Nigeria Times

By Kolawole Abe

It is remarkable that our patriotic military chiefs continue to give their best even in the face of these disincentives. Well before the progress made by the international coalition against ISIS, the Nigerian military and security agencies led by The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, had made a great progress against Boko Haram and its affiliates.
Many successes has been recorded under his leadership as he has been steadfast in the discharge of his duty, and providing aid to civil authority. The military has also flushed Boko Haram out of its operational base in Camp Zero, Sambisa Forest, and have also kept the terrorists out of the many towns and villages they have tried to recapture.
Report has it that, internal security in Nigeria has improved drastically from where we were in 2015 when Buratai took over command of the Nigerian Army. However, we
recognize that there are potent threats that require the military to continually review their operations. The Nigeria Army has witnessed a lot of reorganization and redeployment in a bid to improve their overall operational responsiveness and professionalism. In recent time, he approved the redeployment of some field and operational commanders in order to inject new ideas in the command and control structure in various Nigeria Army operations across the country.
These are achievements that speak to the commitment of the military getting the job done for which one should ordinarily commend their sacrifices but for the fact that it is a job they willingly signed up for. They kept pressing on, holding the memories of their fallen heroes. Amidst brutal resistance in fighting the Nation just cause against insurgency, their resilience remained high.
We are not oblivious of the relentless effort, persistence and scarifices the chief of army staff (COAS) General Buratai has kept taking, in order to combat insurgency and banditry. But it is so regrettable and unfortunate that the citizens being shielded from all these dangers has given themselves out cheaply to be coaxed by politicians who are not happy with the success of our country on the way against insurgency.
In bid to detract the COAS, supports are being given to bandits to fuel the matters of terrorism, which are being masked as “Insurgency.” They fall easily for the bait given to them without reasoning beyond the monetary benefits they are being offered.
For the unwary, it is been misinterpreted as “the Boko haram groups are being hardy to an extent that it is able to dismay the Nigerian military.” The reality is however that the ability of the terrorists to regroup each time they are decimated should alarm all law-abiding citizens. The group’s seeming resilience should raise questions about the nature of support it is getting to put up such defiance. This support unfortunately is from home and abroad, some unscrupulous Nigerians and their foreign collaborators. They have masterminded this show of shame as a diet to feeding their selfish and wicked interest. They being among the greater beneficiaries of special and classified security treatment enjoyed from the effort of the military, still have the audacity to publicly discredit the ambiguous effort of General Buratai.
Having ran out of strategies, they resolved into using fund embezzlement and terrorist alliance as a tool in distracting him from getting focused.
There have been several reports about individuals, groups and organizations being closet supporters of Boko Haram. These distractions are often packaged as well-intentioned interventions by activists and NGOs, which creates bandwagon effect as people are inclined to trust the positions expressed by these opinion molders.
Report has it that some citizens have been paid to be social activists to pull down the military institution, all in the bid to discredit them is therefore highly uncalled for and should have no place in our country.
Little do we know about the effect of the strategies of these detractors, because the reality is however that the seeming interventions are unnecessary distraction elements that will reverse recent gains made on the war against insurgency. Each time such paid activists criticize the military, they therefore undermine the counter-insurgency efforts. In many instances, the damage done goes beyond the now, because as Nigeria’s foreign partners have sometimes referenced the activities of such activists as justifications for withholding military cooperation to Nigeria or to block crucial arms deals that would contribute to the anti-terror war efforts.
Still, the COAS has remained unperturbed and not dismayed by the futile efforts being thrown at him by his detractors. He has always been keeping the wheel of the fight against insurgency moving, and not permitting their distractions to move him in his line of duty.
The army chief and leader of the counter-insurgency operations in Nigeria, Lt.Gen. TY Buratai has not given the insurgents ample operational laxity in the Northeast where they prided in false invincible power and strength. This has remained a pain in their daunting efforts, and has reaffirmed their continuous futility as ever before. These bad eggs in human skins need to separated and broken off from the good ones, because they are a big cancer to the nation as a whole. When not weeded out, they become a menace that will bring ills, misfortune and setback to our dear country.
It is worthy of note that those who deliberately manipulate facts for the purpose of sabotaging the military should be mindful that only a thin line separates what they see to be harmless mischief and commission of crimes.
For the sake of tranquillity in the Nation, we advise detractors and their agents to leave the Chief of Army Staff alone, so that he can give maximum concentration to his works. He has been tried, and has proven himself beyond all doubts as an exceptional leader, who is ever ready to give optimal discharge of his duty any time the clarion call to action is being heard. He will never compromise for terrorists to take over the country, because he holds the interest of the country very dear to his heart. God Bless Nigeria.

