Military Contractors Not Solution To Terror War –Musa

Lt-Gen Christopher Musa is the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on the war against terrorism, what the military is doing to decimate Boko Haram and banditry and why engaging private military contractors is not an option for Nigeria, ANAYO EZUGWU brings the excerpt

The President recently said they about 300 Boko Haram commanders have been eliminated and that people are returning from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps to their homes. He, however, noted that it’s unfinished business. What are the unfinished businesses?

It is unfinished in the sense that we still have work to do. It is not yet Uhuru. It is almost impossible to expect that we have total peace in the entire world. You know the challenges we are facing are not in Nigeria alone; they are everywhere in Africa and indeed the entire world. The Russia/Ukraine war is causing a lot of issues for us. The recent Israeli/ Palestinian, now Israeli/ Iranian war has implications.

So, it is not only about Nigeria alone and that is why we always want to appeal to Nigerians to support the armed forces and support Nigeria as a whole. The challenges that we are facing are not isolated. The challenges that we are facing are Nigerian challenges and Nigeria must take the responsibility.

I am happy to be here because you give us a platform where we can talk to Nigerians directly, and let them understand that they equally have roles to play for us to succeed. So, it is work in progress. We’re not where we want to be but we are heading there.

What are the roles you think that Nigerians should play to complement the effort of the military because you are talking about complementing your efforts? And I want to refer you to the statement made by Senator Ali Ndume; he said that the military should consider engaging private military contractors to fully decimate and win the war against terrorism, particularly Boko Haram. Do you agree with him?

You know that recently we have had military contractors in Mali; how far have they gone? Americans used military contractors in Afghanistan; they fought for over 20 years, but they packed and left and didn’t finish the war. What I am saying is that asymmetric war is a very difficult operation because you are dealing with non-state actors, people you don’t know.

These are your people and the only way you can identify them is if you see them armed, but these people, immediately you move in, they drop arms and clear. They carry the arms and try to blend with the civilian populace, and tracing them would be difficult. One of the reasons this campaign has prolonged is because we are obeying human rights.

We try to as much as possible if there is civilian populace within a particular area, we avoid collateral damage. That has made it a bit difficult but we remain focused and we remain very professional. Senator Ndume has said what he knows, and there is freedom of speech in a democracy. I understand he is trying to look at options but for us, it is not an option.

We are doing a lot of joint training with the American and European Union team. So, we are doing a lot together to build capacity and win this war. The war we are facing is not conventional warfare, where the enemy is there, you know where he is and can always go and get him there.

These guys are highly mobile. As I said, once you are running after them, their informants are giving them information about your movement, and your strength and they blend as quickly as possible. The North-West has a land mass of 200,000 square kilometers and it is massive. It’s highly forested; a very difficult terrain. We share a common border with Benin Republic and 1,500 km to Niger, that is also very big. So, these are the things that we are facing.

Bringing anybody here involves costs and they will also have their interest, and the interest is not to end it but aggravating the issue; so you have more complex issues to even deal with

The 300 that have been mentioned; we are still counting. I think we have done more than that. We have high rate of poverty and illiteracy, so they are susceptible to being recruited as quickly as possible.

But I can guarantee you that we are doing well. Military contractors are not the solution. The money that we are going to pay to the military contractors because we are going to pay heavily; why don’t we use it to equip our military?

That will be a better option. I am very happy that Mr. President has approved that he Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to partner with other original manufacturers to produce Ezugwu MRAP vehicles, I think that will be our solution.

What we have realised over these years, is even with our money, we can’t get the equipment that we need. Anywhere you go, they place priority other than you. We should produce what we need that will give us the leverage and I think that we are working towards that. We have started now, we are producing our ammunition.

We have local contractors that are producing local APCs. We have Equipment Protective Applications International Limited (EPAIL) that is producing locally. We have Armour-shield Solutions Limited and Proforce Defence Limited, which are producing local APCs. So, I think that in years, we’ll be able to produce and sell to our neighbouring countries. I think that will give us the leverage.

I want to talk about a female soldier, Ruth. It looks like you people didn’t handle the matter properly. I want to talk about defending the rights of women here. She was not listened to on the allegation of mental unbalance and all that. Can we make a case for that lady? I can tell you that we fight for our men; we stand for them, we protect them but there are limitations. That particular case didn’t start this year. Everybody had tried to assist the lady to ensure that she was properly taken care of.

It is not that she is mentally challenged and we just dropped her. We don’t do that. The truth is that anybody who tried to assist her, she came after the person and maligned him or her, even myself. I hope you heard the comments that she made when she reported to me. She didn’t report to me. She came to me directly and I was able to get across to her commanders.

We took her to the medical people, which is the procedure. The medical was able to look at her and the case was investigated. She said that she was sexually harassed by a commander. It didn’t happen. If it happens, we take action we don’t hide our men. Anybody who commits an offence will pay for it. My policy is that if you do well, you are rewarded, and if you do bad, you get punished.

Sometimes she may seem to be coherent on what she is saying. Remember that she also came after the Chief of Army Staff saying that she wanted her to send her nude pictures. These are things that never happened. Be rest assured that we take care of our men and it is of paramount importance. I am sure that you have listened since last year.

