Nigeria has denied it before, but there is growing evidence that Abuja is hiring mercenaries for the fight against the terrorist army Boko Haram.  Hundreds of soldiers of fortune from South Africa and the former Soviet Union are operating attack helicopters and armored personnel carriers as the Nigerians retake lost territory.

The mercenaries are carrying out most of their operations at night because “they really don’t want to let people know what is going on”, according to a Nigerian government official.  A western official puts it this way:  The professionals go out under cover of darkness with night vision goggles and thrash the living hell out of Boko Haram.

“The next morning the Nigerian Army rolls in and claims success,” the unidentified western diplomat added.

At least one hired gun apparently went out during the day in Maiduguri last week, and the photo raced around the world via social media.  It shows a white male in a khaki shirt riding atop a South African-made Reva Mark III Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), right next to the machine gun.

“They are on the ground, I have seen them,” said the Nigerian official, who didn’t wish to give his name.  “They came in with much more sophisticated equipment than the military.  Thanks to their involvement the tide is turning.  I believe because of them we will witness a seismic shift.”

But while the mercenaries are helping in the short-term with the Boko Haram problem, it speaks volumes about the ineffectiveness of Nigeria’s own military during the time the terrorist took over much of the northeast for their self-declared caliphate under a bizarre interpretation of Islamic sharia law.  Nigeria’s top institutions, its government and military, have been neutered by years of corruption.

“They are subcontracting the national polity,” said leading Nigeria scholar Paul Lubeck of Johns Hopkins University.  “It’s the destitution of Nigerian nationalism.”