Dead, Buried and Forgotten By Olusegun Adeniyi

Although we still don’t know the actual number of gallant men and officers of the Nigerian army that we lost or the operating environment that allowed the Boko Haram insurgents to exact such tragic fatalities, the main lesson from last week attack on 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele, Borno State is that those who sacrifice their lives in defence of our country deserve better treatment. And despite megawatts of excuses from the military high command, it is obvious that those at the helm have serious questions to answer.


But the challenges of the moment are far deeper and go beyond the failings of those in authority. The main concern here is that there is no sign that Nigerians really care that several families have been thrown into anguish. This is evident from most of the social media comments that follow the videos depicting the criminal neglect and corruption on the part of those who are responsible for keeping our men and officers safe. Most of the interventions are about politics and the usual blame-game; not a thought for the bereaved families.

For sure, there are serious issues within the military that President Buhari must at some point deal with. They range from a leadership cadre that has overstayed its welcome to the welfare of our fighting soldiers and the whispering campaign that the insurgency may have become an industry for some unscrupulous persons in and out of uniform. While we will deal with some of these issues another day, it is a huge scar on our conscience as a nation that we fail those we put in harm’s way on behalf of the state when they are alive and we do nothing to memorialise them when they are dead. We also disrespect their families.



Almost every country has protocols for burying those who die in battle. But if there are such in Nigeria, they are being observed in the breach because when our soldiers die, they bury them like commoners. Sometimes without even informing their next of kin. In Nigeria, fallen soldiers are mere statistics. No names. No stories of heroism. Just numbers!

Sadly, that has been the pattern for as long as one can remember. During the military era in the eighties and nineties, corpses of Nigerian soldiers were usually brought in from Liberia and Sierra Leone at the dead of night for secret burials. But that sort of action should not continue under a civilian dispensation from which accountability is demanded. A female soldier last year recalled how she learnt of how her husband died in combat. “It was in 2014, and I didn’t find out the day he died,” she said, “no one ever does. One of his colleagues just called to say ‘your oga done die o’”.

Asked whether she received any further details from the military, the widow replied: “Details? No one gets details. They just send a message saying M.I.A (Missing in Action). This basically means he’s been declared dead. They don’t even send the bodies home; they just bury them there. My friend got news that her husband died in Maiduguri a few days ago. Someone in his unit called to tell her. So she had to go to the office to ask. They told her the same thing: M.I.A.”

Apparently incensed by the manner fallen soldiers are treated in Nigeria, former Senate President David Mark, a retired Brigadier-General, once advocated that slain soldiers be treated with dignity. “If not for anything else, they (the fallen soldiers) deserve national honours. Those who die in wars or peacekeeping missions are heroes that must be celebrated” said Mark in 2011. Nobody paid attention to him. “The Barracks is filled with widows. I have a lot of friends here whose husbands never returned. This woman who just got news of her husband is pregnant. Her child will never meet daddy” said the female soldier-widow who added: “So when a wife doesn’t hear from her husband for about a month, first she thinks they might be in some place with no network. Then she starts to grow worried, and when she goes to ask, she gets the M.I.A.”

For a nation at war against a brutal insurgency, this is no way to treat the families of those left behind by fallen soldiers. Certainly, it cannot motivate others to give their lives in defence of such a nation. But beyond the responsibilities of those in authority, our society also must begin to imbibe the spirit of honouring those who lay their lives in our collective defence. In many countries, there are hundreds of not-for-profit organisations devoted to helping the families of soldiers killed in battle. The United States provides a ready example.

From the Healing Households to Gifts of Gratitude to Faces of Valor to Fallen Patriots Fund and several others, these institutions assure the fighting soldiers that they do not die in vain. I believe that time has come when we should create a similar institution to the ‘Gold Star Family’ which, in the United States, supports the children and spouses of deceased or wounded soldiers as well as members of their immediate families.

