Security Expert, Capt. Umar Aliyu (Rtd) believes that the recent successes being recorded by the Nigerian military in their fight against terrorism is due to the “new blood” that has been injected into the system.
“I am seeing what I can call participative kind of approach to leading troops which should be the case. I am seeing things being done differently. Let us underscore that with probably the ‘change fever’ in the air.
“I am seeing troop commanders who actually bond with their men by not running their battle by proxy. They take time to go there, to feel the ground, to occupy their battle space and that itself has been driven by the relocation of the command centre to Maiduguri,” he said.
Capt. Aliyu, who had been an advocate of the Command Centre relocation long before President Muhammadu Buhari gave the directive, maintained that just as he had expected, the move has aided the fight against Boko Haram.
“Its psychological, its human, it happens everyday even in our families. If you showed up in your son’s school for his competition and he was running, something is going to change about the way he’ll run that day.
“We are not saying that the Chief will perpetually sit there but when you’re actually there, more often than not, you’re going to begin to see, feel and hear first hand.”
The retired Army officer also acknowledged positive changes in the tactics being deployed by the military, noting that each time the troops recapture a new ground and hoist the Nigerian flag instead of the black flag of the insurgents, its emboldens the Nigerian soldiers and dis-emboldens the insurgents.
“We celebrate our successes (and) we are consistent about it even though its been slow.
“Then if you do post-General Buratai appointment, you will discover that in like 63 days, so much has been done and if we can ‘exponentiate’ 63 days and compare it to like three years – if every 63 days we can do this much, then by December the sun should have set on the insurgents.”
He, however, added that with the insurgents having also changed their tactics to mainly suicide bombings, this must be “complemented by three key parastatals”.
“The military cannot actually fit in as smugly into this issue of suicide bombing as it does into combat engagement in the northeast.
“The SSS or the DSS, the Civil Defence and the Police have key roles to play in driving the successes of eliminating suicide bombing attacks because suicide bombing itself exploits the gaps in our policing strategies.”
