Simulation On The Miserable Reality/Life Facing An Average Nigerian Soldier Especially The Southern Ones

Simulation On The Miserable Reality/Life Facing An Average Nigerian Soldier Especially The Southern Ones Imagine for a minute that you are a...

Simulation On The Miserable Reality/Life Facing An Average Nigerian Soldier Especially The Southern Ones

Imagine for a minute that you are a trained soldier, serving under the Nigerian Armed forces [your supposed fatherland]

In fact, You are a Lieutenant.

You have a wife and two kids.

Now, based on standard routine protocol for quarterly rotations/tour, you were deployed to Bornu to fight the insurgents (Boko Haram)

And on that fateful day, your platoon was mobilized, enroute to operations in the fields against the terrorists.

Unfortunately, there was an ambush.

Gun battle ensued.

You shot and fought with all you have got. You were apparently trained for that. But beyond that, you needed to survive, you have a wife, family to go back to.

However, judging from the precision and magnitude of the attack, all of you understood that you have a slim chance of surviving. it was a surprise attack but, the enemy was emphatic on where it hits.

They knew you would be there and prepared adequately in advance for it.

In the course of combat, you ran out of ammo, you called John Chukwuemeka, your close pal from Nsukka, for ammo re-up.

But, there was Radio silence. 

You glanced hopelessly around to his position, and saw John's skull split into two halves and his bloodied brain seeping through. The Enemy's bullet caught him. It was a sniper's shot.

The terrorists’ weaponries were that sophisticated, to have inflicted such a brazen damage. 

Then by your left is Barry, a teammate, he got hit as well, in the neck. Though alive, but severely down.

With your team being overwhelmed, unable to regroup or improvise. Your positions being pinged and overran by the enemy's fire power.

Central command was also irresponsive, so the possibility of air support was in dim-sight.

Having nothing left to fight with. No team, no ammo. You were left with no other choice than to make a run for it. Took a deep dive, down the mountainous landslides, scampering carelessly amidst the pelt of bullets aiming directly at you.

 Fortunately, you made it!  But, you passed out.

When you regained partial consciousness, you saw yourself in the hospital. You had been taken to the intensive care unit. You had spent weeks there.

Finally, The doctor came in. beaming in smiles of overwhelming approval and commendation.

Officer! you are awake. He said. We are happy you made it back.

Then, he shook his head in dismay and continued. Unfortunately, You were badly hurt, your legs were severely damaged. We had to conduct an extensive surgery. And to save your life, we had amputated them.

We are sorry. He voiced bitterly.

As a trained soldier with sense of camaraderie You asked.

What of my team? Where are they? Did they all made it?

Well, per official reports you lost 18 men and only 2 survived, the doctor replied. Yourself and Barry. 

Barry is still in intensive care.

Now, three months later, you went to the defence  headquarters for an inauguration ceremony.

Your General Commanding Officer (GOC), General Gida saw you and gleefully said Lieutenant! You are back, am happy to see you again, soldier.

You tried to stand on your feet, to give him a recommended military salute, as your superior.

 But you couldn't. You were disabled and incapacitated. 

He reached out and relaxed you back on your wheelchair.

After exchanging pleasantries and conversed a bit further. He hinted and elaborated on the progress been made against the terrorists, who few months ago ambushed your convoy and killed most of your team. He said;

“We rounded up all the insurgents that ambushed your platoon in subsequent battle confrontation. We captured most of them.”

“However, we decided that instead of interrogating them to extract useful information that could help the army to dislodge them completely or arraign them in court for trial as the law demands, so as to provide succor and justice to their victims, 

 “We would rather send captured ones to rehabilitation center, where they would be reindoctrinated and reoriented for some months, and released back into the society as repented insurgents. They could also join the army and aspire to any function of choice, in the civil or military sphere of the society.

Currently, some are at rehabilitation center within the structure of the defence  HQ."

Can I see them? you curiously asked

Sure! he responded. He assigned someone to assist you to explore the State-sponsored project.

You got wheeled few blocks around, then a door

was opened.

There they are! She said. The female cadet who was assigned the temporary duty of showing you around. 

Across the hall, were refurbished men in white dazzling regalia and uniform. Adequately housed and well-fed.

Moving all over the place, chattering and enthused without any repugnancy or disciplinary mechanism to remind them of what brought them were they are in the first place or to feel remorse of their atrocities against the Innocent civilians of the society.

You were further told, that some of them who fancied it, would soon be selected for scholarship to study abroad either in the Middle East or Western world. Totally Government sponsored.

And as you were being rolled back to the general's office.

Just outside the defensce headquarters gate, you could hear protesting voices, certainly of women, wives to dead soldiers your friends included, all widowed, agitating with their placards, saying

"We have been abandoned!"

"Pay us our dead husbands benefits!"

"We are hungry"

"Our children cannot go to school"

Just imagine for a second, how the above seems. How tragic and heart-rending it was reading through it. Believe it or not, there are thousands of people [wives and survivors alike] who have experienced and are still experiencing ordeal relative to the above literal illustration.

The State-funded program of "Repentant Boko Haram" is still ongoing. The pampering of Fulani terrorists nicknamed bandits continues unabated even as they continue to unleash terror against the people's in Nigeria with the complicity & complacency of the state and its various security apparatus.

These wannabe soldiers are actually they ones who expose the classified details of millitary contingents to their brothers-in-arm – jihadists on the other side for them to attack. 

They have permeated so deep into the security architecture and have risen to ranks. They go as far as assassinating their own fellow soldiers on the premises of "killing" too much insurgents. 

The assassination of the Nigerian Airforce female personnel of Yoruba descent few years ago by "repented insurgents", who loathed her for leashing excessive bombs on their folks in the bushes, is still very fresh in our minds. 

The subtle campaign and moves to coerce Igbo/Biafran Youths, into the Nigerian Armed forces to be sent to the North where they would be sacrificed as pawns for a much bigger plan cannot be allowed to go on unchecked. 

Not only does the Nigerian Army not pay active duty soldiers handsomely, as confirmed reports suggests that it only pays ₦40,000, it also does not pay pension to Veterans, or those who fell in line of duty.

 The instances are numerous to count. Widowed Women are lamenting of their deceased and how burdening it has become to shoulder the responsibility, as the state is not forthcoming in its promise and responsibilities. Veterans are staging protests over unpaid pensions. The list continues.

After, you have been deployed to the North. They would send their repented Boko Haram to the east to harass and intimidate your siblings, kiths and kins. They eject you from your land, leaving it porous and fallible to attack without resistance. Worst case scenario, they keep you in the east, use you to perpetrate the atrocities against your own under their strict supervision.  The result is the same. A weak land and people prone for conquest. 

Their age-long ultranationalist dreams to match all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. That means your land, people, culture, history will be subsumed, again. 

This time with a feudalistic ideology, far more villous and brutal than the British monarchial, imperial one which we are still suffering from till date.

 This is why this campaign must be discouraged and Igbo Youths must not fall for it. The political elites from the East, advocating for such, have their kids in secured locations abroad. Igbo Youths must resist this and prepare to defend the land on their own. Through forming local village vigilantes, overwhelming support for the Eastern Security Network to boost security other than depending on the Nigerian security architecture who have for years through their deeds and words, shown utter disdain and contempt for Biafran People in the Eastern region. 

Ọkuama is the most recent, of that which has obtained for decades with no end in sight instead likely to get worse. 

The time has come to count our tongue with our teeths. 

Written & Edited By Family Writers Press International.