Nigeria Times

By Idoko Ainoko

The Nigerian Army is arguably one of the best in the African continent. Its exploits have been recognized globally by the United Nations, and other entities that have has reasons to give it a pass mark.

This is indeed no mean feat in the sense that most countries regarded by the strength of its military. Constitutionally, the Army is mandated to protect the territorial integrity of the country from external aggression, as well as the preservation of its sovereignty as in the case of Nigeria. This much has been achieved in Nigeria through professionalism and dedication by officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army. It is therefore not farfetched on why the Nigerian Army is regarded as the pride of the nation.

However, a lot seems to have happened in the Nigerian Army since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999. Some have indeed stated in numerous forums that the Nigerian Army suffered neglect under a democracy by previous administration starting from the era of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who upon assumption of office retired over 93 top military officers whom he considered as politically exposed. I recall that the reason advanced by Olusegun Obasanjo was that the decision was to stabilize and save the country’s democracy.

This position of Olusegun Obasanjo was punctured by some school of thoughts who argued that the principal reason was to prevent a coup against his government. They also contended that Olusegun Obasanjo indeed starved the Nigerian Army of the required funds for its operations in a bid to keep them in check.

While all of these positions cannot be verified, it somewhat points to the fact that the Nigerian Army indeed suffered neglect at some point and this affected its effectiveness and professionalism which was exposed when the Boko Haram terrorist group began its violent campaign against Nigeria in 2009.

We were all witnesses to how the Nigerian Army struggled to keep pace with the activities of the insurgents. Due to years of neglect, those of us in the defence headquarters could easily sense the rustiness in its operations, dearth of equipment, lack of knowledge in asymmetric warfare and many others.

The attendant result of this fact saw the Nigerian Army suffering severe casualties in the battle with Boko Haram as they gained more grounds to the extent of taking over 16 local government areas in North-East Nigeria.
The Nigerian Army indeed struggled to keep pace with the activities of the Boko Haram group who were initially engaged in guerrilla warfare. What made matters worse was that they were operating in challenging terrain, and this gave them the more advantage.

From 2009 till date, the process of rebuilding the Nigerian Army started. I must admit as an insider that indeed former president Goodluck Jonathan began to the process of rebuilding the Nigerian Army. However, his efforts were not complemented by those saddled with running the affairs of the Nigerian Army as it were. I would say without fear or favour that indeed their greed got the better part of them and things got worse despite the enormous allocations.

Monies meant for welfare were diverted to private pockets, monies meant for arms and ammunition were also hijacked and in most instances, substandard and refurbished arms and ammunitions were purchased at very exorbitant prices. And the circle continued not until the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

I won’t say that President Muhammadu Buhari came with the magic wand. However, he indeed did something that reset not just the Nigerian Army, as well as the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force. His body language was indeed too loud such that things began to take shape. This much the generality of Nigerians would not know, they felt because he was a former army general, it was expected that his attention would be more on the Nigerian Armed Forces.

That was not the case. What changed the story for the Nigerian Army was the choice of its Service Chief in the person of Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai. I must admit that not many of us saw his appointment coming as there were others in the Army headquarters that has positioned themselves for the appointment. I recall that Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai was faraway in North-East Nigeria serving as the Commander of the Multinational Joint Taskforce (MJTNF) under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin Republic.

So in a way, he was out of the scheming to become Chief of Army Staff as he wasn’t amongst the anointed and positioned ones close to the seat of power as it were. I recall mentioning to a colleague of mine that President Muhammadu Buhari was going to place great emphasis on the Nigerian Army in the appointment of the Chief of Army Staff due to its strategic importance in the fight against Boko Haram. This was going to be strictly on merit regardless of all the scheming and lobbying by top army officers in the Army headquarters.

I would say this for the first time. When the announcement was made, there was indeed palpable silence at the Army headquarters as well as the defence headquarters as some struggled to locate the present position of Tukur Buratai since he was lost somewhere in North-East Nigeria and shuttling between the trenches in the Lake Chad Basin region. And today the rest is history.
Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratia hit the ground running so much so that rumours started making the rounds in the defence headquarters that it was because he is from Borno State which is the epicentre of the war and as such he took the prosecution of the Boko Haram war personal. But they were wrong in the sense that here was an infantry general that has been in the trenches as the Commander of the Multinational Joint Taskforce consisting of about four countries mandated to address the Boko Haram crisis which was fast gaining a regional dimension.

So it was expected that he was going to be proactive in his approach and I must admit that that was precisely what Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai did and the Nigerian Army of today is indeed better for it. He introduced some very tough reforms in the operations of the Nigeria Army. There was the reintroduction of training and capacity building for army personnel. I recall that special attention was given to providing local and foreign training opportunities for all cadres of officers and soldiers.

Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai introduced improved welfare packages for officers and soldiers which was lacking and mostly responsible for the lethargy in the Nigerian Army as it were. And this indeed did the magic because you can’t get the best out of people when they are not adequately taken care of or motivated.. This was more strategic in the bid to curb the lethargy that had enveloped the Nigerian Army at the time.

The Nigerian Army has also witnessed a rapid transformation in the area of infrastructural development with the renovations of barracks across the country, improved and upgraded medical facilities to cater for the health needs of officers and soldiers. A good example is the recently commissioned 200 bedded Army Reference Hospital in Maiduguri, Borno State to provide for the healthcare of soldiers who sustained injuries while fighting the counter-insurgency war.

The educational sector of the Nigerian Army has also witnessed a total revamp with the upgrade of all command secondary schools across the country. The Nigerian Military School was also not left out with the reintroduction of military training which was earlier suspended.

The establishment of the Nigerian Army University in Bui, Borno State as a training institution for the development of middle and high-level manpower in the areas of technological empowerment for civilians, appreciation for military policy; logistics and strategy is also worthy of mention.

The Nigerian Army has also embarked on the production of light tactical vehicles and other weapons at the Nigerian Army Vehicle Manufacturing Company (NAVMC) that was commissioned by the Chief of Army Staff in 2019. This marked an indelible milestone in the history of the Nigerian Army’s march towards self-reliance in the production and maintenance of Armored Fighting Vehicles and other classes of vehicles as over the years the Nigerian Army have relied on the importation of such vehicles thereby spending substantial foreign exchange which in turn depletes capital allocations. The strategic importance of the Nigerian Army Vehicle Manufacturing Company is the promotion of the Nigerian Army’s indigenization policy through self-sustenance in armoured and soft skin vehicles.

There has also been the entrenchment of transparency and accountability in the operations and procurement process of the Nigerian Army. This much can be said to be the hallmark of the administrative style of Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai as the Chief of Army Staff.

I must state that the list is in indeed endless in the reforms that have taken place in the Nigerian Army since the appointment of Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai as the Chief of Army Staff. In all honesty, there is a lot to be grateful for. This is aside from the fact that the Nigerian Army has been able to take the battle to the Boko Haram insurgents in North-East Nigeria with improved and superior arms and ammunitions as well as an improved and coordinated command structure that saw to the displacement of the insurgents from their operational headquarters in Sambisa forest and the subsequent takeover of all local governments areas hitherto under the control of the Boko Haram insurgents.

Yes, there may be pockets of Boko Haram attacks in North-East Nigeria. However, these attacks are not in the magnitude been reported in the media. Nigerians must come to understand that under Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, the Nigerian Army has indeed fared well. Those of us inside and conversant with all the complexity involved in warfare are full of praises for his numerous efforts in the prosecution of the war so far. Some of the details are not for public consumption. But in all, I must say that they are indeed numerous reasons to laud Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai.

Ainoko is a public affairs analyst and wrote from Kaduna.

By Mohammed Dikko

Shortly after bandits attacked  communities in Northwest Nigeria in June, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General TY Buratai, responded quickly by assuring the people of the region, especially, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara States, that he will soon be there to ensure that the madness of the bandits is put in proper check.

Within days that the army chief made the promise, he moved to the Northwest and launched series of operations there with large contingent of military personnel sent to the area who were able to track and apprehend and take out lare number of the terrorists.

Troops wasted no time in pursuing and overtaking many of the bandits leaving many of them dead while several others were arrested.

In the series of operations to flush the bandits, many victims of kidnap were rescued while hundreds members of various communities that were fleeing from their homes returned.

The action of the army chief proved not only prompt but quite effective.

The response of the military to a similar assault that occurred in the Northeast at about the same time was no less effective.

Boko Haram terrorists had struck at a community in Gubio local government of Borno State within the same period when the Chief of Army Staff had gone to Abuja to brief the President on the success of the military operations since he relocated to the zone and killed many.

immediately the Nigerian Army received reports of the attack, it vowed to track, capture or eliminate all the terrorists, bandits and their collaborators and also launched operations I  the area and went after the insurgents, destroying their camps, weapons and taking out many of them, such that many of the terrorists involved in the attack were neutralised.

The army also went ahead to consolidate its grip in the Northeast by making it difficult for the terrorists to attack communities at will.

Few days ago, troops of the Nigerian Army stationed in  Damasak, Mobbar Local Government Area of Borno State, repelled attacks by Boko Haram insurgents who swarmed the area at about 2:30 pm and overpowered them in a battle which lasted for over two hours.

The insurgents had arrived in about 13 gun trucks and one gulf car  and attempted to attack the military location from different angles by trying to envelope their camp, but soldiers reportedly beat them to it as the blood thirsty insurgents were seen by residents fleeing in disarray.

