Recruit Additional 100,000 Soldiers to Fight Insurgents, Reps Tell FG

The Nigerian House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to as a matter of national emergency, empower the Nigerian Army to recruit additional one hundred thousand (100,000) soldiers to make up for the shortfall in manpower–the same way it did during the civil war.

The House which believed that this can be achieved, given the huge number of unemployed youths that are available and ready to enlist into the Army, recommended that training ground for such number of recruits should be increased and fully equipped with necessary training facilities, in addition to what we have at Zaria Depot, which is currently the only place where recruits in Nigeria are trained.

These recommendations were made by Chairman, House Committee on Army, ​Rep. Abdulrazak Sa’ad Namdas during the consideration of a report on the Recent Attack by Boko Haram Insurgents at Auno Village in Borno State at the floor of the Green Chamber, National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

In the synopsis, Rep. Abdulrazak Namadas stated that the report is the result of an investigation of the joint Committees of the army, defense and other relevant ones to investigate the remote causes of such attacks by the Boko haram insurgents, especially in the Northeastern part of Nigeria. One critical finding is that the Nigerian armed forces are not sufficiently staffed and are lacking in manpower.

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He noted that the Nigerian Army should recall retired officers and men and keep them on reserve for use as and when needed, in line with the Armed Forces Act (Part VII Section 25), provided they are physically fit and not above 50 years of age.

The Chairman House Committee on Army said “that in as much as the Nigerian Army has tried to justify the rationale behind the creation of Super Camps, the committee believes that a lack of adequate manpower is partly responsible for their establishment.

“This is because the Army does not have enough personnel to hold ground for a long time after defeating Boko Haram in some villages hence it resorts to collapsing the thinly held and sparsely resourced troops’ locations to form Super Camps. With the massive recruitment of new soldiers, there would be no need for Super Camps;

“That the Federal Government should respond to the Boko Haram crisis and other related security challenges more vigorously than the way it has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of Nigerians killed by insurgents and bandits is far higher than the number of people killed by COVID–19. Therefore, more resources, equipment, and training should be given to the Armed Forces to enable them to defeat Boko Haram once and for all;

“That the Army has been doing its best to boost the morale of its officers and men within the available resources, but there is room for improvement;

“That there is a lack of police presence in Auno village in spite of allegation by the Army that insurgents were being harbored in the area. In view of this, police should be deployed to Auno to help maintain the internal security of the village;

“That the Joint training and exercises by members of the Armed Forces should be encouraged to avoid misunderstanding among the personnel if we are to win the war on terror”.

On his part, Rep. Ahmed Jaha recommends that commuters should not be left stranded at state borders without sufficient security henceforth and that the Nigerian mobile force should be incorporated in the fight against insurgents as the mountain terrain may be strange to the regular military, but the mobile forced are well trained to combat in mountainous regions.

Similarly, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas added that the security forces that were supposed to be at the border but were absent making it easy for the attack on the stranded commuters at the state border be found out, tried and made to face the law.

The House therefore unanimously voted on and adopted all the recommendations of the report.

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