I am ready to work with, and lend support to, public-spirited individuals or credible charity groups that will take up an idea similar to the ‘Star Family’ so we can also begin to offer help, in a structured manner, to families of soldiers who die in the war against the insurgency. Whatever the tales from the military or the propaganda arm of this government, Boko Haram is neither ‘technically defeated’ nor has its capacity been significantly ‘degraded’. The insurgents, backed by other terror affiliates, are now a mighty army and it will take our collective resolve as a nation to defeat them.

The statement released by the military following the Metele tragedy does not reflect an understanding of the challenge confronting us. I will therefore recommend for our military commanders the book, ‘The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost’, by Cathal Nolan who teaches military history at the Boston University. Losers of most major wars in modern history, according to Nolan, “lost because they overestimated operational dexterity and failed to overcome the enemy’s strategic depth and capacity for endurance.”

After visiting injured soldiers yesterday in Maiduguri, President Muhammadu Buhari will go to Chad today for a meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). The one-day session is expected to review the security situation and adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to meet the challenges of securing the areas. If we are to defeat Boko Haram, the authorities must be prepared for the long haul and understand the international dimension. On that score, Chad, Niger and Cameroon are central. Chad, because of the shrinking lake whose adjoining areas play host to sundry criminal gangs, including those involved in terrorism and irregular migration; Niger, because it is the route through which most of the arms and ammunitions come in for the insurgents.

However, the domestic environment in Chad means additional challenges for Nigeria. According to military sources, Boko Haram insurgents could move in easily for the Metele attack last week because the borders were vacated by the Chadian authorities who had to deal with the ‘more pressing challenge’ of regime protection for their sit-tight leader.

After 28 years in power, President Idriss Deby, in March this year, organized a two-week forum where politicians, religious clerics, businessmen and traditional rulers practically conferred on him the life presidency of Chad. At the end of the so-called national conference, the presidential term limits earlier scrapped in 2005 at the instance of Deby was reinstated to achieve a predetermined end. With the recommendation of six-year rather than five-year presidential term, limited to a maximum of two terms but effective from the next presidential election in 2021, Deby is effectively the Chadian president for life. By 2021 when he would have been 31 years in office, he can begin another round of 12 years. But this manipulation has already attracted internal dissension which is now the preoccupation of the Chadian authorities who left the border open for Boko Haram to move in against our troops in Metele last week.

The situation in Chad, like that in Cameroon where their 85-year president, Mr Paul Biya, was sworn in for a record 7th term early this month, is now very tricky. But we need these dictators more than they need us and they know. If Boko Haram is allowed free reign to use Chad as a staging post against Nigeria, then we are in for a serious problem. We must therefore find a way to deal with that challenge and our options are very limited. The same goes for Cameroon where Biya, who rules his country from the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, is gradually losing his iron grip after 35 years in power.

How we confront these complexities in the weeks, months and may be years ahead will determine whether or not we defeat Boko Haram. And without effectively putting down the insurgency, it will be difficult for our country to focus on the meaningful development that we need so badly.

Perilous Journeys
Last night in Abuja, the United Nations migration agency, the International Office for Migration (IOM), with support from the French Institute, the Goethe Institute and some civil society groups hosted the screening of two documentary films, ‘Bushfallers – A Journey of Chasing Dreams’ and ‘Granma’. The event was held under the auspices of the Global Migration Film Festival (GMFF) as part of the efforts “to pave the way for greater discussion around one of the greatest phenomenon of our time”. Although I was by the IOM spokesman in Nigeria to speak about my latest book, ‘From Frying Pan to Fire’, I left the venue before the film ended to conclude this column.

Meanwhile, I appreciate all the people who were able to make the public presentation of my book last Thursday. The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Dr Aliyu Moddibo, Senator Lawan Guba, Dr Tanimu Yakubu, my brother, Thompson Abu and his wife, Eugenia and several others, including members of the diplomatic community. I am most grateful to them all. For the benefit of those who may not have read the review of the book by Dike Chukwumerije, it is enclosed below.

However, the conversation on ‘irregular migration’ continues in Benin next Tuesday as Edo government hosts an international conference with the theme ‘Managing Migration Through Development’ as part of the intervention to rid the state of the shame of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The governor has invited me to the conference along with other local and international stakeholders in what promises to be a frank discussion on the perils of ‘irregular migration’.