By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Jun 4 1997 (IPS)

There were mixed reactions here to reports of the capture of Nigerian troops in Sierra Leone and the fact that they have been sent there to reinstate elected President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, deposed by a military junta on May 25.

Reports from Freetown said 300 Nigerian soldiers had been held hostage by Sierra Leonean forces since Monday in the capital of the small West African nation. They were reportedly released later.

But most Nigerians did not believe the story. They described it as propaganda by the Sierra Leonean army which, paradoxically, was trained by Nigerian troops under a military pact signed about two years ago.

“I will feel very bad if Nigeria does not trounce Sierra Leone appropriately, especially with the lies they are telling the world now,” said embittered civil servant Mary Ogundimu. “We help them develop their country and at the end of the day, they want to take us for a ride.”

“This is the time to show some of these our neighbours that we are their big brothers,” she said.

Dismissing the reported capture of Nigerian troops, Ogundimu argued: “even in our lamest form, Sierra Leone troops cannot defeat a batallion of Nigerian soldiers, much less a combination of Nigerian, Ghanaian and Guinean troops, which are regarded as the strongest in the sub-region”.

The government has also denied the report of the capture of the Nigerian troops, who form the bulk of a West African force sent to Sierra Leone by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since the coup.

Acting Director of Defence Information, Colonel Godwin Ugbo, told reporters here that Nigerians should rather pray for the expected success of the venture, and he said that the 3,000 troops already in Freetown were doing well.

“Our troops are safe. What we heard in the news is that there are 15 casualties and that three Nigerians are involved. I cannot now confirm whether the figures are right. When we get situation reports, we will be able to confirm it,” Ugbo said.

“Nigerians should not panic about the Sierra Leone operation,” he added. “The situation is difficult because the troops participating have Nigerian contingents. We have our people there. We should pray for our troops since the whole world is supportive of our efforts to enthrone democracy. We pray for success.”

The army spokesman also noted that the intervention was not purely a Nigerian affair. “It is an ECOWAS affair. We should not make it a Nigerian operation,” he said. “It is an ECOWAS operation through its operational arm – ECOMOG (the ECOWAS Monitoring Group).”

Some Nigerians support their country’s involvement in Sierra Leone. “Nigeria is justified as a leading country in Africa and having earlier taken an initiative to restore peace in Liberia, a similar scenerio is being prevented from taking place in Sierra Leone,” said journalist Gbemi Oguntula.

“Inasmuch as Nigeria got the mandate of ECOWAS through ECOMOG, the Nigerian government is justified for the intervention to avoid political crisis because in such a crisis Nigeria will still be called upon as the leader of the sub-region to restore peace and it might be difficult then,” Oguntala told IPS.

Nigeria is West Africa’s largest nation. It also chairs ECOWAS.

However, other observers see Nigeria’s intervention as morally wrong.

“Nigeria is not justified morally to launch such an attack when it is itself governed by a soldier who has taken part in three coups in Nigeria,” Segun Odunade, a political analyst, told IPS.

“It could be defended if Nigeria was being ruled by a civilian president. However, that action has a lot of implications for Nigeria’s own transition programme,” Ogundade argued. “It means that (military leader Gen. Sani) Abacha has no choice now than to democratise whether he likes it or not. If he does not, it could lead to calls for military intervention in Nigeria too.”

Businesswoman Annita Oguchie told IPS: “If the report is true, then Nigeria is in trouble and this will be a big disgrace to us as the leading country in Africa”.

She, too, does not feel that Nigeria has the right to lead a force sent to restore democracy in another country while it has not been able to do so at home.

Abuja stands to benefit from the Sierra Leone operation, a commentator told IPS.

“If Nigeria succeeds in Sierra Leone, it will boost its image as a military regime that is set to return democracy to its own country despite pessimism over the transition programme expected to end in October 1998,” the commentator told IPS.

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