By Dele Sobowale
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (Latin): Translation: “It is sweet and honourable to die for your country” – Horace, 65-8 B.C.
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in the modern day, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason” – Ernest Hemmingway, 1891-1961, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 267.
Latin was taught to us at Igbobi College until late 1960s. It was also taught in several mission schools, as well as King’s College and Government Colleges. Sooner or later, we stumbled on the famous quotation by Horace. It was very inspiring then. When the Roman writer, philosopher and satirist wrote those words in 23 B.C, the world was still relatively in its infancy. War was glamorized; and the greatest thing any young man could do was to fight for his country; and possibly, die for her. Fallen heroes were accorded a lot of honors and their orphans and widows were taken care of by the society their head of family defended with his life – at least for those married. By the beginning of the twentieth century, and especially, after the Second World War, armed conflict had become so common that Hemmingway and several others had started to question the validity of Horace’s assertion.
World War I, 1914-1918, took away almost 20 million souls, soldiers and civilians. The carnage was so unprecedented; world leaders, at the time, called it “the war to end all wars”. It was self-delusion at its worst. World War II, 1936-1945, followed 18 years after; and over 50 million perished; including over two million Japanese, killed by America in less than a week; and six million Jews cremated by Hitler and roughly 10 million Russians and East Europeans – not counting Germans, English, French, Italian, Danish and Americans; as well as Africans. One of America’s most decorated Generals left a message carved on stone for all of us. By then, dying for your country was no longer fashionable. President Trump dogged the draft which would have sent him to Vietnam. The bloody coward is now fighting another war – from the safety of the White House.
“The object of war is not to die for your country, but, to make the other bastard die for his” – US General George S Patton, 1885-1945.
The truth remains this: A soldier is employed to kill for his country; not to die for her. He is a failure if he dies; and the higher the rank the higher the cost to the country. It requires millions of naira to train a Brigadier-General. Losing one such high-ranking officer, in a tank which malfunctioned at a critical point in combat, constitutes a national indictment of all of his superior officers. Predictably, they have resorted to crocodile tears.
CROCODILE TEARS AND HOW WE GET THEM KILLED
“2025: Army gets 7% disbursement for security equipment.
Presidential fleet takes priority over NAF’s aircraft maintenance” – Daily Trust, April 20, 2026
“It is the wisdom of the crocodiles that shed tears; when they would devour” – Francis Bacon, 1561-1626.
Nigerian elected officials are masters at shedding crocodile tears after major disasters to which they might have contributed in one way or another. Nigeria’s crushing insecurity is a classic case study in official complicity in the death of our men in uniform.
I have waited several days; expecting the Presidency, or the Ministry of Defence, or the National Security Adviser to the President, to send a strong rejoinder to the Daily Trust report – which has done nothing short of accusing government of being complicit in the loss of lives among our men in uniform. None came. Surely, our leaders in Abuja are aware that “silence means consent”. Silence is not golden when a government is accused of sending its men in uniform into battle as cannon fodder. It is extremely difficult to understand how the government of a nation at war can justify release of less than ten percent of its capital budget to the Army – which bears the brunt of the risks involved in confronting several well-funded and well-armed enemies at once.
The revelation that the “presidential fleet takes priority over NAF’s aircraft maintenance” has reinforced Hemmingway’s pronouncement that “there is nothing good or fitting in dying…You die like a dog; you die for nothing” – while top officials of government and the military shed crocodile tears over a death they might have caused, deliberately or inadvertently. Interestingly, the former Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, was reportedly sacked, not because he under-funded the armed forces and endangered our collective security, but, because he allegedly failed to disburse funds for two questionable roads awarded to cronies of those in power. Roads that have not yet been completed take precedent over the lives of living men in arms!!!
“B/HARAM, ISWAP TERRORISTS: How Nigeria lost four generals, four colonels in five years” – VANGUARD, April 19, 2026.
Nothing demonstrates the penchant for official crocodile tears better than the dishonest, self-deceptive and self-consoling statement – “your sacrifices will never be forgotten”. The Sunday paper article by Matilda Ikediobi listed ten senior army officers who lost their lives in the last five years. Even, as an avid reader of Nigerian newspapers, I must confess to remembering only the last two. How many Nigerians remember them? For that matter, can the Commander-In-Chief, C-I-C, remember their names? The truth be told: they are quickly forgotten – even in Aso Rock.
Braimah’s death however, points to how the nation’s leaders contribute to their deaths. He jumped into the tank with full expectations that it was in good condition. Tanks are two-edged swords; they are devastating when they work; they become deadly traps if anything goes wrong. It would have taken Braimah less than the time it has taken you to read this sentence to realize that he has made the last mistake on earth. Why did the tank fail to respond and perhaps save, not only his life, but the situation? In any other well-governed nation, a major enquiry would have been underway to answer the question.
What followed a few days after is even more revealing of the insincerity of the tears.
744 BANDITS GLAMORISED – A DIRTY SLAP IN THE FACE
“Doesn’t anybody on this team know how to play this game?” – US Baseball Coach after his team lost the seventeenth game in a row (1970s)
So many blunders have been committed by the FG, Army Chiefs and the National Security Advisers to Presidents to warrant that question. There must be a method to the discernible madness which only those making important decisions know about. I might not have gone far in school, but, confusion is the mildest word to express the bewildering measures governments have been taking since B/Haram first emerged; followed by herdsmen as nationwide terrorists.
A few days after shedding their crocodile tears over Braimah and others, the same FG and top military brass was shaking hands with 744 bandits, called repentant, and celebrating their return to their communities with uniforms and cash in their pockets.
Nigerians should have expected that open slap in the faces of the men in uniform. Earlier, the Chief of Defence Staff had called the bandits “prodigal sons” and the National Security Adviser regarded them as “our brothers”. With such warped mindsets at the top, coupled with Matawalle’s admission that N900 million was paid to terrorists, when he was Governor of Zamfara State, is there any wonder that those unfortunate boys are being betrayed by those they should trust? The real prodigal son wasted his own money; bandits waste other peoples’ lives. And, no real brother kills members of his family.
RAMS OR SCHOOL FEES: GREATEST DILEMMA OF 2026
“An ethical choice is seldom a selection between right and wrong, but, a choice in the grey area of right” – Daniel H Sweet, 1975, VBQ p 50.
In my article penultimate week: ‘Nigerian festivals turned to funerals since 2015’, the point was made that as we mark the four annual festivals – two Islamic and two Christian – we no longer worry about feasting. Instead everybody is concerned about terrorists striking on the day of merriment. I deliberately held back another reason why there is no more joy in those festivals – especially since 2015.
Increasing poverty nationwide has made it impossible for most young families, with kids still in school, from participating fully in celebrations. Among the groups I spend time with are young men in that category. Most are self-employed; while the rest are civil servants. Something unprecedented has happened this year. The ram killing festival is expected around the second week of May. Ram prices are over the roof. At about the same time, school fees, for the third term are due. Fees have skyrocketed. Usually, by now at least half of the members would have bought rams. That was bad enough. Virtually all of them are faced with the same dilemma – buy ram or pay school fees?
It is a heart-wrenching decision for those who have, hitherto, measured their social worth in terms of doing both. One young man, at a watering hole, where few now buy drinks, voiced their collective pains. “How do I tell my children that there will be no ram this year or their school fees will not be paid?”
Certainly, our lives have fundamentally changed for the worse in many respects since 2015; and there is little hope for relief any time soon.
“Be careful what you ask for; you might get it and not like it.” That was a sage’s advice.
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