EXCLUSIVE: How infighting, lack of coordination between Buhari’s ex-service chiefs crumbled fight against insurgency

One of the major selling points that made Nigerians finally buy into the Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential bid in 2015 after repeated attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2011 was his pledge to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency that was ravaging the north east then.

Being a retired Major General, Nigerians believe the fight against insurgency under a Buhari Presidency will take a drastic approach that will secure the entire nation. However, despite initial successful outings against the insurgents by the military, Nigeria seems to be back to the annals of ambush, bombings and massive killings by the insurgents.

Newsclickng.com reports that aside insurgents wreaking havocs, bandits have now joined the fray, killing and kidnapping innocent citizens for ransom almost on daily basis.

The beginning of terror

According to Wikipedia, the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, when the jihadist group started an armed rebellion against the Nigeria state. The conflict takes place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria’s Muslim and Christian communities, with the insurgents’ ultimate is to establish an Islamic state in the region.

Boko Haram’s initial uprising failed, and its leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed by the security forces of Nigerian government. The movement consequently fractured into autonomous groups and started an insurgency, though rebel commander, Abubakar Shekau managed to achieve a kind of primacy among the insurgents. Though challenged by internal rivals, such as Abu Usmatul al-Ansari’s Salafist conservative faction and the Ansaru faction, Shekau became the insurgency’s de facto leader and mostly kept the different Boko Haram factions from fighting each other, instead focusing on overthrowing the Nigerian government. Supported by other jihadists organizations including al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab, Shekau’s tactics were marked by extreme brutality and explicit targeting of civilians.

After years of fighting, the insurgents became increasingly aggressive, and started to seize large swathes in northeastern Nigeria. The violence escalated dramatically in 2014, with an estimated 10,849 deaths, while Boko Haram drastically expanded its territories. At the same time, the insurgency spread to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, thus becoming a major regional conflict. Meanwhile, Shekau attempted to improve his international standing among Jihadists by tacitly aligning with the crushed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in March 2015, with Boko Haram becoming the “Islamic State’s West Africa Province” (ISWAP).

The insurgents were driven back during the 2015 West African offensive by a Nigeria-led coalition of African and Western states, forcing the Islamists to retreat into Sambisa Forest and bases at Lake Chad.

Discontent about various issues consequently grew among Boko Haram. Dissidents among the movement allied themselves with ISIL’s central command and challenged Shekau’s leadership, resulting in a violent split of the insurgents. Since then, Shekau and his group are generally referred to as “Boko Haram”, whereas the dissidents continued to operate as ISWAP under Abu Musab al-Barnawi. The two factions consequently fought against each other while waging insurgencies against the local governments. After a period of reversals, Boko Haram and ISWAP launched new offensives in 2018 and 2019, again growing in strength.

When Boko Haram’s insurgency was at its peak in the mid-2010s, it was called the world’s deadliest terrorist group, in terms of the number of people it killed and sheer brutality of its operations.

Newsclickng.com reports that the insurgency which started in 2009 during the administration of Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua flexed its way through the Jonathan and now Buhari administrations killing thousands and displacing millions.

Buhari’s early gallant steps

In his first weeks in office, Buhari announced an immediate relocation of the military command centre to the North East where the insurgency forms a stronghold.

Shortly afterwards, President Buhari fired military chiefs who had been accused of being complicit in arms procurement dealings. He replaced them with new service chiefs (now  while demanding a total crush of the insurgents within the shortest time frame.

Buhari also visited neighboring countries and backed a multi-national joint task force to fight the terrorist, committing $100 million to the fight at the time.

Animosity between two ex-service chiefs

When the just retired service chiefs came on board on July 13, 2015, President Buhari’s assignment to them was clear; decimate insurgents and secure the nation.

Newsclickng.com gathered that the recently retired service chiefs in their early days in office, maintained cordial relationships that saw a renewed approach to the fight against the insurgents. Territories hitherto taken by the insurgents were reclaimed and a breadth of fresh air gradually swept across the troubled region.

