24th August, 2015
The decision of the Nigerian Army to re-instate 2,500 soldiers and 102 officers who were dismissed and put on trial in connection with their alleged roles in the war against Boko Haram is a welcome development. The soldiers did not deserve the dismissal and subsequent trial. It was a harsh and unjust punishment which was an abuse of their fundamental human rights.
The ill-equipped soldiers were sent to the frontlines in the north-east to fight a better equipped Boko Haram and when they refused to go on the suicide mission, or fled in the face of the superior firepower of the terrorists, they were dismissed and made to face trial.
These soldiers were vindicated by the recent confession by their former boss, Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd), that he headed an armed forces that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight Boko Haram terrorists. The soldiers had no weapons to fight in spite of the trillions of naira budgeted for defence under Badeh’s watch. When the soldiers complained about lack of equipment to fight, Badeh and other top military officers said they were lying. Now it is clear to all that the soldiers were wrongly dismissed, tried and some of them sentenced to death.
Badeh, who was appointed Chief of Defence Staff by former president Goodluck Jonathan, was responsible for the travails of the dismissed soldiers when he was still in the saddle, yet he turned round, after retirement, to say his men did not have the weapons to fight the insurgents. This is hypocrisy of the worst kind. The same Badeh defended the death sentence passed on 12 soldiers who had fled an encounter with Boko Haram insurgents because they lacked the weapons to fight. He was also humiliated when his hometown, Vimtim in Adamawa State, was captured by Boko Haram.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), stood by the dismissed soldiers all the way. He defended quite a number of them during their trial, and challenged the outcome which he said was a miscarriage of justice. He even sustained the campaign for their freedom and insisted they must be re-instated after their dismissal. We expect that the military high command would also review the cases of the 66 soldiers sentenced to death for similar reason.
Nigerian soldiers have never been known to be cowards. They fought gallantly to liberate Liberia and Sierra Leone from rebels during these countries’ civil wars in the 90s. Hundreds of them lost their lives to keep the peace in those two countries. They also went on several peace keeping operations in Lebanon in the early 80s, in parts of Africa and the world where they performed excellently. Since the circumstances surrounding their lukewarm approach to the Boko Haram campaign have been laid bare by Badeh himself, the pardon extended to the dismissed soldiers is well deserved.