After Baga, no flowers for the Army

The bloody duel between the so called Boko Haram and the Multinational Joint Task Force said to comprise of security forces from Chad, Niger and Nigeria, which took place at 7.30pm on 16th April, 2013 in Baga town, Bornu State, raises questions about the suitability of the tactics and strategies being applied by the Nigerian […]

The bloody duel between the so called Boko Haram and the Multinational Joint Task Force said to comprise of security forces from Chad, Niger and Nigeria, which took place at 7.30pm on 16th April, 2013 in Baga town, Bornu State, raises questions about the suitability of the tactics and strategies being applied by the Nigerian armed forces to crush the Boko Haram insurgency. The bloody encounter read like one of those battles fought in the Nigerian civil war and although there have been conflicting figures about the level of casualties; most people are agreed that the level of civilian losses is intolerable.
According to the commander of the multinational force, Brig-General Austin Edopkayi, 30 Boko Haram suspects, one soldier and six civilians were killed, while 10 civilians and five soldiers were injured in addition to five Boko Haram suspects that were arrested. Not so, said serving Senator Maina Ma’aji Lawan, an indigene of Baga who reportedly counted over 220 fresh graves of the victims in the aftermath of the shoot out in his hometown.
The fishing town of Baga joins a growing number of communities conquered by the Nigerian Army (NA) in peace time; the others being Ogoni, Odi, Zaki Biam and more recently, Amansea, near Ezu River. For several weeks after this conquest, no political leader from the Jonathan administration went to Baga to see the bloody consequences of this clearly excessive show of force by the NA. Everyone is contented with denying the “exaggerated figures” even as they bandy their own. These are indeed troubling times for the NA and the country.
But no matter, the pictures that came out of Baga are those of large scale destruction in the town. The NA can continue to rationalise or deny its misadventure in Baga, but the pictures of that sad fire fight have been played and replayed in the local and international media. One particular picture showed a dead baby near its dead mother; if the mother were Boko Haram suspect, what about her baby? This, certainly, is not the reason why the NA has received praise for actions in the Congo, Bosnia, Liberia, Lebanon, etc. The NHRC report speaks of large scale violation of human rights, it says: “The commission (NHRC) equally received several credibly attested allegations of gross violations by officials of the JTF, including allegations of summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention amounting to interment and outrages against the dignity of civilians, as well as rape.” Now we know that in Baga, the NA didn’t protect civilians, it attacked them.
Either in the bid to remove evidence of its murderous operation in Baga or as a proof of its scant disregard for the lives of those killed, the report of the NHRC investigation further disclosed that: “In particular, we have received persistent and credibly attested allegations of indiscriminate disposal of dead human remains by personnel of both the JTF and the Bornu State Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA)”.
By all accounts, the military’s conduct in Baga is shameful and despicable. The continuous buck-passing cannot hold in the face of other accounts from other credible sources. Satellite pictures of Baga confirmed that over 2000 houses were obliterated by fire. The pictures from our own white elephant satellite (the satellite was probably asleep during the Baga operation) cannot be shown for the simple reason that they will contradict figures given by Nigerian officials. The Baga massacre shows that something is very wrong with the moral authority of our rulers. This odious action of the Nigerian military came soon after Jonathan himself had denounced the Obasanjo – era military attack on Odi and assured people that he would never do such a thing to enforce peace in the country.
Obviously, the Baga operation is a complete public relations disaster for the NA. Brig-General Chris Olukolade, the Director of Defence Information, has had an impossible task managing the dwindling reputation of the Nigerian armed forces. Olukolade’s explanation that the hundreds of houses burnt was as a result of Rocket-Propelled Grenade bombs (RPGs), Anti-aircraft guns and sophisticated IEDs used by the Boko Haram insurgents is not plausible at all; if the insurgents had deployed and used these weapons, the casualties among the NA personnel would certainly have been more than one death.
In any case, one Mr Oke Lawu, the Divisional Police Commander in Bama, the other town in Borno State that witnessed another confrontation with Boko Haram, has revealed that Nigerian security forces have been using special bullets that trigger fire upon impact. According to him: “The special bullets we use…called ‘Tracers’ often spark fire, once they hit target they catch fire.” It is therefore easy to see that what caused the fire in Baga was not the weapons used by Boko Haram insurgents but those applied by the Nigerian security forces.
If the reports of the encounter between the multinational force and Boko Haram suspects came out slowly in the media, it could only be because the military was not keen on sharing the information with the public; and if they did not want to share it with the public, it could only be because they did a very bad job.
It’s amazing that the Nigerian military that is fond of giving names to even walk exercises has no name for its misadventure in Baga; in Jos, they have Special Task Force (STF), in Niger Delta and North East, they have Joint Task Force (JTF). So, what are the names of the various operations? Why is the operation in Jos special and that of Baga or Bornu not so? What are the rules of engagement in Baga or Bama? Are they known to the population there? It would appear that the forces that fought in Baga did so with considerable anger, considering the wanton killing and destruction of property.
A section of the NHRC report says “property worth millions of Naira were lost through fire which burnt over 30 vehicles, 57 motorcycles, and 100 bags of beans/maize” and that five wards-Bulabulin, Bayan Tasha, Panpan Gajagaja, Adam Kolo and Bagadaza were “completely razed down by soldiers.”
Already, it is reported that many farmers in Bornu have lost this year’s planting season and this means that there will be shortage of food and other basic requirements. The NA will do well to spare something from their huge security vote to buy and avail the victims of food, clothes, lodgings, etc, since they have contributed to the disruption of the rhythms of the lives of the people.