Like Soldiers, Like Doctors -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

Currently, life in Nigeria, seems if not impossible, then at least intolerable for a good number of people. The result is that those who have a voice are finding it quickly, strengthening their feet in the process. Those who don’t are clearly losing it and dying in silence, with dire consequences for a country already on fire in many ways.

The Nigerian Army recently declared forty-four soldiers wanted for deserting Nigeria’s fight against terrorists in Borno State. The soldiers who have also had their bank accounts frozen were said not to have reported in as they should prompting the army to take disciplinary actions against them.

Nigeria’s unceasing war against terrorism in the North has claimed many casualties in less than two decades. The war which started as an expedition to quell disturbances by ragtag insurrectionists has raged fiercely for years now, leaving along trail of blood and tears.

While many civilians and their communities have been torn apart by the marauding terrorists, soldiers, who have proven themselves to be dependable defenders of the country have also been summoned to the slaughter slab that the region has become, to pay the ultimate prize many times over such that they have lost count.

War anywhere makes heroes but also corpses, and Nigeria’s experience in the war against terrorism has been no different. However, the heroism of the soldiers has not been the only highlight of a brutal war. Nigeria has made certain to throw its peculiar cocktail of curveballs and corruption into a very sensitive war.

Allegation has followed allegation. Funds meant to purchase arms has been diverted. Many of the soldiers on the front lines have severally complained of poor welfare corroding morale. Corruption has been alleged in the upper echelons of the security authorities, while some soldiers have been exposed as trading weapons and information to terrorists.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has been reluctant to name and shame the sponsors of terrorism in the country. Yet, the army authorities wonder aloud while some soldiers are deserting.

Nigerians used to be big on patriotism but not anymore. The rugged discipline and ragged resilience of soldiers who defend Nigeria has always meant that the army as an institution has remained an attractive option for young Nigerians. Throw in the fact that unemployment is rampant, and the army which has maintained a semblance of sanity amid so much chaos makes even more sense.

But that sense, that space, is fast closing with many soldiers deserting a war that they do not believe Nigeria can win because it is not ready to win. For these soldiers, many of them young, resilient and futuristic, the end has come within the ranks of an institution they once admired. Who would blame them?

Just like medical doctors who continue to flee Nigeria in droves, and as unceasing as the war against terrorism is, the winter of discontent in Nigeria is not about to end anytime soon; and just like rats abandon a sinking ship, the race to get out is forbidding and unforgiving.

It is easy to brand people like cattle in Nigeria, to call them all sorts of names meant at profiling them, whether as deserters, economic exiles, cowards or whatever. However, a society that is responsive rather than reactionary is one which allows itself to be provoked into action rather than a reaction by the actions of its citizens. Key questions should be: why are people fleeing the country? What has made it impossible for people to find any form of satisfaction in a country that once showed prodigious potential and infinite promise?
Perhaps, answers to those questions will provoke more discussion about the desert that Nigeria has become, which is churning out deserters in their numbers.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com