Our borders are porous, 60 per cent of insurgents are not Nigerians —Buratai

Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Nigeria’s 26th Chief of Army Staff,  was appointed to his current position at a time the Boko Haram terrorists were holding sway in the North-East, inflicting massive destruction on the nation. Today, the hyper-active General has delivered on his promise by flushing out the insurgents from Sambisa forest and rescuing many captives. In this interview with select journalists, Buratai speaks on his troops, the strategies to rid the nation of terror elements and other security challenges, among others. Excerpt.  

 

FOR some time, this country was under the siege of Boko Haram terrorists. At the point you came in, they had virtually taken over certain parts of the North-East; the military forces were despondent, with some soldiers being court martialed. But when you came in, you promised Nigerians that you were going to do all in your power to reclaim some of the territories, and today these terrorists have been forced out of Sambisa forest, their fortress. How did you manage to instill the moral courage that helped the Nigerian military to record success over the terrorists?

First of all, let us know that the military is an instrument of the state. Especially under this democratic dispensation, we are tools in the hands of the democratic system where we take our strategic directives in national interest to carry out our constitutional roles. This has been very clear from day one when Mr President and Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari, was being inaugurated. He underscored his promise to ending this security challenge, especially the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East. He directed that the military command and control centre be moved to the North-East. So, whatever follow up, to the storming of the camp inside the Sambisa forest, I want to say has been from the strategic directive and position of President Buhari and the military strategic level. The position has been that of defeat of the Boko Haram insurgents. If you look at it comparatively, you did say the despondency of our troops before we came on board has been in a very regrettable and bad state. But by and large, everything I will say revolves around leadership. The military leadership, in this regard, having received the appropriate direction and indeed the command from the Commander-in-Chief, we set out to implement that directive. We looked at it holistically in terms of what is the strategic disposition of the North-East itself, the strategy of the Boko Haram insurgency, what they stood for, what are their motivations? What is the disposition of the people in the North-East? What is the disposition of Nigerians generally? What is the disposition of international communities, especially our neighbours?

Having looked at all these, the first thing that needed to be done was to check the state of minds of the aggrieved soldiers operating in that region, the officers and indeed soldiers in other parts of the country. So, the first thing was to pay a visit to the zone itself and to see what was on ground. What were the challenges of the troops? Why were they behaving the way they did? What was missing? We [Nigerian soldiers] have been known for long about our exploits in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and not to mention earlier peacekeeping missions in Congo, not to mention the attacks on the Chadian rebels who wanted to annexe some parts of the country. These were some of the things we met on ground. We discovered that the morale of the troops was very low; the desire for them to be steadfast and defend themselves and even the level of casualties that we were recording before this administration came on board and our subsequent appointments, the situation was very demoralising. So, we said we must change the trend and luckily, I visited the force and I saw the challenges which include, shortage of man power, basic kits and equipment, the challenges of mobility and also the haphazard deployments of these troops were also looked at critically. So, I assembled my team and summoned the commanders of the troops for brainstorming sessions in Damaturu, Yobe State in July 2015, immediately after my appointment. We commenced the strategy on how to look at the overall deployments, what are the gaps in the data. After dealing with morale, how they were mobilised and we also looked at the disposition of the Boko Haram sects through the data we gathered. We now redeployed appropriate troops to appropriate locations. Damaturu was hitherto not being looked at at all. There were only deployments inside Damaturu town itself, then Buni Yadi and Goniri and even Buni Yadi it was only on the outskirts, there were no deployments in Buni town. We only had skeletal deployments in Geidam and along Maiduguri and Damaturu road. Effectively, Maiduguri was encircled. Once you enter Maiduguri, you can’t go beyond 10, maximum 20 kilometers radius.

We realigned some of the brigades under Three Division; we took some under the command of 7 division. So, with that realignment, we were able to checkmate the terrorists in that axis. We were able to block their movement around the general area of Alagarno up to the Northern part of Borno State and Yobe states and then south into the Sambisa forest.  Having done that, we now moved to change the name of the operation itself. Hitherto it was Operation Zaman Lafiya. We had to change name to reflect the level of commitment, the level of seriousness with which we were going to handle that operation. If you look at it strictly, there is no any serious difference in the name. The only difference is in the emphasis. When you say Zaman Lafiya, it means peaceful co-existence. It is more passive in Hausa language, but we changed the name to Lafiya Dole. Lafiya in an ordinary sense means well-being or health, but in making it our nicknames, we don’t strictly have to follow the linguistic definition as such. But it is mainly to reflect our intention to bring peace by all means. It can be interpreted as “There must be peace or peace is a must”. That’s the literal translation of Lafiya Dole. It gives one the sense of urgency, seriousness in the whole operation.

