DHQ living in denial

When Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima, possibly in exasperation, that bloodthirsty insurgents in Borno and other states in the North-East were better armed militarily than the soldiers sent to contain them ,the Presidency’s angry response was to seek to discredit the governor. Presidential aides played low, calling Shettima names. Several media outlets reported that Shettima’s comments so enraged President Goodluck Jonathan that he even toyed with the outrageous idea of appointing a military administrator for Borno!

But, recent attacks by the terrorists in Yobe and Adamawa states have not only vindicated Shettima, they exposed how ill-armed Nigerian soldiers are.
It was reported that in Yobe where Federal Government College Buni Yadi was attacked as the students of the school slept, nearly fifty schoolchildren were slain in the most horrific manner. During this attack that lasted for hours, no soldier came to the rescue of the young boys, although there were suggestions, not denied, that the soldiers were alerted at the onset of the attack.

In Adamawa state, it was reported that when the insurgents attacked Michika, the soldiers who were at their checkpoint at the time of the attack, melted into thin air. According to residents of the town the attack started at about 8pm and lasted till 2am. In this over six hours attack, lives were lost, houses and local government secretariat were burnt, banks and filling stations were looted and razed.

In both attacks, if our soldiers were well-equipped, they outcomes would have been different from the spreading lamentations and utter helplessness.
In spite of these daily, almost unchallenged insurgent attacks, which resulted in the death of innocent souls and loss of property, officials the federal government keep on denying that soldiers are poorly-armed, saying that the military was winning the war against terrorists.
The solution to this insurgency menace is for the federal government to recognise the obvious and supply our soldiers with enough and sophisticated weapons. Doing this would no doubt help them win the war against the insurgents.

Mustapha Mammada,
Maiduguri, Borno state