Friendly fires and accidental bombings are not uncommon in wars and they are as old as the history of war itself.
Research has shown that there have been many thousands of friendly fire incidents in recorded military history, accounting for an estimated two to 20 per cent of all casualties in battle.
While technology has helped to reduce the incidents of friendly fire and accidental bombings and shootings, it will continue to be with us as long as wars are fought and conducted by human.
According to Peter Mansour, a professor of military history at the Ohio State University, “war is a very human endeavor, and mistakes inevitably will occur”.
This is not peculiar to any military or region or country. America, Britain, Canada and the French have had their own sizable shares of this ugly side of war. So the Nigerian military is not a stand-alone here.
In most cases, almost in all cases, such incidents have occurred without anyone being found to be criminally responsible. They occur mostly as a result of “fog of war” occasioned largely by human and at times technology errors.
In April 1994, U.S. F-15 fighters shot down two United States Army Black Hawk helicopters over the “no-fly” zone in Iraq. Twenty-six people were killed including 15 Americans, British, French, Turkish and Kurdish nationals.
At the end of the investigation, the U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Shalikashvili had this to say: “In place were just not one, but a series of safeguards — some human, some procedural, some technical — that were supposed to ensure an accident of this nature could never happen. Yet, quite clearly, these safeguards failed“.
No one was indicted.
This piece has not been published to absolve the Nigerian military from the sad reality of the situation. My thoughts and prayers go out not only to those unfortunate souls who paid the supreme price but also to the wounded as well as the families of the fallen innocent Nigerians. May incidents like this be far away from our military.
Now to the real issue.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has shown embarrassingly a very poor response and imperceptible understanding of how to conduct a damage control. What we see and hear are just cacophonous statements and endless speeches apparently emanating from a panic-stricken government.
The Nigerian Air Force, a part of the Nigerian military came out to absolve itself as if it was Chadian Air Force!
Kudos to the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) who came out forcefully to admit the error.
Then the Federal Government series of missteps: First, a federal delegation, led by Defence Minister of State visited. Included were the Chief of Defence Staff and CoAS.
Then another federal delegation, this time led by the Vice President also “conveyed” the President’s message.
Again, another delegation of the Federal Government, led by the National Security Adviser (NSA) equally “conveyed” the President’s message.
It is apparent that there is a lack of coordination and a broken system of protocols. What is the NSA “conveying” from the President after what the Vice President has “conveyed”? One would have expected that a Federal Government delegation led by the Vice President would have sufficed.
Our President must be wary of those power-monger politicians around him when it comes to advice he gets from them. There have been too many missteps, mistakes, panicky measures and false promises.
Like in the case of Kaduna incident, he must be resolute whilst he defrays any attempt to blackmail him and his government.