Abe is former spokesman, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

By Thomas Uzah PhD

It will be twisted logic and misplaced sense of judgment of the exact reality to assert that the Nigerian Army is having good times in infrastructural provisions under the supervision of its current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai. It is more appropriate to say, the Nigerian Army has landed in its best of times on infrastructural provisions and exceptional welfare packages under the guardianship of the COAS, Gen. Buratai.

Before the reality of the leadership of Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari, discerning Nigerians knew several other salient reasons accounted for the persistent open anger expressed by soldiers in the warfront. The persistent mutinous actions by troops at the frontlines fighting Boko Haram was partly attributable to the absolute neglect and defacement of the infrastructural image and welfare of officers and soldiers.

Soldiers experienced and endured dilapidated Barracks, acute shortage of office and residential accommodations, poor state of Army Guest Houses and camps throughout the country. Some Army Barracks had not tested any flavour of renovation or rehabilitation since Nigeria’s first post-independence era Defence Minister, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu built the structures in the early sixties. History has recorded him as a leader who massively built new Barracks and renovated old ones.

Like Ribadu; Gen. Buratai has carved an enviable niche for himself in the new Millennium as an Army Chief who has generously built new Barracks for the Army and massively renovated old ones in virtually all parts of the country. African proverb says, a chic which would grow into a cock is known the very it is hatched.

So, Gen. Buratai started exuding the signs of a genuine leader, reformer, a positive minded personality and charismatic goal-getter on all fronts the first day he assumed office as Nigeria’s COAS. He toured Army formations and units across the country; bemoaned the competitively dilapidated state of Army Barracks and facilities, whilst he silently took notes on the urgent interventions each of the Barracks required to transform into a habitable dwelling place for soldiers.

The Army boss believes in the philosophy that a soldier deserves the best in peacetime because he faces death every minute in wartimes. Though, Gen. Buratai sauntered unto the leadership of the Nigerian Army at the time Nigeria was plunged into economic crunch. But the reality of meagre budgetary votes and insufficient funding of the Army to date did not deter Gen. Buratai from putting smiles on the faces of officers and soldiers.

With a supportive Commander-In-Chief, President Buhari, Gen. Buratai has propelled the Nigerian Army on an unprecedented and incredible structural expansion and physical development in the last five years. He corrected and normalized what appeared to have been an intentionally institutionalized structural decay, deformities and degeneration of almost three decades in barely five years of his leadership.

And the real good news is that the Army Chief has not felt he has done enough to assuage the depravities his colleagues’ yet. Therefore, he hungers to accomplish more in impactful legacies for the Nigerian Army. And to properly uplift Army personnel welfare, Gen, Buratai has starched an extra mile to partner with private estate developers to berth his vision of normalizing the accommodation deficits, which hitherto plagued the Nigerian Army for decades.

Reputed as a focused leader, with a functional mind, Gen. Buratai has conceptualized and delivered his development agenda for the Nigerian Army under the broad divisions of policy frameworks of NA Property Limited and NA Welfare Limited by Guarantee, Army Post-Service Housing Scheme and Nigeria Army Farm and Ranches among a motley of others.

Gen. Buratai is a man of taste and elegance. And one unique feature of Buratai’s touch on structural transformation of the Army is that he has phased out the Lord Lugard’s structures which dotted Army formations/ Barracks and replaced them with modern architectural masterpieces. And the new buildings are also an aesthetic consummation of the dynamism of architecture’s latest wonders of awful edifices. They are a sight to behold everywhere. He replaced obsolete amenities, facilities and equipment in the Army Barracks and units with state-of-the art latest models.

The establishment of two new Army Divisions by Gen. Buratai in conformity with the Presidential directive on new Nigerian Army Order of Battle (ORBAT) is not the most cheering news. But it is the pleasant shock that the new Nigerian Army Divisions 6 and 8 in Port Harcourt, Rivers state and Monguno, Borno state are fully operationalized. And it is because the Army Chief worked assiduously to get all the needed structures ready within record time.

