‘116 soldiers fighting 3,000 B’Haram members’
A Nigerian soldier in the frontline of the battle against Boko Haram is willing to lay down his life for his country, but wants the country’s leaders to first solve the problems of low manpower, obsolete warfare ammunition and underwhelming morale of soldiers.
In an interview with BBC, the soldier, whose name and location were withheld, said he was ready to lay down his life for the country but lamented that the authorities were not doing enough to boost the morale of the troops.
“If the things I need for battle are provided, I am ready to go and fight those idiots,” he said.
“I am ready to fight for my country because I don’t have any other country. We can defeat them anytime, but logistics fail, weapons fail, morale of the soldiers will fail because many things are wrong.
“Anytime they attack, they must kill us, because we don’t have support weapons and we are usually outnumbered.
“The Boko Haram fighters are many. About 116 soldiers are asked to fight 3,000 people, you see the problem, how can you fight?
“We once needed reinforcement and they sent just 20 soldiers and they (the 20 soldiers) refused to come because they didn’t have weapons.
“They (Boko Haram) are using RPG, anti-aircrafts weapons, many support weapons. We have only Kalashnikov and the tanks that we have been using are since 1976.”
Speaking on the challenges at the battle front, the soldier accused his senior colleagues of being insensitive to the plight of their subordinates.
“Many soldiers die in the (battlefield), there are many widows in my barracks; they are suffering,” he said.
“You die one month, the next month, they would stop your salary, the senior men do not think of we soldiers. They are thinking of themselves alone.”
When asked if he agreed that the current regional force can defeat the sect within six weeks, he had this to say; “I don’t agree. I can look on, but I can’t agree. Things are wrong; that’s what I am telling you; that’s the truth.”
Please Mr President Can you look into the awful and sad lamentation of our soldiers in battle with the boko haram and do something urgently about it.Fighting the terrorists with inferior weapons and lack of reinforcements had lead to the death of many soldiers and their poor wives being turned into widows.It is very important that this be done urgently so that the boko haram would be totally stopped prior to the election period
Yes is truth becose if D GOV stop dis animals tins will not go wrong till now and when the GOV take it like caton play bt all what the GOV tells nigerins is dat the soldiers have get all they nids which is not bt 4 hw long dis will com over and my blive now is when D new GOV take over everyting will be back to nomal to all nigerians
Put a name and a face you “your soldier’ stop fooling our people. With the calibre and array of arsenal I have personally witnessed being deployed by the Nigerian Forces your lies don’t hold up. The Army will eventually rout out the cowards in its mist