Residents were to report that several dead bodies of the terrorists littered the ground in the area after the operation.

The ground operation was followed by another one by the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation LAFIYA DOLE which obliterated a Boko Haram Terrorists’ (BHTs’) meeting venue, along with other structures, and killed several of their fighters at Mainyakare on the fringes of the Sambisa Forest in Borno State.

Official figures say the military has eliminated about 2,000 number of terrorists and bandits in the North in the last three months.

The figure is made up of over 1600 in the Northeast, and 392 bandits in the North West and North Central regions.

It is such quick actions by the military that have endeared it to the people as security experts say this was the element that was missing in the past administrations.

In an emotion laden piece written by recently by a resident of Biu in Borno State, the writer said  the people of the Northeast say they cannot afford not like  the army chief considering his usual quick response to attacks, well planned strategies and effective tactics that has sent insurgents fleeing from their communities.

He said states like Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi and even Adamawa have since put the horrors of the insurgents behind them and are living normal lives all thanks to the efforts of troops while only those communities close to the borders in Borno and Yobe States suffer occasional attacks.

He said, “These days, when movement of insurgents are sighted in the region, the people are not alarmed as they know that they will definitely be crushed by the ever ready troops in the area. 

“This is why Buratai is highly loved and respected in the region. He has given the people their lives back.”

In Kaduna, a group of youths at a press conference also commended the military for what it has done and is doing in the Northwest.

The group said, “when the military came, the level of crime and sheer banditry dropped drastically.

“The Kaduna-Abuja expressway regained its verve and people travelled almost at anytime of the day that they wished without fear of molestation and attack.

“Even in theaters of banditry like Birnin-Gwari, the people began to heave sighs of relief as the threat to their lives began to disappear.”

It is such testimonies that have made people especially those in areas affected by the activities of terrorists and bandits to continue to hail President Muhammadu Buhari and the military high command.

Dikko wrote this piece from Katsina.

By Maiwada Danmallam

Yesterday I had fruitful conversation over breakfast with the amiable, agile and very alert Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army, Lt-General T. Y. Buratai who is in Katsina State in continuation of his efforts to enforce peace and tranquility in Nigeria. His disarming optimism, pragmatism and confidence altogether, reassured me that the end of the ongoing banditry and insurgency is very near.

Although a private visit, I used the opportunity to discuss a wide ranging issues hoping to expand my knowledge of the intricacies and complexity of the ongoing war against banditry and insurgency and true to my conviction, the encounter confirmed my strongly held belief that security is not an everyday issue one could discuss intelligently without the requisite experience and of course, the finest information.

With this in mind, I avoided issues bordering on the technicalities of the ongoing war for lack of experience and requisite background. Instead, I concentrated on general issues with zero or little implication on the operations of the army viz-a-viz insurgency in the North East and banditry in the North West. My purpose was to identify ways to improve relationship between Nigerians, particularly the people of Katsina State and the Nigerian Army for the mutual objective of ending the ongoing needless bloodshed for peace to reign.

In not so many words Gen. Buratai explained to me the degraded army he inherited and the energy he infused into it to restore relative peace across Nigeria especially, in the North East hitherto, the epicentre of insecurity in Nigeria. We discussed about the social media and what role it plays in national security. We agreed it’s as much a critical tool of making Nigeria a peaceful country as it is also a serious challenge to national security. Used with sincerity and objectivity, he’s of the opinion the social media could achieve peace for Nigeria with little supervision. Applied irresponsibly, the social media is a box of matches in the hands of a madman in a filling station.

I wholly agreed with Gen. Buratai on the misapplication of the social media as is prevalent today. Somehow the cheapness of the social media has made it a dangerous tool of distraction and unnecessary confusion in the system. It’s so dangerous a tool that today, fake and mischievous news in the social media has created unnecessary enmity between security agencies and citizens so much so one is tempted to believe the army is fighting against not for the citizens. And this is easily verifiable by the tonne of stories and atrocities of criminals shared on social media fora and platforms and the silence of citizens when the army score victories.

Sad as it is, no gainsaying the Nigerian Army is not being dealt with fairly by the social media community. In every social media forum there are more stories of their failures than successes. No regular visitor to any of the social media platforms can say how many times he/she read pessimistic and cynical remarks about the Nigerian Army doing nothing and also, how many times he/she read about soldiers killed by insurgents or bandits. What could be more conflicting and unfair? Or could soldiers be killed without going to war? I once took up one of such cynical authors by asking how fair it will be to a widow or an orphan of a fallen hero to read his insensitive opinion about “Nigerian soldiers doing nothing” just at the time they are mourning the death of their breadwinner who sacrificed his life to make Nigeria safe?

