We almost surrendered to Boko Haram – Buratai

Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Wednesday, refused to pretend over what was the true position in the ongoing military onslaught against insurgents in the North East, as he confessed that the country almost surrendered to the Boko Haram terrorist group.

It was his predecessor, Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, rtd, who confessed last year, that the Army had never been so embarrassed like it was by the Boko Haram terrorists.

Buratai, who was so excited about the troops’ victories in the war, has also ordered the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major- Gen. Lucky Irabor, to push harder and go ahead to crush the remnants of the insurgents.

The Army Chief was speaking at the First Quarter COAS Conference, which he declared open in Abuja.

Happy with the successes of the operations, the army boss told his Commander to, “put more push in the war so that we can get this nonsense behind us”.

Speaking further he commended the troops for doing well in the battle, and confessed that, “terrorism almost brought Nigeria to its knees.”

Thus, he said upon his appointment, he had to reorganise the top echelon of the force to achieve his target of reversing all the gains made previously by Boko Haram and bring them on their knees.

He said that the troops had continued to fight the insurgents with a high spirit, which was the basis of military’s present victory.

Buratai told them that they had nothing to fear while fighting as there would be no reason to regret, assuring that he had tabled all their problems and cases before President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly and had also secured assurances of goodwill to them.

He said that he was looking forward to a better equipped and better organised army that would save the country from insurgency, Buratai pointed out that the Nigerian Army Aviation Corps, would soon take off confirming that arrangements were in top gear to that effect.

He said that the army was perfecting arrangements to acquire a series of aircraft, adding that the trainee pilots were already preparing to graduate around May 2016 from the aviation college.

He confirmed also that the aviation technicians trained by the army, were already being deployed to the North East for the war to work with the Nigerian Air Force.

The COAS conference, he said, would afford them the opportunity to appraise their performance and face the nation’s security challenges.

The conference had in attendance, all senior officers at the top echelon of the army, commanders and Commanding Officers across all army formations in the country.

Highpoint of the opening ceremony was the launch of the Nigerian Army Doctrine, 2016, by the COAS, which was the second edition of the Nigerian Army’s sacred book.

The doctrine was first published in 2009 under the present minister of Interior, Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, rtd, as the COAS.

Buratai said that the doctrine was a guide through administrative, logistic and operational functions of the army, stressing that the newly introduced Motor Cycle Battalion was the innovation added to the doctrine.