Gen. Buratia has replicated the same portrait in the new and novel Nigerian Army University Biu (NAUB); the first Nigerian Army War College, the Nigerian Army Aviation School as well as the renovation and construction of new buildings at the Nigerian Army School of Artillery in Kachia, Kaduna State. He renovated and modernized the Office of the Military Secretary at the Army Headquarters Abuja; built and equipped the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) Abuja, which is serving the dual purpose of an expansive office accommodation and modern resource venue for workshops and seminars for soldiers.

Still in Abuja, the fanciful modern structures at the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment at Giri, consisting of new 150 flats of accommodation in the Barracks accommodating 150 families of officers and soldiers is legendary in the recent history of the Nigerian Army. Okene in Kogi State has also hosted a new Army Forward Operations Base’s (FOB), and military barracks.

The testimony also reflected at the newly built headquarters of the 331 Artillery Tactical Forward Operation Base (FOB) in Buratai in Biu LGA of Borno state. The structural development inclination of Gen. Buratai started quite early in his leadership. By 2016, the renovation of 10 blocks of 30 flats each at the Maxwell Khobe Cantonment, Jos was completed.

The development streak descended on the 3 Brigade Kano, where new blocks of multiple flats of accommodation for soldiers in the Bukavu Barracks, Kano have been completed. It amazingly displays two newly constructed blocks of 24 flats each and five renovated blocks of 12 flats each. Still under Gen. Buratai’s leadership, the Nigerian Army renovated and remodeled accommodation for 120 soldiers in Ribabu Cantonment and Dalet Barracks, under 1 Division (1 DIV) Nigerian Army, Kaduna, comprising of flashy 120 flats.

And the Nigerian Army’s partnership with Betonic West Limited has launched a N7.5 billion Army Post-Service Housing project in Otukpo and Ohimini LGAs of Benue state. The same rewarding partnership with Belemaoil Producing Limited, has earned the Army a 3-story building containing 30 flats at the 16 Brigade Headquarters, Camp Buratai, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Gen. Buratai has established a dozen Army Forward Operations Bases (FOBs) throughout Nigeria with all the necessary facilities.

Quite impactfully too, the leadership of the Nigerian Army by Gen. Buratai has rehabilitated and re-equipped all existing Army hospitals, medical facilities and Referral hospitals. The aim is to give the best medical care to “Wounded Soldiers in Action” (WIA) as wels of families of Army personnel. He has finalized this vision by building a new Referral Hospitals, located in Maiduguri, Borno state.

And work is earnestly in progress at the new Army Referral Hospital, located in Abakaliki, Ebony state to make healthcare delivery more accessible and affordable to soldiers, their families and even members of the host communities. Gen. Buratai is indeed, the Nigerian Army’s Mr. Infrastructure. Even at the risk of flattery, it is more accurate to say the Nigerian has never experienced these robust structural developments and expansions in recent times as spearheaded by Gen. Buratai. It is precisely, the best of times for the Nigerian Army.

Therefore, after Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, no COAS since post -independence Nigeria has rapaciously upgraded structures of the Nigerian Army like Gen. Buratai. He has evidently done so much to better the lot of his colleagues more than anyone else.

Gen. Buratai represents the changing face of Nigerian Army’s structural beauty and development revolution in Nigeria. Nigerian Army missed a leader in Gen. Buratai at the time Nigeria bubbled in excess wealth, but with no committed leaders. Had Gen. Buratai climbed the ladder of leadership at such glorious times, Nigerian Army would have been a perfect example of another El Dorado in Nigeria.

Uzah PhD is Head of Department, Mass Communication, Kwararafa University Wukari.

By Mohammed Zanna

At the face of “glaring truth,” false peddlers will still arise among the people. These are people that seek not after the country’s interests, but after their own selfish gains. They scream for proofs and evidence at any news that indicates Boko haram recording casualties.Their delight is in hearing the victory of boko haram insurgency and not its defeat. The increase in the number of boko Haram victims arouse their interest in order to deliberate on how incompetent the President has been in tackling matters of insecurity.

Early this year, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt Gen TY Buratai relocated fully to the North East where he is overseeing and directing the overall operations in the theatre and other Nigerian Army operations across the country. Prior to his relocation, the COAS had been on operational tour to troops’ locations in the North East Theatre of operation since April.

