The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, has been under fire for reportedly saying that military the world over does not give information on its casualties.
Also, a fact check showed that on the contrary, it is a standard practice by government of developed countries to intimate citizens on the number of casualties during military battles.
There had been conflicting figures on the actual number of deaths in the attacks by Boko Haram on the 157 Task Force Battalion at Metele, Guzamala, Borno State.
The military, in a statement, had confirmed the attacks and condemned casualty figures published in the media. It, however, refused to give the actual number of casualties.
Adesina, during a programme on Channels TV, Politics Today backed the refusal of the government and the military to give the casualty figure.
“All over the world, the military does not or rarely discloses the figure of its casualties,” he said.
Nigerians, including Twitter users, who took up Adesina on the quote, referred him to the US, UK, French and Canadian practice of declaring casualty figures.
A check by The PUNCH showed that the United States Department of Defence, on its website, gave up-to-date information on casualty figure in different US military operations.
The last update said in Operation Iraqi Freedom (casualties that occurred between March 19, 2003, and August 31, 2010, in the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), a total of 4,410 US military men were killed.
The United Kingdom, also on the government website provided information on casualty figures.
In a 30-page PDF document, gave a breakdown on the death of the military officers, including the cause of death.
The French in particular have a dedicated website where they kept the database of military officers who died in different battles.
The Canadian government also published the names and pictures of fallen soldiers.
One Mustafa Haffysa, reminded Adesina that the President had in 2015 criticised the then government of former President Goodluck Jonathan on a similar case.
“It is unacceptable to ignore or minimise the deaths of Nigerian citizens during elections. It is heart-breaking. This must change,” Buhari had tweeted on January 13, 2015.
When contacted for clarification on the statement, Adesina did not pick his calls and had yet to respond to a text message sent to him as of press time.