London Magazine, The Economist, has described the Nigerian Army as being useless, corrupt and unable to secure citizens.
The magazine which stated this in its latest issue to be published on October 23 alleged that the country’s military equipments are usually stolen and sold to terrorists who unleash mayhem on residents.
The paper said this was responsible for its inability of the military to tackle rising insecurity in the most populous country in Africa.
“Nigeria’s army is mighty on paper,” the magazine said on its website. “But many of its soldiers are “ghosts” who exist only on the payroll, and much of its equipment is stolen and sold to insurgents.
“The army is also stretched thin, having been deployed to all of Nigeria’s state,” it added.
The paper also lamented that the nation’s police known for extorting citizens were poorly trained.
“The police are understaffed, demoralised and poorly trained. Many supplement their low pay by robbing the public they have sworn to protect,” it added.
A spokesman of Nigerian Army was not immediately reachable for comments.
The military which has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency for over a decade now and failed to crush the terrorist faced allegations of corruption in 2019 when one of its general was dismissed for transporting millions of naira to Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Large cache of its arms have also been seen with some captured terrorists who confessed to buying the weapons from the military which a former minister, Theophilus Danjuma, accused of siding with the criminals.
