One of Akwa Ibom finest soldiers has explained why he chose the profession of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria. Otu Etim Akpan, a retired Warrant Officer 1 of the Nigerian Army from Abak, says of all professions in the world; the most captivating for him is the military.
In a chance encounter with Straightnews on Saturday, Akpan reflected on his career in the military. His story:
Places of service: I served in 6 Battalion Nigerian Army, Ibagwa Abak, 14 Brigade Nigerian Army, Ohafia and other places.
Why I joined the Army: In those days, it was a pride for someone to wear the army uniform to defend your country. So that has been my interest from onset.
On his qualification: I joined the Nigerian Army with Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in 1982.
On exploits: Like the internal crisis in Ika LGA, I was there. I participated in many operations like ECOMOG, Sudan operations, Bakassi operation. I was a training instructor in the army, and I taught many senior officers on weapons’ handling. I retired in 2016 after serving the mandatory 35 years in the army.
Death scare: It’s just like going to play football match. You can play football and it ends in a draw. But at the warfront, we only talk about God’s protection. When I was enlisted into the Nigerian Army, we were 1,450 but upon our retirement in 2016 what was left was 450 soldiers now veterans. It was a pride for us to wear the Nigerian colour.
If you talk about charm, you would not come out from the war. We only depended on God, and fought gallantly, What we normally adopted was that once you came under an enemy’s effective fire, you died down and observed where the fire was coming from your direction so that you could return the fire. But if you depended on any other thing for protection, you will realize that all those things are fake. It is only God that protects.
Uncountable times! That was what we passed through. At times, when we were about to go to war front, we hugged ourselves. Like in football, we said, ‘Oh, boy in case you don’t see me again that’s army. And we were supposed to be taken good care of, but in Nigeria there was nothing like that.’ The places I had experiences were in Liberia, and Sierra Leone. When President Tejan Kabbah was overthrown, we were about to be returned to Nigeria. But, the then Head of State, Sani Abacha ordered us to go back, and we went and took over, the same thing happened in Liberia.
On regrets: I was enlisted in the army at a tender age. So, I was not bothered about material things or welfare such that is prevalent now like owning cars and other things. I didn’t know whether there was death. But, the only thing was that if you had served in the infantry in the Nigerian Army, you would be proud of it. I served in many places as an infantry fighter, in many operations and internal crisis. So, it is only God that protects.
On Military training: Yes, in the army every one of us depended on training, because we all joined as civilians. So, they would change you through the training. In case of ambush, one soldier could hold a community to ransom. But, it is unfortunate to hear a lot about Boko Haram. I think we have passed through that stage of Boko Haram fighters holding communities under siege, but we don’t know exactly what is going on now.
On scoring the Nigerian Military: In the Nigerian Army, we obeyed orders and directives coming from the headquarters. If you were not ordered to fire one shot, you could not fire it. Remember insurgence is not like a conventional warfare. You can fire on your own. So, the lapses are not from the fighters on ground, but the soldiers act on the directives they receive from the hierarchy of the Army.
Yes, I am happy with the military because everything they do depends on orders. For instance, I was the former CAC to former ODUMA operations in the state. I worked under Major Kennedy who is now late. He died as a Brigadier-General in Maiduguri. That was when kidnapping was high in the state, and it was reduced to normalcy. All I am trying to say is that if you are not allowed to use your armed forces might against them, you cannot except where the war affects a country versus country. We have good fighters here and all this complaints that the armed forces are not effective is only in Maiduguri, Adamawa and other places in the North.
Well, what IPOB is doing like agitation in America by a group of black Americans who are struggling to be recognized in the society. What IPOB is looking for is their freedom, but you can’t get it by fighting the armed forces of your country. It is a situation that can be handled by the leadership of the country, which has a way of settling them because IPOB cannot withstand this country for two days. For now, everything has been relatively calm and suppressed by order of the military.
On 2023 general elections: It is not the business of the soldiers to conduct elections. Soldiers will only obey orders from their superior. If we are asked to move, we moved. The difficulty there is that in the morning the people will pretend, but at night they turn into something else entirely. So, if they know that they have the might to fight the Armed Forces of this country, let them come out. Our intelligence unit is working. It is not that we cannot identify the hoodlums that perpetuate evil, but the point is that an effective order has not been given for the armed forces men to crush them.
