Nigerian soldiers do not only protect Nigerian territory against foreign attacks. They work day and night, risking their lives, to put an end to insurgency within the country, and they are always at the forefront in combating the other criminal elements that have made Nigeria a terrible country to live in.
Insecurity in Nigeria is overwhelmingly challenging. It is the reason the present administration of President Tinubu is, undoubtedly, a failed regime.
If statistics could be personified, we could safely say they are tired of keeping records of Nigerians who, on a daily basis, lose their lives to insecuity. Our soldiers are not spared. They are killed by ruthless, callous and bloodthirsty bandits, as if they were not well trained in the profession of warfare, or the art of war.
We cannot blame the soldiers. The truth is that our military men are well trained. However, some political forces are allegedly working behind the scenes to sabotage their efforts to nip the menace of insecurity in the bud.
It is common to read about how our gallant men were killed by bandits. This is often supported with visual proof of how they were killed. It is always a terrifying scene to behold. Despite the ugly spectacle, the narrow chance of survival as military personnel, and the unfavourable political atmosphere in which they operate, we still have soldiers who will not trade anything for professionalism. One of them is Private Utim Terwase, a soldier who refused a bribe of ₦500,000 offered to him by a kidnapper.
Soldiers in Nigeria, except for the few commissioned officers in the top echelon, are among the most impoverished professionals in the country. Among the rank and file, the pay is very poor. Until the recent increment by Tinubu, the least paid soldier, a private, reportedly got as little as ₦49,000 a month. Those who allege that our security officers extort motorists should take note. This is not to justify extortion. It is only to emphasise why some are compelled, by necessity, to do so in order to survive.
That is why Utim Terwase must be celebrated. As a private, he is among the least paid soldiers in Nigeria. Yet he rejected a bribe of ₦500,000. Terwase was said to have refused to accept the ₦500,000 offered to him by a suspected kidnapper to secure his release after he had apprehended him in Plateau State. While the suspect was trying to escape, Terwase reportedly apprehended him.
This happened in a country where some believe, rightly or wrongly, that there is a sinister collaboration, an unholy alliance, between our security officers and bandits in the expansive and booming industry that kidnapping has become. With Terwase, one should have a rethink.
The Punch and other newspapers, report that the Nigerian Army rewarded Terwase with ₦500,000 for turning down the alleged bribe from the suspected kidnapper. He was rewarded with the same amount he refused to take to compromise his duty. In this excruciating economy, which has turned many hitherto innocent and responsible people into criminals, Private Terwase chose to be different. Because of the hardship in the country, it is safe to say that many Nigerians, if not most Nigerians, would compromise if they found themselves in a similar situation.
What Private Terwase did is exactly what is expected of military personnel: discipline, commitment, loyalty and patriotism. At the presentation of the monetary reward, Terwase was commended with the following tribute: “The soldier’s conduct reflects the highest standards of military professionalism, loyalty and commitment to duty expected of personnel of the Nigerian Army.”
This column is also a tribute to him. His patriotic act should not be ignored, and cannot be ignored. I suspect Terwase is a Tiv name. I have many colleagues and students who are Tiv. I should have asked them what the name means, but I decided to do what academics do.
I searched, rather than asked, for what Terwase means. I was lucky to stumble on a 2019 journal article titled “Names as Repositories of Worldview: Empirical Evidence from the Morphological and Semantic Analysis of Tiv Personal Names.” It was published in the International Journal of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 6, No. 4. There, on page 103, I found the meaning of Terwase. It means assisted or helped by God. This is how the author of the article, Prof. Titus Terver Udu, a professor of English Language Education at Benue State University, Makurdi, translates it.
In that article, Professor Udu wrote: “There seems to be a consensus viewpoint that the primary reason for assigning names to people, places and things is to give them identity” (p. 100).
I agree with Professor Udu. Terwase has just confirmed that. He was given a name, and the name has become his identity. His name is God’s help and he was really helped by God to act professionally when many people would have acted differently. Let me repeat it: if not for God’s help, a private, the lowest-ranked soldier, could not have overcome the temptation of ₦500,000. If he had not withstood the temptation with stoic determination, he would have compromised by oiling his palms with blood money.
I do not want to mention any name. There are certain people in Nigeria who pronounce “Tiv” as “thief.” They do not know the difference, or are rather careless in pronunciation. Terwase has further shown that a Tiv is not a thief. If a Tiv were a thief, an exchange of notes would have occurred between the arrested kidnapper and Terwase.
While the Nigerian Army did well by rewarding Terwase with a like sum, it can be even more generous by granting him permission to further his education under military sponsorship, if he is willing and if age is still on his side. A private who displayed this level of professionalism deserves to become a commissioned officer. With people like Terwase, there is hope for Nigeria and Nigeria would be in safe hands. But is Terwase an exception or the norm among our military men? I leave the answer to readers.
Ultimately, our gallant men deserve better treatment.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
