Military trained to fight war not insurgency

By Kingsley Chukwuka

A former Governor of Plateau State, Sen. Jonah Jang, has said the Nigerian Military has no business fighting insurgency as they were trained to fight wars.

Jang said it is embarrassing to find Nigerian soldiers on the streets doing what the Police are trained to do.

The former governor who was also the immediate past Senator representing Plateau north at the eight Assembly, also said if the fight against insurgents must be won, the military must undergo training on how to counter insurgency.

Jang stated this on Tuesday in Jos during a press chat with Journalists on the state of the nation.

According to him: “The Nigerian Army is finding it difficult to counter insurgency, because the armed forces are trained to fight normal conventional wars and not insurgents.

“If we must make progress, some units of the army should be trained to fight counter insurgency. We have a situation in Nigeria where soldiers just graduated from training deport and are sent to go and face unconventional warriors they have no idea on how to fight.

“What are the military doing on the streets, Jang queried”.

The former Senator said when he was a governor, he has spoken severally about setting up a State security outfit to reduce the work of the federal Police, but added that the government will not buy into it because they are playing politics with the security of the nation.

“By my training and understanding, the army can only come in where the Police can no longer cope with a situation that seems to have overwhelmed them”, Jang said.

However, while answering questions from Journalists, Jang said as a trained military officer, you don’t negotiate with your enemy, adding that negotiation is done when one side decides to surrender.

“This is one of the ridiculous things one has seen in the system, the person who is re-presenting Boko Haram and the government, what relationship does he have with Boko Haram?”, the former governor queried.