Mr President, beware of the “madman”, Tunde Olusunle

If his expressions, actions and general behavior betray a certain psychological imbalance, he deserves to be sincerely understood and apologized. By his account, he has been on the battlefield for well over four years, just as he should have been reassigned to other duties and replaced after two years. It is common in the Western world for people who have experienced war and all that comes with it to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They are expertly managed, not denigrated, to bring them back to normal. War is not nonsense. The uncertainties, the ambushes, the sounds of bullets and bazookas, the booming explosions of bombs and IEDs, the crimson color of blood. Soldiers are human, all of these affect them, no matter how tough and sturdy they are.

Rotimi Olamilekan, also known as *Sojaboi*, a former Nigerian Army personnel, has been prominent in the news of late. In response to government’s call for him to join the Nigerian Army, Olamilekan, a former corporal, took to social media to urge children and wards of the political class and nouveau riche to join the armed forces. With its ranks massively depleted in the multi-front fight against insurgency, terrorism and banditry across the country, the Nigerian Army is craving 28,000 new enlistees. Olamilekan, a young man from Yoruba country who knows the proverb *omo’lomo la’n ran ni ise de toru, toru,* (it is other people’s children who are usually sent on distant or dangerous errands), argued that the children of the privileged should relish the experience of the children of the common people.

After his summary dismissal from service, Olamilekan was very vocal about the conditions of service of common soldiers. In a podcast which featured media personalities such as Daddy Freeze and Omoyele Sowore, Olamilekan voluntarily declared that his last salary before his recent eviction from the service was only N111,000.00. This “enhanced” take-home envelope, he noted, went into effect about a year ago. Before that, his monthly earnings were N51,000.00. He later released his latest pay stub to support his case. Embracing the plight of the ordinary Nigerian soldier, Olamilekan said they have to procure all the equipment themselves, at their own expense. According to him, the ordinary Nigerian soldier pays for his uniforms, jackets, boots, helmets and necessary accessories.

Predictably, the Nigerian Army has moved to water down Rotimi Olamilekan’s allegations. Apollonia Anele, lieutenant colonel and spokesperson for the Army, said in a press release on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, that the statements were false as it is the Army’s institutional responsibility to provide the official equipment and operational needs of the troops. He argued that Olamilekan’s claims were false and misleading, as the troops are adequately equipped and supported. The Army, he noted, maintains a structured and transparent compensation system, with additional benefits for personnel. Uniforms, boots and protective equipment, Anele noted, are duly supplied through established logistics systems. Soldiers, he noted, are free to increase institutional provisions if they deem them inadequate.

This piece is not intended to investigate the circumstances of Corporal Rotimi Olamilekan’s dismissal from service. It is about demanding that President Bola Tinubu pay more than passing attention to the utterances of a humble, young soldier, which would ordinarily be dismissed as “the ravings of an ant”, to borrow the words of the extravagant scholar-politician of the Second and Fourth Republics, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. It is because the madman, despite his established mental derangement, is capable of meaningful thoughts, that the respected second generation Nigerian poet, Obiora Udechukwu, titled his most successful volume of poetry, published in 1990, *What the Madman Said.* There is much wrong with the contemporary organizational structure and operational manual of the Nigerian Army in its entirety, which is why it does not yield tangible results. As Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Tinubu must sit down, reflect and recalibrate his intelligence, security and defense playbook.

It must concern the President that yesterday, Thursday 9 April 2026, the government of the United States of America, (USA), began the evacuation of its embassy staff from Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, to date the nation’s safest haven. The US government provides training, equipment and intelligence support to combat insurgency, terrorism and banditry. They must be disappointed, however, by the suspicious enthusiasm and ambivalent professionalism displayed by their Nigerian counterparts which must hinder their work. The trending US security advisory identified 23 out of 36 states as red zones, which is equivalent to saying two-thirds of the country is besieged and traumatised.