I think that was also a very strategic move which has helped a lot to the psych up the troops, to raise their hopes and make them to feel and believe there is a more serious business coming. It is no longer going to be business as usual. They are there to work and defend and to make sure that our territory is protected. So, we renamed the operation and launched it in Kodunga; after that we decided that we must systematically commence clearing operations, regaining of our territories. This directive that I gave was to recover Dikwa, which is the second local government on the way to Gamboru Gada. After Marfa you now reach Dikwa. Within two weeks, we were able to enter Dikwa. We captured it and consolidated the town. So, having revived the moral of the troops and having tackled some of the challenges on the ground there with the injection of more mobility of the troops, new kitty and getting other strategic equipment that were procured, we were able to set the ball rolling towards the eventual position that we are today; the storming of Camp Zero beside Sambisa and obviously, the capture of Camp Zero by the troops is not the end of our efforts. As we have said, the Boko Haram terrorists are on the run, moving from one place to another and our troops are pursuing them. And, some of the intermittent attacks we are seeing are the desperate moves by these terrorists, because we have blocked all their logistics routes and blocked their main supply areas in terms of food, water and the rest, even medication and they take advantage of some weak points even within our troops locations and some  isolated areas. And with their return to the IDP camp attacks, which is another strategy they are deploying to show relevance, but we are moving on and closing in on them. God willing we will crush them. But this is not just the army or military’s duty alone to do, all other security agencies are key into this operation to free our country from terrorists. It not just the army strategy alone that has ensured victory for us.  All these issues of capturing of those territories, which we began with Dikwa,  Konduga, Gamboru Gada had been done in conjunction with other services, especially the Air Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) through intelligence gathering.

 

Despite the celebrations over the capture of the strongholds of the Boko Haram terrorists, we are still seeing pocket of attacks here and there. Even Sambisa that the military claimed to have cleared of Boko Haram, we hear that troops are still being attacked and killed. If it is true that the Boko Haram terrorists have been dislodged from Sambisa, why are we still hearing of attacks in the place? You also said some of the terrorists have fled, how many of them have the soldiers arrested so far?

First of all, your understanding of Sambisa forest is not the way it is. Sambisa forest is different from the way you are seeing it and it is different from what you understand. We have said it before that Sambisa is over 60,000 square kilometres. Camp Zero is just one area of the forest. There are several other camps that we have cleared and if you look at the terrain, it is very vast. These terrorists are desperate and are still trying to remain relevant and show that they still pose a threat. That’s why you still see some of these attacks. Our deployment is also one area that you may have to look at critically.  It is not possible to deploy troops to every square metre of the forest and we are targeting specific areas and routes where these terrorists are following. We are still studying their pattern and how they operate, especially in this phase where they are scattered and are no longer concentrated in one particular place right inside the Sambisa forest. Hitherto they were gathered in a place as group and launched attacks from there. They are now scattered in different locations. So based on that, they come and strike and hide or go to a different place that we have identified. We have said it that they are on the run. They come and strike to get some supplies at some weak points and isolated areas. But I can tell you that this is not an issue that the military is not capable of handling or that the Boko Haram terrorists are still wielding any significant threat or in control of any other place. It is a situation that we will continue to pursue and ensure that we get them out of the way. And, when you talk of the Sambisa forest itself, we are there and that’s why we are planning to have our small arms championship right there in the forest, and I believe you will be there. We are going to be testing some of our new equipment there.

Just like this issue of armed robbery and kidnapping, which have been with us for long, I see this phase of Boko Haram terrorist as purely criminal activities rather than insurgency.  We need to look at it critically and say that Boko Haram, as they are, has been degraded; they have been defeated. What is remaining now is that instead of finding means of living, and instead of them to surrender, they are now using some criminal methods as they are doing now when in search of food to attack convoys at vulnerable points. The issue before us now is that the roads between Maiduguri and Dambuwa is a very busy one and at times you see over 100 vehicles are being escorted along the road. What happens is that there is a gap in the link and distance within the road. They take advantage of weak positions to strike. But we have always been getting them, we follow, track and we always get them. When they strike, it is not that they are going to their stronghold in Sambisa, where they used to operate from; they are running to other parts of the forests and the North-East and not Camp Zero. This is more or less a criminal nature rather than the insurgency itself. I think one point that we will like people to note is that rather glorifying them to be insurgents; they should be termed as criminals at this stage.

 

One of the major atrocities committed by Boko Haram is the abduction of the Chibok girls and as we talk now, some of them are still being held captive. From the military perspective, what is the fate of the remaining Chibok girls?