Despite the success of the Nigerian Army in killing and disarming more than 3000 suspected Boko Haram fighters in military operations in north-east Nigeria, they were accused of overstating enemy casualties. They went further to release images of vehicles and weaponry captured from Boko Hara Niger, Chad and Cameroon military coalition with Nigeria to help combat the threat.
These same charlatans claimed that they will all a fun show from media houses.

Even when there are no claims of responsibility for recent massacre, these people are swift to put forward that the assault bore the hallmark of the dreaded Boko Haram armed group.

Contrary to their predictable assertions and opinions, Governor Babagana Zulum indicated clearly that President Muhammadu Buhari has still performed better in handling Borno’s security challenges. This did not sit well with them, and they have been expressing indignation at the governors’ statement.

Zulum said that the years before Buhari came into power; numbers of local government were no-go-areas. Insurgents were so bold to attack and take over military facilities like the army barrack. In fact, it was not possible to move a few kilometres out of Maiduguri. But now, things are safe, and lives are more secured than it used to be.
Zulum said “from statewide statistics on affairs in the 27 local government areas since 2011, the fact is that despite the recent happenings in Borno state, the security situation in Borno state and indeed that of the entire North East Sub-Borno region is still far better under Buhari, and this is based on records. There were daily attacks and bomb blasts I many parts of Maiduguri, the most populated part of the state, but all of these have stopped under Buhar. These are the records and no one can dispute these records.”

Borno state has been the target of bombings in the past, blamed on Boko Haram since it widened its brutal insurgency. Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed during the group’s campaign for a breakaway Islamic state. All these attacks have ceased in the past five years, and this is due to the approach and tactics taken by President Muhammadu Buhari since he got into power.

The statement of the Borno governor has been found to be TRUE. The attacks by terrorists groups have been random and largely restricted to villages in northern Borno. There are others that have been close to the capital, Maiduguri but the terrorist group has not been able to attack the Northeast like it did in the past. Definitely, records have supported Governor Zulum’s statement that churches and mosques have been hardly attacked and that no major attack has taken place in the capital. Boko Haram used to bomb churches, mosques and markets, but all that has been halted now.

To put a perspective to it, we can recall that in the past many attacks on churches and mosques especially at the end of the year use to be a reoccurring incident since the advent of Boko Haram insurgency. These were times, families were scared to go to their farms, service in churches won’t hold without the presence of military men, people were always careful to gather in their large numbers for festivity, and many homes were lay desolate due to incessant attacks from this deadly group.

From few records of Boko Haram attacks in the few years back;

Mountain of Fire bomb blast that happened on 25th December, 2011.

The church in kano and Maiduguri that was attacked by Boko Haram gunmen, which took the lives of at least 19 people around April, 2012.

A Sucide bomber that detonated himself at a church in Jos, were 6 worshippers were killed on the 25th February, 2012.

St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger that was bombed on the 25th of December, 2011.

On 19th of January 2013, the Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero was attacked. Two of his sons were injured, while his driver and three guards were killed.

Boko Haram attacked the heavily fortified Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri, freeing comrades from a detention facility. –March 14, 2014
Nine persons were killed when Boko Haram attacked two offices of ThisDay newspaper in Abuja and Kaduna

Boko Haram attacked a Military School near Kano, Killing four officers on the 15th of December 2011

Boko Haram attacked President Buhari’s convoy in July 23 2014, along Ali Akilu Road Kawo-Kaduna at about 2:30pm. 82 people, including his personal relations and security aides were killed.

A sucide bombimg that killed 15 shites in Yobe state on the 3rd of November 2014

Not forgetting the 56 people that were killed in an attack on a Maiduguri mosque on the 12th of Augusut, 2013.

Futhermore, we should not quickly forget the era when they make bold attacks on different regions even after they have publicized it on media, they make their threats open to notable figures in the country and dared them not to move to places where they have placed restrictions.

Who do you think would have known it better than Zulum himself? Definitely, there is no one. This is a man that has seen and witnessed many attacks caused by this group. He is a man that speaks the truth and seeks after his own people’s security. He might not know all, nor fully understand the approaches to fighting the insurgency and military tactics and so on. But one thing we cannot take away from Professor Zulum is his desire to ensure the stability of peace and Unity is returned to every part of Borno. He has worked and spent a great considerable time of his life in Maiduguri for him to have known how safe and secured the state has been, overtime. He is a son of the soil, and he will keep fighting insurgency.

