In an interview he granted TELL when I was the magazine’s bureau chief in Abuja, General Alexander Ogomudia, retired Chief of Defence Staff, praised the Olusegun Obasanjo government for doing its level best for the military, especially the Army, in terms of funding and equipment. He was the Chief of Army Staff. It was at the peak of the tension generated by our legal tussle with Cameroon over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, and the subsequent robust debate on what Nigeria’s response would and should be in case the matter degenerated into an all-out war.
Despite obvious constraints in terms of funding and equipment, Ogomudia displayed an all-is-well mien as he espoused Nigeria’s capability to crush and destroy any obstacle to our sovereignty and national interests.

He was at his eloquent best at the interview. But we saw beyond the façade. We read his lips. We knew that the tune would have been different were he not the head of the Army at that material time or if he had changed his General’s uniform with all its awe-inspiring epaulettes for agbada or Babaringa, like he later did.
We knew it was a taboo for officers to criticize a system they were an integral part.

It still remains an abomination, though with a few exceptions to the rule like General Victor Malu, who, as Chief of Army Staff, engaged President Olusegun Obasanjo, his Commander-in-Chief in a heated argument over the propriety or otherwise of bringing American soldiers to Defence Headquarters in Abuja to train our soldiers. Malu’s argument at the time, even now, was that bringing the Americans was a slight on our sovereignty, and that apart from the colour of their skin, they would not add any appreciable value to what the officers and men of the Nigerian Army had already known. Of course, we also knew of the code of silence in the military. But we managed to pass the message from Ogomudia across, all the same, in an unambiguous manner.

That assumption by Malu may be subjective or may be the gospel truth depending on the side of the divide you are. Despite the sterling performances of our soldiers in foreign missions, however, the fact remains that a lot still needs to be done in terms of re-equipping the Armed Forces, injecting more fund into the system, training and re-training our soldiers.

Apologies for the digression. Like I said earlier, Malu’s case was an exception because Generals, all over the ages, only speak of their Armies combat-readiness. You can never hear them talk openly about their positions of weakness or weariness. Even when they are compelled to, it is usually done in hushed tones and possibly in the innermost confines of their barracks.

But this is the moment of truth. And on Wednesday, last week, Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye said what most people in his shoes would never contemplate. He bluntly told members of the Senate Committee on the Navy, who were on a tour of the naval headquarters that, “We (the Navy) don’t have any AK 47 rifles in our reserve. … For the General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs), we have just two… and a few rifles. What we do is that any time there is the need for us to make use of these weapons, we run to our sister service, the Army, for them to loan us these weapons.” Other service chiefs might give a more startling revelation had they found themselves in Adekeye’s shoes. Who knows?

However, the naval boss proceeded to state the obvious when he disclosed that these inadequacies were the reason the service suffered casualties during its operations in the volatile Niger Delta during clashes with militants, hostage-takers and oil bunkerers, even pipeline vandals. It could not have been otherwise. What with the inadequacy of weapons and the preponderance of equipment, both combat and communication, that are ageing and dot the whole place; as well as facilities for policing Nigeria’s territorial waters that have become rundown and are in dire need of rejuvenation and upgrading.
Let the truth be told, Nigeria’s Armed Forces need urgent help. Adekeye and all the service chiefs need urgent assistance to perform their constitutional duties more effectively.

But this is just but a plank of my offering today.
The main focus of this column today is the tragedy that befell our nation last week in Sudan, war-torn Dafur region to be precise, where seven of our officers were massacred by rampaging Arab Sudanese rebels who stormed the peace-keepers’ base in Haskanita, killing them like fowl. The remaining three of the 10 casualties were from Botswana, Mali and Senegal. The peacekeepers were obviously outgunned by the murderous gang. According to Colonel Solomon Giwa Amu, director of Nigerian Army Public Relations, the “Nigerian troops, numbering about 200, were overwhelmed by at least 2000 rebels.” The attackers, in the words of General Martin Luther Agwai, Commander of the African Union, AU, force in Sudan, disclosed that the rampaging rebels plundered his base and destroyed Armoured Personnel Carriers and looted equipment and ammunitions.

