By George Awuru
Recently, fighters from the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) ambushed and killed eight soldiers in Borno State. Many Nigerians believe that some members of the Nigerian Armed Forces have been compromised and so politicized that they could be working against the country’s insurgency fight. It is this belief that forced the Federal House of Representatives in March this year to ask the Federal government to hire foreign mercenaries to combat Boko Haram insurgents following then spike in attacks, especially the February 23, 2021attack on Maiduguri which led to about 16 deaths.
Their call came in the wake of a similar call by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state who during the meeting of the North East Governors Forum, called on President Buhari to revert to the use of foreign mercenaries after 43 Borno rice farmers were killed by Boko Haram.
Under President Jonathan, the government in 2014 used military contractors namely Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection (STTEP), a South African mercenary company, Conella Services, and Pilgrims Africa to combat the insurgents in the North East. President Buhari condemned the move even before he assumed office, describing it as ‘disgraceful’. Along with specially trained Nigerian soldiers they formed the 72 Mobile Strike Force Special Unit which reportedly recovered control of major territories in the first few months of 2015 , driving out the insurgents.
But issues of non-payment apparently forced the private military companies to leave by April 2015. True, their intervention marked a turning point in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram. However the profit-driven motivations of mercenaries and the companies hiring them should never be underestimated. Their private contractor status also makes it difficult to hold them accountable as they operate according to their own laws. Even the Boko Haram insurgents have been alleged to have recruited mercenaries to help them conquer and turn Nigeria to an Islamic Republic. Former American Defence Secretary , Jim Mattis , played down the idea of hiring private military contractors when he said ; ‘’When Americans put their nation’s credibility on line, privatizing it probably is not a good idea .’’ Blackwater was an American military company founded in 1977 by former Navy SEAL Officer, Erick Prince. The company is now known as Academi since 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors. It however acquired widespread notoriety in 2007, while Prince headed the company when a group of its mercenaries reportedly opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns, grenades launchers, and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed civilians in a square in the Iraqi capital, killing 17 and injured 20 during its participation in the American war in Iraq. The massacre sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in wars.
It was seen as one of the lowest episodes of the U.S.- led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Four of the Blackwater mercenaries were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while one of them, Nicloas Slatten, who was reportedly the first to start shooting, was convicted for first degree murder, Slatten was eventually sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each.
But President Donald Trump pardoned all the four mercenaries in his last days in office. Given that military contractors enjoy immunity from the usual constraints and regulations on traditional army, they engage in all sorts sordid acts. There are rumors that Blackwater is engaged in arms smuggling as it was allegedly involved in an arms scandal in March 2010 when more than five hundred Kalashnikov rifles and other weapons disappeared from the American warehouse in Afghanistan. Blackwater aircraft was operating at the time in Afghanistan under contract with the U.S military to transport troops and supplies throughout the country. According to a U.N. report, Erick Prince being close to trump violated the U.N. arms embargo on Libya in 2019. The report by the U.N. panel of Experts that monitors the ban on transfer of weapons to Libya says companies controlled by Prince provided three aircraft to assist in sending helicopters and military contractors to help the Libyan warlord, Khalifa Hafter in 2019.
Considering the existing negative experience of the Academi Fighters’ involvement in conflict settlement, African countries especially Nigeria have to think twice about possibility and feasibility of admitting foreign mercenaries to their sovereign territories. Al-Jazeera reported on the US hired contractors as ‘an army that seeks fame, fortunes, and thrill, away from all considerations and ethics of military honour….’ It is currently compelling for Nigeria to resort to mercenaries for help given the daily attacks by terrorists. And It is provoking extremist measures by governors in the North to curb them.
Kaduna state has banned transportation of livestock from other states; Sokoto state has stopped movement of cattle in lorries across the state 13 local government areas; Niger State has suspended operation of cattle markets across the state’ Zamfara state has shut schools and imposed curfew after yet another adduction of her school children by terrorists; and Kastina has shut roads, banned sale of animals and inter-state cattle movement.
In any case using private contractors to deliver military services goes against the African Union’s Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa, which Nigeria ratified in 1986. It is also contrary to the United Nations’ international Convention against the Recruitment, use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, which the country signed in 1990 but never ratified. Mercenaries are expensive to hire and could create a dependency in our local forces that might give rise to dangerous vulnerabilities. The challenge before the government is to use those resources for hired guns to build the capacity of our armed forces to fight.
Awuru writes from Lagos