The new General Officer Commanding 81 Division Major General Isidore Edet said, henceforth, any soldier who tries to embarrass the service by engaging civilians negatively would bear the consequences.
He spoke to soldiers of the 9th Brigade during a maiden visit to the Brigade Headquarters in Lagos, explaining that, “for every act of indiscipline committed by any soldier, the soldier that commits such act of indiscipline must be ready to take the consequences. If your commanders try to shield you, you will face the consequences and your commanders will also face the consequences. I am saying this with all emphasis because in my 33 years of service, there had never been any unit that I go to that I compromise discipline.”
General Edet said that most of the issues that bring about friction between soldiers and civilians had been the problems of bus fare. “Most of you want to enter somebody’s ‘danfo’ (commercial buses) for free. Even when the driver of the bus must have told you that there’s another uniformed person already in the bus, you will still force yourself in and refuse to pay. Most of the time that is what brings about friction between soldiers and bus drivers and by extension, other members of the public.
“I will resist this act. I will stand by the danfo drivers and their actions to resist such actions; and so when you take that as a right you will continue to have such problems and that is what I will never tolerate in my command. If voluntarily the bus driver allows you, good. But when you want to take it as a right and deprive the driver of his fare and it leads to fracas and people being brutalized and it becomes a media problem, I will not take it. You will pay for that.”
He urged soldiers to key into the vision of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, which is to have a professionally responsive army in the conduct of its constitutional responsibilities; adding that officers and soldiers must be ready to carry out the marching orders by President Muhammadu Buhari for the Boko Haram insurgency to end in three months.
General Edet said that discipline is the bedrock of the military, pointing the relocation of the service chiefs to Maiduguri, Borno State, and the appointment of a theatre commander to ensure that the commander-in-chief’s order is implemented.
He said that the fight against Boko Haram is a fight that has no front, urging soldiers and officers to always prepare themselves to be deployed to the theatre of operations at all times.
While explaining that discipline is everything that governs the military, the GOC said that the battle against Boko Haram would be won if Army personnel discipline themselves and work to ensure that the Chief of Army Staff’s vision is achieved, and also work to carry out the president’s order.
He said that Army personnel must work hard to win the Nigerian populace to their side, adding: “avoid friction with the people, because in a counter insurgency, if you do not have the support of the (local) population you have already failed.
“It is the force that has the support of the population that succeeds. If, (however), the population turns against you can never succeed.”
He said Boko Haram has committed a lot of unspeakable crimes against the people and the people are looking up to the Nigerian Army to protect.
(Philip Nwosu, DAILY SUN)
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