Our Rampaging Soldiers

Comfort Obi

On July 5, hundreds of soldiers from the 323 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army went on rampage. In their fatigue uniforms, they carried cudgels and sticks which they brandished menancingly, made bonfires and blocked the entrance to the Akure metropolis through the Ondo axis. Civilians saw hell. They ran helter-skelter. There was confusion. Motorists, especially, were harassed and assaulted. The soldiers siphoned fuel from their car tanks, used same to douse disused tyres, and proceeded to set them on fire. Motorists abandoned their cars. Others trekked home. Those who resisted were beaten black and blue. One motorist who disobeyed their orders was beaten to a state of coma. The windscreen of his Toyota Carina car smashed. Good for him.
He should count himself lucky. How could any normal human being, a civilian, disobey hundreds of rampaging soldiers? He needs to organise a thanksgiving service for coming in contact with such kind-hearted soldiers. Otherwise, he would have ended up in the mortuary. Nobody confronts a moving train. Their Commanding Officer, Gabriel Umelo, a Lt. Colonel, could not even talk to them. They held him hostage when he tried to appeal to them. He suffered the humiliation of having abuses, some of them unprintable, hauled at him. But for the presence of his guards who formed a circle around him, brandishing their guns, he would have been abducted. The fellow should join the civilians in a thanksgiving service.
I don’t know now if the solidiers were all of the Artillery Corp. I hold the Artillery Corp in awe. As a kid during the war, one of them, from the Biafran side, used to come to harrass everybody at the Central School, Alaenyi Ogwa, Mbaitoli- Ikeduru, where we were stuck. He claimed to have come back from the war front and that “Artillery Fire” had affected his hearing. So, he would come with a big stick in hand, which he waved menancingly, asking for money, and screaming: “I.... be artillery. I.... no dey hear”. It was an everday event.
The Army authorities, through its Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Emeka Onwuamaegbu, have apologised to the public, and especially, the civilians who were harassed and assaulted by their rampaging wards. They say they are sorry for the misconduct of the soldiers. What Onwuamaegbu did not say, however, is if the civilians whose vehicles were destroyed would be compensated in anyway. But we’ll come back to this later. The questions are: Why did the soldiers go on rampage? Their story is an everyday Nigerian story. Here it is.
The soldiers allegedly went on rampage because they were short- changed of money due to them. They had gone on a United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Liberia. For six months, they were away, in another land, warding off troubles, and stabilising Liberia. For those six months, they were the responsiblity of the UN. It is the lot of the UN to pay them allowances. But, they are paid through their home governments, which disburse the funds through the Army authorities to the soldiers.
The rampaging soldiers had come back from Liberia and were asked to assemble in Akure to receive their money. But they were short-changed. Instead of the UN-approved $1,228 per month, which would have amounted to $7,368 for the six months they served, the Nigerian Army paid them $3,000 for the period. So, the soldiers hit the roof. Their anger boiled over. And they embarked on the rampage which lasted for about six hours. They said they had suffered for long. They said they had stayed for about one week in Akure without any accommodation or feeding allowances. They said they had been sleeping under trees. And they revealed that a member of their contingent, a lady, had died out of frustration because she had no money to go to the hospital. These soldiers had been back since September 12, 2007! They said that to serve in any U.N. mission, under the Nigerian flag, was a curse. Nigerian troops, they said, are known for tattered uniforms and ricketty vehicles. Now, who is responsible for this disgrace of the Nigerian nation?
What the soldiers embarked upon was a mutiny. In military laws, mutiny attracts a court martial, and could lead to long jail terms or capital punishment. But we must keep this law aside, and give the soldiers a fair hearing. There are many questions that should be asked. For instance, why were the soldiers invited to Akure to come and get paid when the Army was not ready? They said they had waited in Akure, sleeping under trees for one week without anybody apologising or explaining to them. Why? Why were they paid the sum of $3,000 instead of about $7,368 they are entitled to? The Army Spokesperson tried to explain. He said it was a mix-up by the finance department. He said two battalions came back from Liberia – the 72 Para-Batallion, Makurdi, and the 323 Artillery, Akure. That part of the allowances of the Makurdi battalion was paid to them before they came back. That, when the finance people went to pay the soldiers in Akure, they paid them the balance of allowanes meant for the Makurdi battalion. When the mix-up was discovered, some of the soldiers got agitated, and they went on rampage.
So we agree with him. But why should there be a mix-up? Doesn’t the finance department know the difference between 72 Para- Battalion, Makurdi, and 323 Artillery, Akure? If what was sent to Akure was the balance of that of Makurdi, where are the allowances of the 323 Artillery, Akure? The contingent from the 323 Artillery had been back since September 12,2007. They are being paid almost one year after, and yet there was a mix-up. Why do we treat our heroes so shabbily? Incidentally, this will not be the first time our soldiers who went on such assignments would be short-changed. During the Abacha era, it was a common occurence. Which must explain why the rampaging soldiers refused to listen to the explanations of their C.O. They had seen it happen several times.
This other day our soldiers who put their lives on the line in Darfur, Sudan, came back home, only to die cheaply in their fatherland. They were involved in a road accident as they were going back from Abuja to their stations. Forty-six of them died. Others were badly wounded. Nigeria’s UN commander, General Martin Agwai, has since put the blame (of the sad fate of the soldiers) at the feet of the Nigerian government. He talked about bad roads. He talked about ricketty vehicles. He talked about the over-loading of the Army trucks. He is right. But back to Akure.
What happened on July 5 is a national shame. The Army says it has set up a Board of Inquiry to ascertain the truth. But it is focussing on court-matialling the rampaging soldiers. That will not be fair. Those responsible for the shabby treatmeant given the soldiers, the delay in paying them since September 12, 2007, and the alleged mix-up in their payment should rather be punished. They were responsible for the rampage. And the disgrace to the Army and Nigeria.