However, as time went by, the victories against the insurgents diminished. The insurgency soon assumed a new dimension with coordinated attacks against military bases in the north east. Thousands of gallant soldiers fell to their ambush and ammunition were also stolen.

Newsclickng.com gathered that some officers soon lost morale and in what appears to be a rare incidence among men of the Armed Forces, viral videos of men and officers complaining at war front of poor welfare and ammunition to combat the Boko Haram enemies flooded the internet and social media space.

Findings by Newsclickng.com revealed that the unforeseen change in tactics and approach to the insurgent fight was fueled by growing and perceived animosity between the then Chief of Army Staff, Major-General T.Y. Buratai and the erstwhile Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar whose men are at the forefront of the war against the insurgents in Borno State and the North East in general.

A top military source who spoke on condition of anonymity to Newsclickng.com said the love lost between then top military chiefs degenerated to a point where both men gave separate orders to combating officers.

“Except when they went to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on developments in Borno and other troubled areas, you can never see General Buratai and AVM Abubakar sit together or shake hands. Both were giving out orders to their men without coordination. No synergy between the Army and Air force in this fight. If you come to the war front, the atmosphere is like we are fighting individual war and that is why the insurgents most times have their way because there is no unity in the fight against them,” the source volunteered.

Corroborating the above, a top army officer at theatre of war said both men neither talk nor visit each other, not even for friendship nor for sake of the ongoing war against the insurgents. He said animosity between both men also affected and strained the cordial relationships between top shots, rank and file of both the Army and Air force.

According to him, this further dampened the morale of officers and it is not clear if the Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief were both aware of such frosty relationship. He further explained that the Boko Haram war would have been long won if both service chiefs had combined and coordinated resources and shared tactics and operational guidelines jointly against the insurgents.

According to the officer, contrary to the media and what the world is made to believe of decimation of the insurgents by the troops, the reality at the war front is more brutal with troops falling prey to insurgents’ ambush and sudden base attacks. According to him, the recent attack in Marte is a vivid example. Explaining the avoidable casualty amongst troops in the recent Boko Haram attack in Marte due to the strained relationship between the then two service chiefs, the source said: “Marte was a disaster. We could not ascertain days after the number of soldiers killed. Boko haram hosted their flag in Marte before the Air force came. The Air force didn’t come when they were supposed to come until our men (soldiers) were dislodged. It’s a shame.”

Speaking on the perceived animosity between both Buratai and Abubakar, he said: “The two ex-chiefs should have been invited to a live program so that the whole world can have a clear view of what was going on.

How i wish someone had ask them why they don’t visit each other? Someone should have known and ask why they don’t discuss together as battle raged in the theatre?”.

Newsclickng.com sets agenda for new Service Chiefs

The news of the sack of the former service chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari filtered across the length and breadth of the country like a whirlwind on Tuesday. While it didn’t come unexpected to many who joined in the deafening nationwide demand for their sack over two years ago, others were caught unawares.

Those involved are the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.

The new Service Chiefs are: Major-General Leo Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff; Major-General I. Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff; and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao, Chief of Air Staff.

However, the development came while this medium was about to publish the animosity between two of the service chiefs and how that is affecting the insurgency war as outlined above.

As a medium with special interest in developmental journalism, we would like to appeal to all the newly appointed service chiefs to learn from their immediate predecessors who allowed their personal infighting affect their disposition the task and tackle this lingering insurgency headlong by combining forces, resources and strategies.

Close collaboration and joint operations between the respective arms of the armed forces is the only panacea to crushing terrorism in the North East; banditry, cattle rustling in North West and kidnapping and other violent crimes in North Central and Southern Nigeria.

The new service chiefs must immediately plan and jointly coordinate operations to rout the dreaded insurgents who can never be bigger than the combined ground and air power of the Nigerian armed forces.

And the time for close inter-service collaboration by the service chiefs is now to rid Nigeria of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and all forms of violent crimes.

Newsclickng.com wishes the new service chiefs a successful tenure in office.