Opinion: The Politics of 105 Missing Soldiers - by Victor Enengedi

Last week, many woke up to the shock from a popular online news platform that about 105 soldiers were missing amongst the troops that were in Borno State battling the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

According to the reports, the soldiers who belonged to the 157 Battalion stationed in Gundubali were at the time suspected to have been either captured or killed by the terrorists Islamist sect on November 18, 2015.

I do not have to tell you the series of backlash that followed the military and President Muhammadu Buhari on social media. In a very short time, the report was all over several other news sites, blogs and mushroom news platforms who are known for the simple 'copy and paste' trend of news reporting.

Facebook and Twitter went agog with several social media users  manufacturing memes and chants mocking the military who they bashed heavily for not being able to rescue the over 200 Chibok girls , much less rescue it's own.

Fortunately, before the unverified  and unconfirmed news could spread any further than a wildfire in an Australian forest, the military quickly debunked, claiming the soldiers who were faced with a minor attack, were back in their base, while also referring to the report as "a smear campaign against the military... and the kind of propaganda the terrorists desired".

Nerves were finally calm for a at least a day until a former Minister of Aviation and a staunch member of the opposition, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode prompted by a  newspaper publication alleged that the 105 soldiers were indeed missing and possibly slaughtered by Boko Haram. The said publication alleged that about 34 soldiers of the Nigerian Army were 'quietly' buried in Borno State. 

Without proper evidence or confirmation, the writer of the article tried to link the 34 allegedly buried soldiers to the 105 earlier reported missing. In doing so, he however failed to give a possible explanation as to what must have become the fate of the other 71 soldiers if the Army was burying just 34.

Using this report as a basis, Fani-Kayode alleged that the Army and indeed the Presidency was involved in a cover up of the alleged massacre, claiming that there was indeed a case of missing soldiers who are yet to return, and in his words, killed by Boko Haram.

I must say that it is very disappointing that a man in his caliber will make that kind of allegation without a concrete evidence. I also find it most disappointing that such a sensitive matter will be politicized when there are lives involved.

In a series of tweets on his Twitter handle, where the former minister went on to throw tantrums at the government, he said the government has dishonored the soldiers by the alleged secret burial.

When a tweeter user asked Mr Fani-Kayode if he had evidence to back up his allegations, his reply was somewhat laughable.  Almost cursing out the twitter follower, he wrote “Anyone that buys the lie and propaganda that the 105 soldiers never died and that they are still alive is a compound fool or village idiot."

A poor response from a man that has been at the helms of power for a remarkable long time. You will think a man that has been around power will know better how not mistake allegations for facts.  Given his history of a long running battle on fraud charges in court, you will expect Fani-Kayode to be one of the people to know better how sometimes popular beliefs may not always be the truth and also how unsubstantiated allegations do not all of a sudden change into facts.

Online news platform, Premium Times who were the first to break the news of the missing soldiers have amazingly clarified their report.  In a subsequent publication, the news site clarified stating that at no point in their reports on the matter did they "claim that  the soldiers were killed, but that they were merely missing. "

Let's assume 34 soldiers were truly buried. How does this prove that 105 soldiers are missing? How do you confirm that the soldiers allegedly buried are part of a missing group (if there ever was)?

Is Fani-Kayode not aware that this war has been going on for about 6 years and that it is indeed a reality that soldiers have always been dying? This is a war situation, and there are bound to be casualties from both sides even though the casualty from the Nigerian side is less reported in the media.

The troops do not wear bullet proofs in their combats. And even when they do, there's only very little that the bullet proofs can do sometimes given some situations. They are humans and they are not immune to injuries or death, especially at the time when they had the challenges of poor  weaponry and poor morale which followed series of allegations of corruption in the upper hierarchy of the military in the previous administration.

The point is , we have been losing soldiers and will continue to lose more so long as the war continues, so if indeed the Army buried soldiers, that doesn't  prove they were part of a fictional 105 that were reported to have gone missing last Wednesday.

It is important to note that this soldiers up there in the North not only are human, they have families that care for them as well. Sometimes they are not in contact with families for weeks and sometimes months. So to declare such an allegation without an evidence  affects a family who have sons, husbands, fathers and brothers fighting insurgency up there in the North-east trying to maintain our sovereignty as a nation.

That being said, it is therefore important  to insist that the military can not continue to operate in isolation. The Army  needs to begin to be more open in the conduct of her affairs regarding the war with insurgency. Nigerians deserve to know how many soldiers have died so far since the execution of the war. Nigerians are also curious to know how far the military has gone with defeating the terrorists and what plans are being put in place to finally put an end to the war.

If indeed soldiers are missing , we may never know until the Army admits. And until Fani-Kayode and his band of propagandist can show a proof, I think I will much rather believe the Nigerian Army than a man who in the last few months has been struggling to build a career as an antagonistic to the government of the day.

 

 

Victor Enengedi is a social critic and political analyst with interests in everything worth talking about.