The truth is, we need to properly identify who is the enemy in this war. With the right attitude and objectivity I’m sure we will understand that the Army is not just our friend but more a protective mother who will die for her children to live. And like I said severally here, matters of security are better left for security agents. Attempting to discuss these matters flippantly will only lead to misinforming and confusing the public. I was exposed to this stark reality once.

It was about the $1 billion approval President Buhari gave to the military to procure weapons. In few months the entire social media was agog with stories saying the $1 billion was stolen. About 2 or 3 months later the then Army spokesperson, Brig-General S. K. Usman (rtd) was invited for an interview by a TV station I cannot readily recall. During the interview he was asked about the $1 billion. Only then I knew the approval was still in the corridors of the Federal Ministry of Finance, yet to translate into money much less, get to the Nigerian Armed Forces, to be stolen, as those pessimists will make us believe. And many people believed this Mount Everest of a lie because most of us operate with a very shallow idea about government’s bureaucracy while average thinking is that military weapons are purchased over the counter like chocolates. Imagine how traumatizing this would be to the people on whose ability to remain focused relies our chances of surviving the war.

And if the social media is not hostile to the Nigerian Army, how do we explain a member of the community, and not just an ordinary member but a Professor in the developing social media, posting a scene of a Kannywood movie depicting a soldier crying over the corpse of a fallen comrade intending to pass it off as a real event in Sambisa just to malign the Army and dampen the spirits of our gallant officers. And even when he was busted all he did was make a feeble apology and crawled into his shell to wait for another opportunity to denigrate the Army which came barely a day after.

Before this social media influencer was done apologizing for this gaffe, he was out with another story about the failure of the Nigerian Army which resulted in the kidnapping of 16 girls. He was so much in a hurry to denigrate the army that he couldn’t wait to read the Daily Trust story doing which he would have known that the event was in Niamey, Niger Republic, not in Nigeria. He simply read the caption and came out with a venomous opinion about the Army. Could this be coincidence? Certainly no! It’s a determination to confuse Nigerians and make the problem more complex and convenient to resolve political frustrations of certain people.

If that’s not convincing, how about the social media debate about the “incorrectness”of Buhari’s decision to retain his Service Chiefs? The true picture is, President Buhari is a well trained military officer who retired meritoriously as a Major General and after fighting many wars and finally achieving the position of the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Using his best professional instincts and judgement and an added advantage of access to the finest information from variety of creditable sources to handle the unique situation we have at hand, he decided to exploit a window offered him by the law and the Constitution to retain his Service Chiefs perhaps, to avoid upsetting the war blueprint with the potential consequences of reversing the gains made so far. All of a sudden all social media users (many of whom could not identify correctly which end of an AK-47 oozes fire) became emergency security experts competent enough to challenge the decision of a war hero like “General Buhari.” And they do this with nothing to work with but social media rumours and military expertise generated from James Bond and Rambo series.

The insistence that President Buhari must sack his Service Chiefs is the best proof of the absolute ignorance about the complexities of security matters. For instance, it’s a fact Buhari’s Service Chiefs are not operating independent of the Army but in conformity with its operational code. Of course, Gen. Buratai is the COAS but he’s working with senior military colleagues to design and execute the war. It’s not like it’s entirely his decision how the war is fought. It’s a collective decision of the of leadership of the Nigerian Army. Every qualified successor of Gen. Buratai is part of the success or failure of his tenure! It’s from the circle of officers he’s operating with that we expect President Buhari to pick a new COAS if and when he decide to substitute Gen. Buratai. In simple terms, whoever President Buhari will replace Gen. Buratai with is just as “incompetent” as Gen. Buratai because policing Nigeria is a group responsibility which could only be mischievously mistaken for a one man job. Where is such a substitute going to source for better ideas than he’s contributing now to be a better COAS than Gen. Buratai? Unless we are to believe such a candidate is holding back his “revolutionary” ideas just so Gen. Buratai is ousted for him to take over, in which case, he’s bad for the exalted post, I can’t see any sense in the irritating calls for the sack of the Service Chiefs especially by novices.

And is it not questionable that these calls are mostly aimed at Gen. Buratai? Why is nobody worried about the extension of the CDS, CAS and the CNS services? This is enough to prove the uproar is not about the war but about something entirely unconnected to the war and the goodness of Nigerians. Unfortunately, many people are allowing themselves to be used as tools in a game that will lead Nigeria to nowhere but deeper into abyss of destruction it’s trying to get out.

This is a plea for Nigerians to respect the effort and sacrifices of the Nigerian Armed Forces and partner with them to restore peace in Nigeria.

Dammallam is a Patriot and wrote this piece from Katsina.