It should agitate the President that yesterday, Thursday 9 April 2026, Oseni Braimah, Brigadier General and Commander of the 29th Brigade, Benisheikh, Kaga Council Area, Borno State, was killed in an attack by Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP). Eighteen soldiers died with him. Braimah is the second general to be killed by the bloodhounds terrorizing the north-east of the country in the last five months. Brigadier General Musa Uba, former commander of Task Force 25, also in Borno State, was ambushed, kidnapped and executed by ISWAP itself, on 18 November 2025. At that time, Lieutenant Colonel Umar Farouq, Salihu Iliyasu and Saidu Paiko, were all captured in Kukawa Local Government Area of ​​Borno State. It is best to imagine the number of officers and other ranks that were lost along with these senior officers.

If I were the President, I would be deeply embarrassed that the annual allocation for security and defense has been on the rise in the three annual budgets prepared under my superintendence between 2024 and 2026 and approved by the National Assembly, without commensurate results. Overall, security budgets for the three years of 2024, 2025, and 2026 amount to a staggering $15.83 trillion ($11.3 billion). Instead of having a positive impact on national security, the ogre of insecurity is actually worsening, gaining additional acres and kilometers across the length and breadth of the country. It is official that actual releases and refunds have been slow in coming, necessitating perennial changes in the lifespan of various budgets. But what exactly has been done with what has been received so far?

Our military has become patently distracted and more interested in matters outside of their core martial mandate. They are taking over endless plots of land, as we see for example in Abuja, where the entire area between the diversion to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), up to the Giri interchange on the Gwagwalada-Lokoja road, has been completely occupied. Each arm of the military today has its own university (apart from the purpose-built, degree-awarding Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA). Each service has a “holding” that deals with real estate development. Each service is building its own “hotels, suites and conference centers.” Many generals prefer to be “general administrators” of such enterprises, rather than being on the front lines. There is talk of an exponential increase in the number of multi-billionaire soldiers in this season of national anguish and anomie.

This is why President Tinubu must take Rotimi Olamilekan’s claims very seriously. The serpent may have invisible limbs inside it with which it crawls, a Yoruba proverb tells us. Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, who has become something of a parliamentary institution of the Fourth Republic, had previously spoken along the lines of Olamilekan. It alluded to poorly equipped soldiers virtually facing the enemy bare-handed on the battlefield. Could the security establishment take advantage of the very fact that the President is not an initiate, to “cloud his vision” from reality and undermine his intentions? No two individuals can ever be the same. No two leaders can think or act the same way. President Olusegun Obasanjo was very well enabled by the residual wisdom of veterans of his main professional constituency, the military, when he was in office. His Chief of Staff was Major General Abdullahi Mohammed, GCON, (of blessed memory); his National Security Advisor, (NSA), Lieutenant General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, GCON, while his Defense Minister was Lieutenant General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, GCON. They were very experienced and war-tested generals.

President Tinubu, on his birthday, Sunday, March 29, 2026, announced that his accumulated salaries will henceforth be kept in a trust fund dedicated to the support of families of fallen soldiers and the maintenance of wounded troops. His gesture is expected to be expanded into a pool of funds that will be supported by state governors. This is undoubtedly a laudable gesture, but it in no way resolves the worrying and negligible management of our national security. To the chagrin of Nigerians and the watching world, the Chief of Defense Staff, (CDS), recently pleaded that psychopathic terrorists wasting the blood of innocent Nigerians and our soldiers in some parts of the country, be seen as prodigals and availed of parole! There is no better proof of the lack of institutional seriousness in the battle against insecurity than such frivolity. For your foreign collaborators, this is inconvenient. I imagine the inimitable Fela Anikulapo-Kuti describing such a statement by a CDS, as “crazy speech”, or better yet “animal speech”.

It’s about time the President sought help and sincere guidance from those who should know. His famous wizardry in political strategy has yet to translate into a lasting hold on national security. He needs genuine guidance and assistance like years ago.

■Tunde Olusunle, PhD, a member of the Nigerian Authors Association (FANA), teaches creative writing at the University of Abuja.

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