Nigeria is bearing the financial burden of the
operations by multinational forces against Boko Haram insurgents, findings by The
PUNCH on Sunday have revealed.
The troops from Nigeria’s neighbours – Chad and
Niger – it was learnt in Abuja, receive N146.25m monthly as pocket
and feeding allowances from the Federal Government.
The sum is however different from that paid by
Nigeria for fuelling of the operational vehicles of the foreign troops and
other logistics, which our source did not state.
A breakdown of the N146.2m shows that the 2,500
troops contributed by Chad receive N112.5m monthly while the 750 soldiers from
Niger get N33.75m.
Thus each of the soldiers from the two countries
gets N45,000 monthly as pocket and feeding allowances, the same amounts paid
their Nigerian counterparts.
The joint war was initiated by the governments of
Nigeria, Chad and Niger to flush out the insurgents from the
North-East and to halt their incursion into the two Francophone countries.
It was further gathered that the two Francophone
countries, are in addition to the allowances paid by
Nigeria, making demands for funding by the international community.
Our source, who asked to remain anonymous because
he was not permitted to speak on the issue, said, “Although, it is a joint
operation, a kind of sub-regional collaborative effort, Nigeria is the only
country funding the operations.
“The arrangement is not such that each
participating country funds its defence forces deployed for the operation.
“Nigeria is funding the operation to the extent
of providing the allowances for all the Chadian and Nigerien troops involved.
“Apart from that, the country is also providing
for the feeding of these troops and fuelling all their operational vehicles.”
It was further gathered that in spite of the
sacrifices being made by the Federal Government, the joint operation is being
threatened by mutual suspicion.
There are allegations that reports about the
conflict in the international media are being manipulated by
Chadians in the
mission area to portray Nigerian troops in bad light.
It was learnt that the Defence Headquarters was
not comfortable with the slanting of stories to highlight supposed exploits of
the supporting countries to the detriment of the Nigerian forces
and indeed the country.
The report that Chadian troops liberated Damasak,
a border community between Nigeria and Niger on March 9, 2015 was mentioned as
one of such.
In it, the Chadians were reported to have killed
200 insurgents while liberating the town.
However, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen.
Kenneth Minimah, told journalists on Monday that the town was still in
terrorists’ hands.
It was further gathered that the mutual suspicion
was exacerbated by an incident which resulted in the killing of an
unspecified number of Nigerian troops by insurgents on their way to Dikwa.
The New York Times quoted the Chadian
Foreign Minister, Moussa Mahamat, as having said that “the Nigerian
Army has not succeeded in facing up to Boko Haram.”
He had added,
“The occupation of these towns, this is up to Nigeria. My fondest wish is that
they assume their responsibilities.
“Our biggest wish is that the Nigerian Army pulls
itself together — that it takes responsibility in the towns. We are ready to
disengage, right away.”
However, the Director Defence Information, Maj.
Gen. Chris Olukolade, who dismissed the claim on Saturday, said, “It is not
true that our soldiers are not willing to take over such communities. There is
no town that our soldiers have liberated that is not being well secured and
well patrolled at the moment.
“We have always warned against irresponsible
comments in this collaboration and we are not ready to join issues with
anybody. We will do everything to sustain this collaboration.”
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