We have talked about the welfare of our men because we know that without good welfare, they will not give us their best. We are always watching out for them and talking about increment in their salaries; appealing for increment in their rations, clothing and entitlements. I can tell you that we are working; we are committed and we will continue to work.

What the lady solider said in the interview was different. She gave copious insight into that incident as regards the sexual advances made at her. Can the issue be reassessed?

Mental issue, especially, in the military is something we view very seriously because if you allow somebody who is mentally unstable to carry a weapon, he or she can take down everybody that is there when issues come up.

So, it’s something that we view very seriously. We respect everybody who is committed to serving in the military because we know that you have agreed to lay down your life for your country.

So, for us as commanders, it’s something that we take very seriously. We appreciate that and we also want to ensure that their health status is well respected that is why we went through the entire process. We have our procedures. For every arm of the military, we have the procedures that we follow. Of course, it’s possible to have a review.

What do you make of the allegation by Senator Adams Oshiomhole on the floor of the Senate that some of the funds appropriated to the military are usually used by the military high ranking officers to build universities in their home towns or to do Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSRs) in their towns?

The military is highly professional and there is no general in the army today that has spent less than 25 years in service. We have been to Liberia, we have been to Sierra Leone, we have been to other countries.

We have done so much. We are here in our country facing these challenges, but like I said, asymmetric warfare is an entirely different operation. On the issue of transparency, I can guarantee you that we are going through every scrutiny that is there on the land. We have auditors that always come consistently to do that.

When you talk about the use of funds in building universities and CSR, that is asymmetric warfare and that is what we call the non-kinetic part of it. We have two options, kinetic and non-kinetic. The kinetic is where we use military force.

The military force as a solution to nonstate actors is just about 20 to 35 per cent of the solution. The mistake people always make is that they think that the war against terrorism is entirely a military solution, but it is not. The non-kinetic plays a higher role and that is why if our youths are engaged and educated, if they are well fed and well housed, they would not give in to these terrorists.

Every week, we take thousands down but they keep coming out in their numbers. Why is that so? It is because we have a lot of them not doing anything. They are just willing tools to be used by these criminals. So, I can guarantee that the funds being released are properly utilised. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Finance, and all procedures they use in checking what we do are there.

The mistake people always make is that they think that the war against terrorism is entirely a military solution… The non-kinetic approach plays a higher role and that is why if our youths are engaged and educated… they would not give in to these terrorists

We have the oversight functions by the National Assembly that are ongoing. We also have our mechanism within that we use to do that. I can tell you that no money is wasted. One position missile is about $200, 000. I’m sure that you are aware that everything we buy, we buy in hard currency, from our ammunitions to our bullets.

Convert our budget to dollars, fact-check the cost of a missile, a drone, helicopter, or a fighter aircraft and see how many we can buy with the budget that we have. We know that the country is going through a lot, so we don’t expect to get everything but the little that we have, we are utilizing them properly.

The issue of military contractors like I said; America has used them in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries, but how did they end up. Bringing anybody here involves costs and they will also have their interest, and the interest is not to end it but aggravating the issue; so you have more complex issues to even deal with. The Wagner forces in Mali; 87 of them were recently killed.

They went there and they got killed by the same terrorists. So, we are dealing with individuals that have sworn to kill for whatever reason and the worst element you can ever fight is someone who has nothing to lose. If they die, nobody cares because they feel they are going straight to heaven or that they have rewards they are going to get somewhere. So, they are ready to die. Niger State alone is almost 10 per cent of Nigeria’s land mass.

The North-West is over 200,000 square kilometres. These are huge, massive land areas. So, what we need to do is, first, to leverage technology. If we have enough satellites to give us information, we have enough drones, we may not have enough but we are making do with what we have.

Asymmetric warfare is not what you start today and end today. It is a gradual, and painfully drawn-kind of war. It takes time to heal but it must be deliberate. It entails all society to be together. Why they survive is because they have informants who reach out to them.

I always remind people that the last Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) that got burnt was the locals, who saw our APC had bucked, informed them. Nigerians are the ones sabotaging our efforts. We have unscrupulous elements who think that they are making money. In the North-East, people will go to petrol stations, take full tanks and sell the fuel to the terrorists.

Once you get across to them, you can make good money, which is what people are going after. We have a lot of sabotage from within and outside that we need to come together and say, ‘enough is enough.’ We all must take ownership. It is not only about military solution but general solution.

What about domestic corporate guards in Nigeria, all these nonstate actors that were engaged to monitor our waters and support the security agencies. Do you have any objections to them?

I was a theatre commander in the North-East. It is an all-society approach, so communities must stand and be counted. In the North-East; what did we do?

We got the communities to rally around, selected youths that we knew were positive and with no criminal records. They were profiled by the police and Department of State Services (DSS).

We gave then some level of training on how to protect their communities, which assisted us because we cannot be everywhere. They do that to delay until the troops come in to take immediate action.

That has helped. So, we need the support of everyone. Boko Haram couldn’t survive in Kano. People in Kano knew that Boko Haram in Kano would affect their commerce, so they refused. Anywhere they went to rent accommodation, they were reported. Anybody they saw was strange in any community, they reported them and actions were taken.

That is why we are appealing to people not to allow terrorists to settle in their communities and they shouldn’t give them support. When you do that, you are encouraging them. Terrorists are found within the communities, if the communities freeze them, they cannot survive. That is our appeal to Nigerians.