Adblada

Thursday, 15 May 2014

MUTINY IN MAIDUGURI: A CASE OF BAD LEADERSHIP

Merriam-webster dictionary, defined  mutiny as: a situation in which a group of people (such as sailors or soldiers) refuse to obey orders and try to take control away from the person who commands them. That was exactly what happened between the solders of 7 Division, Nigerian Army, and their General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Ahmadu Mohammed, yesterday n Maiduguri.

 In my earlier blog’ NIGERIA ARMY NOT YET PEOPLES’ ARMY, i made an observation about our army that ‘‘it was formed in 1863 to attack Nigerian people as an instrument of colonial power''.....hence, this is an organisation conceived and born to oppress and brutalize the people of Nigeria’. And that ‘‘Nigerian Army'' is a Gestapo that meant to humiliate, oppress, cage, suppress and brutalize the ''Bloody Civilians’ ‘and make them a 'Yes sir ‘people.’’

Hence, they are not trained to deal with internal insurgence like Boko Haram that is well equipped with modern weapon. As one soldier put it, “We the soldiers don’t have the kind of arms and ammunition that [Boko Haram] fighters have. So every day, they kill our men anyhow, but it is never published in the media" The commanding officers “are too busy ‘eating’ money.

Based on the above, it is crystal clear that our soldiers mutinied because they are ill-equipped, poorly motivated, and not adequately informed about the course they are fighting for. How does one expect soldiers to fight gallantly under such terrible condition?

According to the source: “The troops arrived with the corpses of the slain soldiers to Maimalari barracks while the GOC was addressing some troops on the ongoing operation against the insurgency. But when the soldiers sighted the corpses of their deceased colleagues, and learnt about how they died, they condemned the way their superior officers allegedly treated them in the course of the operation, and therefore started shooting sporadically, while others opened fire on the GOC’s vehicle as he narrowly escaped from the scene”.

According to the source, “what angered the soldiers most, was the unnecessary deduction of their allowances and subjecting them to harsh working conditions without proper equipment to carry out their duties and as a result, many of them were being killed like rats by the insurgents”.
 What really bothered me was the response of Major General Chris Olukolade the Defence spokesman, who described the mutiny as ‘’ an internal affair which has since been resolved”.

However, in a statement issued  and signed by Major General Chris Olukolade  later yesterday said: “The 7 Division of the Nigerian Army is to institute a military board of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the conduct of soldiers who fired some shots today (yesterday) while the General Officer Commanding was addressing troops in Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri’’


One a last note, ‘certainly, mutiny is the last we expect at this trying moment of putting the insurgency in check and rescuing the abducted schoolgirls’ God blesses Nigeria.

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