Vunderkind
Social Member
SHUWA, NIGERIA - AP reports that on Friday, a soldier opened fire, angry at the criticism of a state governor in a part of northeast Nigeria where almost 100 people have been kiled by Boko Haram insurgents this week.
The resultant panic after the soldier opened fire was a sight to behold: people diving for ditches and cars zooming off as people thought Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa's convoy was under attack by the religious extremists. Nyako was visiting Shuwa, where reporters say soldier had previously fled when the insurgents had attacked, leaving the town at the mercy of the terrorists. The terrorists had then gone on to kill at least 33 people in the town and neighboring villages on Wednesday night. Several buildings were also firebombed.
it is still unexplained why soldiers withdrew from a checkpoint protecting the school a few hours before the school was attacked by extremists who killed 59 students on Tuesday in Yobe state. Governor Nyako, reacting to the series of recent events. said that the authorities - military and civilian - must answer serious questions for these happenings. He said that inspite of press releases and statements to the contrary, security was deteriorating in the country, and that the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, was 'toying with people's fate' in the way he was handling the crisis. Nyako implied that some high-level military commanders or politicians were in cahoots with the Boko Haram militants.
"It is unfortunate that innocent souls are being wasted while the central government seems not to be serious, or there could be a hidden agenda against our people," Nyako said.
It should be mentioned here that these attacks are coming in a flurry as the country prepares for its February 2015 elections, with president Jonathan's perceived desire to run again causing rifts and major party defections and outrage that he would be going against an unwritten party rule to rotate the power between a Muslim Northerner and someone such as himself, a Christian southerner.
As the polity heats up, the citizens are bearing the brunt as extremist attacks have mounted to a frenzy, especially last month. There is nothing to suggest that the Month of March wouldn't be as bloody, or worse, bloodier. More than three hundred people have been killed in the month of February alone.
In the heat of this crisis, some senators are now demanding that the chief of army staff relocate his HQ to the warzone in the northeast, while Legislators in the House of Assembly have asked that the entire military headquarters be relocated to the war-torn northeast.
On Friday, as Governor Nyako's convoy was driving out of Shuwa, two military vehicles blocked the road and two soldiers jumped out, shouting "we are here!" - in apparent response to the acusation that they had run away when the Boko Haram attacked. When Nyako asked who they were, they had shouted "Boko Haram! We are Boko Haram!"
A soldier in the back then fired four bursts of gunfire in the air. Nyako, instead of retreating, had started walking toward the firing soldier, but security agents pulled him back. In Nyako's convoy were the state police commissioner and the director of the State Security Services.
Meanwhile, soldiers who spoke to the AP this week complained that even though theyu are deployed in tens of thousands to combat the terrorists, they are still easily outnumbered and outgunned by the insurgents. One soldier asked how they were expected to subdue the terrorists with automatic rifles alone when their enemies were armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
The six soldiers who spoke with AP asked for anonymity, for fear of sack, and they said they are exhausted from fighting for several months longer than the planned six-month deployment, and also added that they aren't getting their special allowances.
This is the case of a corrupt country where top officers commandeer the salaries and allowances of officers under their command.
