The recruitment of 400 members of the Civilian Joint Task Force in Borno State into the Nigerian Army has pitted prominent socio-cultural groups representing different regions of the country against one another on the proprietary or otherwise of the move.
While the Arewa Consultative Forum is fully in support of the decision, groups such as Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, the Middle Belt Forum and the Pan Niger Delta Forum are against it on the premise that only persons from a particular area of the country are recruited into the Army.
The Nigerian Army had on Wednesday absorbed 400 members of the civilian JTF into its fold to assist in prosecuting the war against Boko Haram terrorists.
The men, among who are hunters, are being enlisted into the Nigerian Army’s supper camp strategy in Borno State, the worst hit by the insurgency.
Governor Babagana Zulum, who commissioned the 400 men in the presence of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, said they formed the first batch to be recruited by the Army.
According to him, other CJTF members will be joining the Army soon.
The CJTF emerged in 2013 to support the security forces in the fight against Boko Haram and to protect local communities from attacks by insurgents and was formalised by the Borno State Government through a collaboration with the military.
The CJTF members were recruited, trained, kitted, deployed and paid monthly allowances to motivate them.
However, reacting to the news, the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, through its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, accused the Federal Government of regionalising the Army.
He said, “There is no other name to call this than regionalisation of the Army for a section of the country without necessarily saying so. The rest of the country is not daft about what is going on. There is no way you can build confidence in national institutions when you continue to paint them in sectional colours. And these are the same people, who said the South-West could not do Amotekun a few months ago.
“Borno is afflicted with crisis the way other sections are and we cannot turn our supposed national Army into the outfit of a section of it in addition to the sectionalism and parochialism of this regime in the last five years.”
