after the senators went in a close door meeting with the service chiefs for eight hours on Tuesday. Emergency rules expired since November 20.
Service chiefs were summoned by the Senate weeks ago to give details of the situation in th three states under emergency rules since May, 2013 which expired on 20 Nov.
Senate refusal to agree on whether to extend the emergency rule or not has led to non-renewal of state of emergency in the three affected states.
Senators where pleaded to by the service chiefs during the eight hours meetings to grant the request, saying that the extension will enhance the war against terrorism.
According to a source who was privy to the discussion in the meeting, senators, mainly from the North, refused the plea to further the extension of the emergency rule.
The senators who took the hard stance are waiting for any fresh proclamation of emergency rule following the last expiration on November 20 by President Goodluck Jonathan as the plan is to make sure it meet a brick wall.
The source so also said that the eyes of the senators were opened to the reason while the fight against terrorism had not been successful after the service chief informed them of the low morale of soldiers from low motivation, possibly from the government, and that the soldiers are not combat ready or psychologically prepared to fight.
He explained further that Nigerians soldiers go into hiding instead of confronting the insurgents as a result of their lack of commitment.
“The morale of the soldiers is low. They are not combat ready. They are not psychologically ready. Soldiers are running away from battle. There is no agreement among them. There is no commitment. We don’t have military any longer,” he lamented.
The source disagreed to a question that the soldiers may not be motivated due to poor package despite the huge budgetary allocation for the prosecution of the war everywhere, adding that the cost of running military apparatus in every country is very expensive.
He aruged that the problem of not winning the war is not as a result of insufficient fund for the war nor is it about corruption or embezzlement of the security funds. He said that the soldiers are afraid as they are not ready to die because they think the country which does not seem to appreciate their contribution and huge sacrifice to the nation, is not worth dying for
Furthermore, he attributed low morale among Nigerian soldiers to lack of value for their individual lives by both the government and military authorities, noting that the soldiers must have seen the shoddy manner the corpses of their fallen colleagues were treated including being buried at mass graves on the battle front without allowing their families access to the corpses.
He contrasted the treatment of Nigerian soldiers with that of their counterparts in the United States whom he said were always given colourful state burial in a way that anyone would desire to serve his country in military capacity in view of the enviable burial rites usually accorded fallen soldiers.
According to him, when soldiers’ corpses are brought home from the battle front in the United States, they are received by the president, governors and senior military officials in the presence of their family members.
He also added that unlike the case in Nigeria, corpses of American soldiers brought from the battle fronts are usually within the range of three or four or at most 10 in extreme cases and are received amid paraphernalia of glory in the land.
“When that is done, who will see that and not wish to be a soldier when you realise how honourable it is to die fighting for your country? The family will also feel proud to see such high profile dignitaries gracing their loved one’s burial. But in our own case, soldiers are buried in shallow mass grave,” he said.
He insisted that it would be difficult for the senators to approve any fresh proclamation of emergency rule should the president opt to make any fresh request for it, noting that most senators are of the belief that the rule has failed to produce the desired result, especially as the rage of terror attacks have continued unabated.
The argument has also been made that the president, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has constitutional powers to deploy the military troops to wherever he wants without necessarily depending on the permit for an emergency rule.
But as if the insurgents are cashing-in on the said low morale of the Nigerian soldiers, they have upped the ante and frequency of the attacks with the latest being the killing of dozens of people in a fresh attack on a Borno town, Shani, during a siege on it by members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect on Saturday night.
Some fleeing residents of the town, who spoke to journalists on phone, said over 30 armed Boko Haram fighters on motorcycles stormed Shani in southern part of the troubled state.
Shani is about 260 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, and shares borders with some communities in equally troubled Adamawa State.
One of the fleeing residents, Elijah Ibrahim, said: “The terrorists came at about 8pm and started shooting at everything in sight. The gunshots were deafening and kept approaching my house that I had to run into the bush with my grown up children.”
He said: “I had to however leave my wife and my little children with her believing they would do them no harm. I slept in the bush with two grown ones and without going back into the town proceeded to Biu this morning.”
Ibrahim claimed that the insurgents set houses on fire to force residents out and that it has been difficult getting his wife and the children he left behind in Shani since Saturday night.
A military source in Biu confirmed the attack, adding that the insurgents burnt down a police station and other public buildings in the community.
The Borno State Police Commissioner, Clement Adoda, who also confirmed the attack on the town to journalists in Maiduguri on phone, said several property were destroyed but that no life was lost.
Shani had been under Boko Haram attack in the past, the Saturday invasion was the third since 2012 when insurgency escalated in the North-east region. The town, a council headquarters, came under heavy attacks shortly before the 2011 general election as suspected Boko Haram insurgents raided the local office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), killed some ad hoc staff and destroyed electoral materials.
The Shani Divisional Police Station was also attacked mid June 2014, with not less than five policemen killed.
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Nigeria Senators continues stand on emergency rule
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