By Kingsley Omonobi
ABUJA—After losing over 2, 000 Nigerian soldiers to peace-keeping operations worldwide in recent times, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike and other service chiefs to henceforth ensure that no Nigerian troop is lost to militia groups or ethnic gangs in theatre of operation without any genuine cause.

Speaking at the International Seminar on Peace Support Operations organised by the Ministry of Defence, the President also called on the United Nations Organisation to review its rules of engagement and save Nigeria the burden of losing so many of its highly trained military personnel due to the present inadequate rules of engagement.

Disclosing that directives have been given for the expansion of military force in the country, the President said “one of our priority areas is provision of adequate contingent owned hardware for our troops and proper kitting of soldiers.”

Attributing the influx of small arms and light weapons of various make from known countries into Africa as the bane of many of the crises threatening the continent, Jonathan said, “The UN should intervene and stop these countries from dumping small arms and light weapons which encourage militia groups, ethnic violence and crime in Africa.”

Frowns at arms proliferation

In this regard, he said, “I have clearly informed the Chief of Defence Staff, that as Nigeria’s President, I wouldn’t want to lose any soldier carelessly in peace operations. A situation where militia groups would ambush Nigerian troops on official UN peace support operations out of bravado or gallantry and kill our soldiers will no longer be accepted by me.”

The President, however, reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to international peace keeping, noting that government is aware that the challenges our armed forces are facing in meeting this commitment is getting increasingly widened and should be addressed.

Also speaking, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo toed the line of President Jonathan saying, “henceforth, we should not send out our troops to be sitting ducks of senseless militias, and made sacrificial lambs in peace support operations. I believe that the rules of engagement need to be re-examined because when rules of engagement are not clear, soldiers get confused and are easy prey to ethnic militias.”

He said Nigeria cannot run away from international peacekeeping because insecurity in one part of the world, affects other parts of the world and that with a population of 5 million Nigerians living in Sudan for instance, there is no way Nigeria can turn its back to the crises in that country.

Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike in an overview, noted that there are currently over 5, 700 Nigerian troops partaking in peacekeeping operations worldwide making her the fourth largest troop contributing country in the world.

He said Nigeria has so far lost 2, 000 men and expended over $10 billion in peacekeeping, saying out of 55 UN operations, Nigeria has participated in 40 operations in such countries as Congo, Lebanon, Somalia, Croatia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Ivory Coast and Democratic Republic of Congo .

Continuing the CDS said problem areas facing Nigeria’s peacekeeping operations include inadequate institutional capacity, absence of a national policy on peace support operations, inadequate logistics back-up, poor kitting, inadequate contingent owned equipment, undefined mandate and cost burden.

He added that if the cost of Nigeria’s participation in peace support operations (2, 000 dead soldiers and over $10billion) are taken into consideration, there is no doubt that no country in the world has made more sacrifices than Nigeria in peace keeping yet we have not derived appropriate economic benefits.

Present at the seminar were former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar, former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, former Chiefs of Defence Staff, Generals Alexander Ogomudia and Andrew Owoye Azazi.

The service chiefs of the Army, Lt. General Abdurahman Dambazau, Navy, Vice Admiral Ishaya Ibrahim, and Airforce, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, were also present.