Former president Festus Mogae used to defend his defence spending by referring to the military as an insurance policy. According to the Oxford educated politician, you just have to keep up with your subscriptions and one day will be one day. That insurance policy will one day work in your favour in your hour of need.
The president was right. The analogy of the insurance policy goes further than that as there are different policies on offer in the market. And some of these policies only serve the interests of the insurer and not the policy holder. In any case, we all have to approach every policy with a clear knowledge of the fact that insurance is a business and not a charity. But some policies are so bad.
Borrowing from the words of Mogae, it is time for us to assess the kind of policy that we as a country have and whether that works for us. It is now time that we take a thorough assessment of our military and see if it serves our needs as nation. Time and again the military does its own reviews and this is why the BDF has transformed over the years.
One of the commanders who brought real change at our military establishment has been Lieutenant General Fisher. He structured the military in a way that it allowed for that institutional natural growth which at the same time served the interests of the country.
General Fisher came up with the idea of setting up independent commands with different operational capabilities. The Ground Forces Command became the main battle group supported by the Air Arm Command to enhance its fighting capabilities and as well as providing for its logistical needs in the field.
A unique command was set up to specifically look after the logistical needs of the fighting forces. The Defence Logistics Command was a brilliant creation but it’s a pity that it has been allowed to collapse and this all out of selfish ambition from certain senior officers. The unit was later reduced in size and the leadership was equally cut to size as it was later to be commanded by a brigadier and no longer a major general.
The biggest problem that our military has always faced in regard to restructuring is that individual officers have always out of selfish ambition positioned themselves ideally whenever they were given the task of reviewing the organizational structure. At the same time, some commanders have vindictively come to enact changes that so badly hurt the organization while they served to spite their foes within the system.
The Defence Logistics Command was a brilliant creation that served the needs of the country so well. There is a book authored by Brigadier Julian Thompson that I so very much recommend for every officer in the military. It is titled; Logistics: The Lifeblood of War. This book will transform the reader’s perspective about the science of logistics. Thompson shares his personal experience in the Falk Islands War of 1982.
The country is now going through a crisis situation. This is not local to here only, this is a worldwide problem of the current pandemic. It is now time for every country to see its insurance policy come to maturity as Mogae would call it. Botswana has handsomely invested in her military and there has been severe criticism for this approach by our neighbours particularly.
Over the years, BDF has a healthy logistics fleet. 10th Squadron is the home of the military’s logistics fleet. This has come a long way with very humble beginnings. This squadron started off with a small fleet of Britten-Norman Defender (Islander) and now has several of the Hercules C-130 aircraft in its fleet. This is the envy of every air force around the world.
With a military so well equipped logistically, the country is in a rather enviable position. Logistics has been a challenge for moving vaccines and storing them securely for the countries that already have them. Our country like any other is in dire need of vaccines and they are a rare commodity in the market.
In a scenario where the State of Israel offers ten African countries and opportunity to purchase vaccines from their pharmaceutical companies with a limited stock of about 50 million doses, Botswana would have an edge in the procurement of such. Military pilots can be able to leave the country for Israel within a four hour notice. They can reach Tel Aviv within twelve hours and just spend one night there to allow for loading. That means the country would be in a position to have its vaccines within 100 hours.
It would take at the least seven days for a commercial courier to bring us the much needed supplies while in the meantime lives are lost. The good thing about the military is that they have been training and getting themselves ready for such eventualities. Military training exercises are expensive and they are meant for readiness for such a time as this.
With the arrival of the COVAX consignment, facilities are ready for the safe keeping of the vaccines. In this case, there would be no need for the Ministry of Health to start floating a tender for the storage and security of the much needed supplies. The soldiers would provide security.
The military is the only institution in the world that has full capabilities to run a country in a case where there is a collapse of government. Under the current scenario, if two thirds of parliamentarians and cabinet ministers succumb to the corona virus (God forbid), it is the military that can take over and govern this country diligently. It’s not about issues of firepower, but it’s all about readiness and professionalism.
The military anywhere in the world has a myriad of professionals within its establishment. It runs across from law, medicine, and engineering to social work. But all these men and women in uniform are taught for fight and to endure every condition that they may be faced with in life.