Photo of Nigeria and US Army is Misleading

Misbar’s analysis of the pictures in the viral tweet shows that it is misleading as the two concepts being compared are very different from each other. A Google reverse image search of both pictures reveals that while the Nigerian army photo is that of its field signal officers and was taken from this July 9th, 2020. A tweet by Defense News Nigeria, the second image, showed a US control room from the New York Police Department’s traffic surveillance control center and was taken from this February 16, 2015, New York Daily article.

A further check reveals that the patches on the arms of the Nigerian soldiers indicate that they are on a field training exercise from the ICCS, Jaji, Kaduna with GO12 Radar Surveillance equipment. The comparison of the two field operations is outlined below. 

Both images, technically speaking, are not related in any way as every nation’s military has officials called its signals officers. They are trained in the art of transmitting communication signals between divisions, brigades, platoons, and other sections like combat, combat support arms, and services, as well as control centers where surveillance is carried out. According to todaysmilitary.com, signal intelligence officers ‘work in offices, on land, and aboard ships and may work in the field on maneuvers and military exercises’ and ‘they oversee the collection and exploitation of electromagnetic signals.’