Governor Zulum is right to say that President Buhari has done better on tackling insecurity, and we can boldly say that the President is ever working and our Military are never relenting. Only in a matter of time would insurgency no longer be seen in the sand of time.

Zanna is a counter-terrorism analyst and wrote from Maiduguri.

By Philip Agbese

“Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.” -Karl von Clausewitz

In Nigeria, audacity in leadership also requires a great dosage of defiant courage. It is because in this part of the world, majority of the people are more atoned to failed leadership predominantly. It sounds odd, but such persons delight in dubiously exploiting failed leaders for personal benefits at the detriment of the whole system.

Therefore, in Nigeria, it is akin to a taboo to display positive leadership. The leader must possess enough content of courage and audacity to break even against dark forces haunting him. The few spoilers, recruit and pay campaigners’ to publicly, malign, distract and outrightly intimidate into submission, leaders with positive disposition, by deploying false narratives and malicious critiques deliberately to dwarf his verifiable good impacts.

It seems to the greatest burden and cross of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai who has found himself in the midst of devouring wolves now. In the last five years, the Army Chief has deposited in bold imprints in leadership of the Nigerian Army (NA). A soldier gifted with audacious courage; he has repressed the darkest of forces to assert his legacies.

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill extrapolated; “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” So, Gen. Buratai has courageously proved himself as an exceptional military strategist, tactician, reformist, innovator and a military leadership guru. He has audaciously asserted his mark of positive leadership against all odds and conquered Nigeria’s anti-development predators.

These enemies of Nigeria and foes of Gen. Buratai have stopped at nothing to ply their trade and activate such passions, the antics of distractions or demean him enough to taint his rising profile. Therefore, they hate the association of Gen. Buratai with the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Gen. Buratai “came; he saw and he conquered.”

But excitingly, history is an impartial arbiter. And like the printed word, history does not lie and it is permanent. Definitely, it would be fair to Gen. Buratai at the appropriate time. It is the general anticipation of the numerous admirers of Gen. Buratai.

But audaciously, the Army boss has conquered the stormy storms and subdued the volley of forces of sabotage and distractions to significantly transform the previously neglected institution of Nigerian Army within a short time. He has proved his mettle as the unconquerable warrior of the trenches in fighting Boko Haram insurgents/ and ISWAP terrorists and a development czar.

Terrorists sponsors and sympathizers have found Gen. Buratai, the hardest nut to crack in the bloody campaigns of the extremist religious sects terrorizing Nigeria. He is the nemesis of armed bandits in the country and insurrectionists like IPOB or their replicas in the configuration of armed militants. Ethnic warlords and armed militias are mesmerized or they have never encountered this dutifully obstinate Army General, who is extremely very difficult to conquer or compromise like Gen. Buratai.

Nevertheless, where Gen. Buratai has recorded confounding impacts in his leadership of the Nigerian Army is in innovations, reformations and repositioning of a once decrepit Army into a proud force and shinning star in the African continent and beyond. He is a beautiful bride whose usefulness to humanity has no end and the signs are visible.

He has launched the Nigerian Army on many fronts of firsts! Whoever believed Nigerian Army would ever upheld the dignity and human rights of Nigerians in its military operations? Whoever contemplated in even in dreams that Nigerian Army would one day subordinate itself to civil authority or “bloody civilians” to the extent of accepting court summons and appearing in civil courts to answer to allegations of professional misconduct by soldiers levelled against them by aggrieved civilians?

But Gen. Buratai has solved the problem easily by establishing the Human Rights Desks at the Nigerian Army Headquarters (AHQs). It is replicated in all major Army Divisions and most times, in locations outside the Barracks and very accessible to potential complainants. Noticeably, the loud noises by human rights organizations’, both indigenous and foreign on alleged human rights violations perpetrated by soldiers have vanished incredibly. It is just a tip of the many innovations, Gen. Buratai’s leadership has birthed in the institution of the Army

Most host communities of Nigerian Army formations and units are truly experiencing for the first time, the generosity of soldiers in discharging its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects in healthcare, electricity, roads, bridges, major culverts, water and many others. It has immensely improved Civil/Military relations. Before Gen. Buratai’s leadership, CSR policy of the Nigerian Army were only embedded in Army Laws. But he has activated and functionalized it for the first time in the history of Nigerian Army.

