“ let me tell you the truth, it is not a battalion that is deployed to Gashiga. It is a company. A company has about 200 soldiers a battalion has 800 soldiers. Those in authorities label us a battalion so they can get the money meant for about 600 soldiers.”
“For months now, we’ve not been paid our allowance. How would we have survived if not for the small money that we see from this sport betting?”
“In NAPEX (Nigerian Army Post Exchange), the store where military uniforms are being sold, each goes for about N25,000. So, that is why we put on anything we have. And we do that even in the war front. Soldiers who don’t have desert boots and can’t buy canvass, wear slippers.”
“We buy the beds and tents with our money. Some of us went to Mali in 2013 for an operation where we were fully kitted. When we came back, and redeployed to operation Lafiya Dole, they collected the bed and fragmented jackets from us and were sent to the bush in Bama"
“We go for parameter patrol without night vision goggles. We go in blindly, and because we are not equipped with these night vision goggles, Boko Haram will be approaching your camp in the night and you will not see them until they are already closer, firing at you.”
“We will be advancing to face the enemies, and all we are given to eat for days is popcorn and biscuits.”
“We were about 200, advancing into Sambisa, and the first problem started when we weren’t given food or money to feed,”
“There was a time we were begging our enemy for water, because we were going to die of thirst. The military helicopter, we were told, would bring water but wouldn’t be able to land because where we are is not safe for it. And, I would ask, what about us on the ground here?”
"The insurgents outnumbered and then overpowered the “battalion”. “We call it a battalion but what we have is actually a company, yet those generals at the top get monetary allocations for a bigger battalion while the formation sent to fight in the bush is the smaller company.”
“The general purpose machine gun (GPMG) mounted on the scorpions were faulty, too. I don’t know why they are not serviceable, and instead of the commanding officer to tell the theatre commander, he was pushing us to the frontline and there we got ambushed."
“From the army hospital, I was referred to the University of Maidugri Teaching Hospital,” But, it is better you sit at home and find a way of treating yourself than go to any of these hospitals. You will spend money transporting yourself to and fro the hospital"
If a soldier is wounded and goes for treatment and has not returned within 3 to 5 days, such soldier’s account would be frozen.
“They will say he has gone AWOL. If you sustain a bullet wound while fighting in the bush...now, they will ask you to return to front line.”
“They will say he has gone AWOL. If you sustain a bullet wound while fighting in the bush...now, they will ask you to return to front line.”
“I sleep inside the tank,” “We get mosquito net ourselves for N400, because if you wait for the army, mosquitoes will kill you here.”
“Not once, in my three weeks here have I tasted meat,”
“All they give us here; beans, rice and semo, we have never eaten vegetables here. They will share food by 5:00 pm and if you do not rush, you will not get food."
“All they give us here; beans, rice and semo, we have never eaten vegetables here. They will share food by 5:00 pm and if you do not rush, you will not get food."
“Normally, they bring in food for us with gun trucks and escort... but for almost three months we didn’t get food and we had finished all we have, we gathered that the enemy had set ambush everywhere and it was hard to get food across to us."