Nothing better depicts our loss as a nation than watching little kids of the slain soldiers on national television, looking askance, and sometimes, peering innocently into a blank and an uncertain future. What about the moving picture of the pregnant widow of one of the dead soldiers who fainted at the sight of the coffin bearing her husband’s corpse? There were many more sorrowful pictures from the National Cemetery in Abuja where the heroes were interred with full military honours. It was another dark hour in our nation’s history. The somber ceremony evoked pity and tears from many Nigerians on one hand, and a strong revulsion at the madness in Dafur. Just the same way as the senseless killings have made international sympathy for the region to wane.

Yet, not many Nigerians knew that before last week’s unwarranted aggression against our soldiers, 50 soldiers had been reportedly abducted recently and 30 of them were Nigerians! Although 27 were allegedly released on Tuesday, there is no guarantee that the assault against the peacekeepers would not continue. Even so, Nigerians must thank God for little mercies for averting what would have been another disaster on the same Dafur mission as a fault was detected in the C 130 Hercules military aircraft that was about flying another batch of 200 Nigerian soldiers to the Sudan. They were the first batch of the 680 soldiers that would be moved to the war-ravaged region to replace the contingent that had been on ground. The flight was, however, delayed.

But like Major General Azubuike Ihejirika, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, said, last Sunday, while inspecting the soldiers before they were eventually airlifted, the brutal murder of the seven Nigerian peacekeepers was mad, irresponsible and animalistic. From accounts so far, the attack was unprovoked and could only have come from some deranged sons of the devil.

Although, we are deep in mourning, we can still turn this adversity to gain by seizing the moment to secure better protection for Nigerian soldiers serving in peacekeeping missions abroad and addressing some of the problems confronting the services.
Our Armed Forces need help.

The armoury needs overhaul and rejuvenation with modern equipment. Modern warfare is more about high precision technology than the population of troops. Our men at the firing lines, in whatever operation they are involved, must be well equipped, lest we turn them to sitting targets for renegade soldiers to butcher. We must show those who love to repay our kindness with evil that we are not big for nothing. We must show them the other side of our big brother stuff and deal decisively with those who unnecessarily assail us. The Arab Sudanese must be told in no ambiguous terms that enough is enough. And like Ambassador Olusegun Olusola observed in his response to the calamitous situation in Wednesday’s Guardian, even though our country signed for peacekeeping and conflict resolution, this should not be at the expense of our soldiers.

We must not be repaid with body bags. The United Nations and AU must unleash their awesome powers and networks to arrest and bring the monsters in Dafur to account. The murderers must pay. They must be told this is no Big Brother Africa Circus. It is about us. It is about Nigerian blood. And it is serious business. And there has to be an immediate atonement. Only then would our fallen heroes rest in peace.
Good enough, President Yar’Adua’s response has been swift. Describing the barbaric act as "shocking, sad and unacceptable", he sent the Chief of Defence Staff, General Owoye Azazi, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Luka Yusuf, to Sudan for an on-the-spot assessment. But as they continue with the assignment, they must know that Arabs have never been the best friends of Black Africans. They have stated that much in their actions, over time, by throwing African refugees out of their countries at the slightest provocation.

Surely, this does not tally with the spirit of African brotherhood, which Nigeria preaches, and practices, and which informed our decision to make Africa the centrepiece of our foreign policy. And we have been faithful to that commitment at very great costs. We spearheaded the campaign against the evil phenomenon of apartheid and actively participated in the process that led to the enthronement of majority rule in South Africa. We did not perform any less in Angola, Namibia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and other troubled spots across the continent.

But what did we get in return? Hatred. Scorn. Contempt. Derision. Inhuman response even from those we helped to liberate from cruel and obnoxious regimes. I think the time has now come to properly define our participation in operations like the aforementioned, defining the scope of our commitment and commensurate gain, just like America does wherever she goes to intervene.

Above all, I feel it’s also about time the AU and the UN decided on a possible transmutation of the peacekeeping status of their operations in Dafur to peace enforcement. Although the latter may necessitate armed confrontation between the peacekeepers and the warring factions, occasionally, it might just turn out to be an effective way of curtailing the blood thirst and undue aggression of the Arab Sudanese. However, despite the heinous crime the Sudanese murderers have committed against our country, Nigeria must continue to play her roles in the continuing campaign to end the genocide in Dafur. At least, we owe that much to humanity. We owe it to Mother Africa. And the rewards are plenty.