I Testify to the Greatness of the Nigerian Military
By Professor Femi Meyungbe Olufunmilade
Internal sabotage reinforced by leadership sell-out in high places is at the root of the seeming difficulty the Nigerian military is facing in ending insecurity in Nigeria.
Otherwise, the Nigerian army has proved to be one of the best fighting forces in the world in the past 62 years.
It’s the Nigerian army that restored the relative stability enjoyed in Somalia, reducing Al-Shabab and co to a band of criminals roaming the high sea. They routed them completely from the Somali mainland and returned home to name the barracks from where the troops that performed the feat were pulled out Mogadishu Barracks, after the Somali capital.
Note that the Somali rebels had dealt a heavy blow on the US Army and the latter had pulled out after they began losing troops in a manner reminiscent of Vietnam. They left with all their sophisticated gadgets, humiliated.
Who ended the over three decades civil war in Sudan? It was the Nigerian military while our own Gen. Martin Luther Agwai led the blue-beret UN Peacekeeping Mission to Sudan. He deployed diplomatic and martial skills to bring the warring parties to a compulsory peace table talk and divided South Sudan from the old Sudan and returned our boys back to their barracks in Nigeria.
Who, almost singlehandedly, fought to restore peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone? The Nigerian military.
Who chased the Tuareg rebels out of northern Mali and put paid to their so-called Republic of Azawad? Nigerian military with the support of French troops. Both also collaborated in Ivory Coast to end the civil war on the heels of President Laurent Gbagbo sit-tight after losing election. They both installed President Allassane Ouattara.
Who sent troops to Senegal on the border of The Gambia to force Yahaya Jammeh to surrender power to election-winner, Adama Barrow? The Nigerian military. By the time Jammeh saw the reconnaissance jet of NAF hovering around his presidential mansion ahead of invasion from the Senegalese border, he offered to surrender power and fled the country to Guinea.
I work with the military. I teach and conduct research with them. I’m a frontline beneficiary of their collaboration. They’re among the very best in the world by facts and not fiction. What they lack is a corresponding indigenous Military Industrial Complex, which I’ve promised to design and develop when elected president. In my four years, we shall manufacture all categories of weapons germane to our national security.
Sincerely yours,
Professor Femi Meyungbe Olufunmilade
Director, Buratai Center for Contemporary Security Affairs
Igbinedion University Okada
Edo State.
& Presidential Aspirant
Social Democratic Party (SDP)