However, critics incurably blind to sight reality, can also be told by their trusted confidants that for the first time, Nigerian Army is a proud owner of its own university (Nigerian Army University Biu (NAUB), while Gen. Buratai is leading the Army. It has started training both security personnel and civilians in various strategic disciplines.

These baseless persecutors of Gen. Buratai would also be told that in the 157 years of the existence of Nigerian Army, the specialized first Nigerian Army War College is established under the tenure of Gen. Buratai; It is same for the Nigerian Aviation School and a similar policy, formalization of the consecration of the novel Nigerian Army Female Corps to answer to gender-based issues in operations of the Army in fighting insurgencies in the country is achieved. This unique innovation terminated the blistering reign of female bombers in Nigeria.

With two new Army Divisions, and two new Army Referral Hospitals to offer tertiary medical attention to soldiers and their families, including members of host communities, and scores of Army Forward Operations Bases (FOBs) in instant compliance with the Army’s new Order of Battle (ORBAT) as signposts of Gen. Buratai’s stewardship are beyond mindless reproach by professional haters and wailers.

Gen. Buratai’s reforms and innovations cannot be exhausted in one piece. But who has forgotten that for the first time, a Nigerian Army Chief has sourced and succeeded in using 100 percent local contents or materials and indigenous military technologists, to manufacture hi-tech, world class combat weapons, (such as MRAP Ezugwu) Army uniforms and kits, which are very useful in counter-insurgency operations? The Army Chief is the first to introduce digital Army uniforms with sensors to send signals to the nearest military base if a soldier in the frontlines is distressed.

Undeniably, Gen. Buratai is an endowed and enigmatic leader. How he has succeeding in catapulting and elevating the Nigerian Army to enviable heights, others struggled to eternity, but failed remains a mystery. Manifestly, he is an intellectual dynamite and workaholic soldier, whose appointment as COAS was not by accident. President Muhammadu Buhari knew the reasons for anointing him as both leader of the Army and counter-insurgency operations.

And he has not disappointed President Buhari by transforming the support to his leadership by Mr. President to fruits of legacies for the Army. Gen. Buratai is a soldier who came at the right time to conquer an evil against his country and humanity. He has dispensed this assignment with splendid mastery.

Gen. Buratai is known for brutal frankness. No circumstances compels him to tell a lie for any reason. When soldiers slacked at the warfront and allowed occasional Boko Haram attacks, he publicly blamed subordinate Commanders for dereliction of duty and cautioned them to sit-up.

When he relocated to the Northeast theatre of war to lead the battle from the front in April 2020, where he spent two months, Gen. Buratai who sensed a few soldiers who dread battles; and influence others with such negative thoughts to willingly chicken out of the Army because Nigerian Army of today has no room for the faint-hearted.

Gen. Buratai is described by even very senior officers of the Army as the best military strategist today. Counter-terrorism operations have yielded worthwhile progress because of the countless strategies he introduced which have nicely countered insurgents. The introduction of the Motorbike Battalions, Special Female Corps, Super Camp Strategy, cyberspace warfare and lots more have changed the negative narratives of insurgents as invincible forces in Nigeria. He is always weeks ahead of insurgents/terrorists plans. There is no doubt that leader of counter-insurgency operations has coordinated the war against insurgency perfectly so far.

Therefore, his recent statement that insurgency might last for another 20 years in Nigeria was roughly misinterpreted by a section of the society for their selfish reasons. HTe facts were generously twisted to malign Gen. Buratai and portray him as incompetent. Many alien interpretations were imputed into it and some of the perpetual critics even insinuated that the statement was Gen. Buratai’s tacit acceptance of helplessness over counter-insurgency operations and renewed the malicious calls for his sack.

But the Army Chief knows the matrix, character and intricacies of asymmetrical terrorists’ operations better than his traducers. Like the COAS asserted, terrorism has been quashed in Nigeria; what is reigning now is indeed insurgency and it will remain with Nigeria for a little longer. It’s because the massive brainwashing and indoctrination of people into the sect has a history which dates back to 50 or more years. Such phenomenon does not dissipate in a jiffy.

No matter his deliberate persecution, Gen. Buratai gathers his momentum to trudge on from Winston Churchill’s advice; “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Indubitably, the COAS is a fearless patriot who will stop at nothing but to say the truth as it is, no matter whose ox is gored.

Agbese is a human right activist based in the United Kingdom.