Barely one week after former United States Secretary of States Hilary Clinton accused the Goodluck Jonathan presidency of corruption, a serving government official under President Barack Obama has declared that the Nigerian military is corrupt. Testifying before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Alice Friend, the Pentagon’s principal director for African affairs said; “We’re now looking at a military force that’s, quite frankly, becoming afraid to even engage. The Nigerian military has the same challenges with corruption that every other institution in Nigeria does. Much of the funding that goes to the Nigerian military is skimmed off the top, if you will.”
The United States testimony on the corruption in the military came a day after junior military personnel attempted a mutiny on their commander in Borno over what they termed poor welfare conditions and poor equipment of their operations. Angered by the death of 12 of their colleagues in an ambush, the soldiers opened fire on the vehicle of their superior, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed.
But the Military high command, known for never releasing information to the public, gave a different narrative, claiming the troops just registered their anger about the death of their colleagues killed by the insurgents by simply firing in the air.
The suspicion of heavy corruption in the military started gaining currency many months after several junior officers, frustrated by little success coming out of the counter-insurgency campaign, told reporters in anonymous interviews of their poor welfare conditions.
Ekekeee once interviewed a top force man who declared that corruption amongst the top military echelon was responsible for the lingering Boko Haram insurgency. The source, who was unwilling to be mentioned in this report, said the security budget was being frittered away by the military big men who wished the war to linger.
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