We are still hoping that they would be rescued. We are not giving up. Every day, we continue to rescue more and more of the abducted children. Some people are being released on a daily basis some are escaping on their own. Some of them are being released by these terrorists because of the harsh reality and also their inability to feed those people they have abducted. So, we are still hopeful and we will continue to carry out our operation across the North-East.

 

Beyond using military force, what other forms of engagement are you adopting to tackle this problem?

There is a wrong notion in respect to this challenge of national security. The issue of terrorism and insurgency is not entirely military responsibility or the solution to it is not entirely a military solution. The fight requires overall cooperation of all security agencies and indeed the role of every individual in the country and where insurgents operate. The military aspect is just one leg of many ways of engaging the terrorists. You will agree with me that, when we talk of the military aspect, we have done a lot. From where we were in 2015 to date, the difference is so clear. If you look at the level of casualties, especially from the civilian aspect, we were hearing of abductions every day and attack on this village or that village. They attacked this village and abduct women and children. Bu all that has stopped. Now, we have continued to rescue people almost every day and if you see the IDP camps, you will notice that they are scattered across and they are so many. On the part of the military, if you look at the number of casualties before July 2015, the numbers were very high. We have the statistics and we will give you  that statistics at the right time, but I tell you that rate of military casualties, those who were wounded or killed in action have been reduced from 500 per cent to 20 per cent. There has been a drastic reduction.

 

Why has it become so difficult for the military to fish out the sponsors of Boko Haram?

That is the wrong perspective that I was talking about. It is not the military that would fish out the sponsors. The media are supposed to tell us who the sponsors are. Even before the Boko Haram insurgency started, there were indications and indices, but what were the other security agencies doing? It is not that these other agencies were not working. I’m sure they were doing their work. But it is not our responsibility to find the sponsors of Boko Haram. We [the military] can’t even prosecute anybody. The traditional rulers, state governments and local governments have roles to play. People must speak out and report moves that are not clean in their communities and zones.

 

What is required of the people because we are talking about inter-agency collaboration, what kind of role do you expect them to perform now so that they can also safeguard  their own lives and make the job of the military less tedious?

It is really obvious that nobody operates in isolation. Some of these attacks, especially the suicide bombers that are coming into the communities, some of them have been held hostage, some of them have been threatened not to disclose their identities but whether you disclose it or not, at the end of the day, you will be at the receiving end. You will recall that about two weeks ago, we sent an offer whereby any information on the suicide bombers, their factories, their locations could be given by anybody. There is N500,000 bounty on any information that could lead to the arrest of the terrorists. These are the areas we need to look into. I am sure you are aware of the arrest of some individuals and it is still ongoing. People need to come out. They need to condemn their actions. They need to support the military. Some media houses, especially the online platforms, have been releasing information about the military. If Boko Haram kills three soldiers and they use it as the headline, do you know the implication of that and its effect on the troops? The terrorists will use it as propaganda to reward their fighters and tomorrow they will be emboldened to do more. The unfortunate thing is that 60 per cent of these terrorists are not Nigerians. The unfortunate incident whereby the Air force dropped some bombs by mistake, the terrorists were sighted there. They went there but they didn’t attack that day. But when they saw the reports in the media, they went back the second day to attack. 15 of the terrorists were killed while one was killed. Virtually all of them [terrorists] are Cameroonians or Chadians. None of them could speak any of the Nigerian languages. The one that was captured could not speak any of our languages in Nigeria.

 

Can we then begin to link all the incidence of herdsmen to foreign incursion? Farmers and herdsmen have cohabited for a long time, but all of a sudden we begin to see arms-bearing herdsmen who would kill and kidnap for ransom and if the government is saying some of them are foreigners, how did they get into the country and we not breeding another gang of terrorists?

We don’t have any border force. We have a very wide and lengthy porous border. What you have said is right. The cross border bandit thing has been with us for many years. The interactions between the border communities have been long in existence. Most of the border communities, you can’t differentiate them linguistically, because they are all the same.Even religious and culture wise, they are the same. So, if there are more opportunities here, be rest assured that those on the other side will always come in because the borders are free. Nobody checks them, and this is a major issue that needs to be addressed seriously. Globally, many countries have strict and well-guarded borders. Unauthorised routes are not allowed and are closed. But this is not the case in Nigeria.

 

If you have the requisite opportunity, would you advocate a border patrol?

We have already done that. On our part, some of our units that are deployed in the border try to do their best, to prevent any harmful incursion into the country. They work in conjunction with other paramilitary agencies. The issue of herdsmen and farmer clash is an issue that has been long standing. It goes up sometimes and comes down another time. It is not only the military that can check that. The authorities at the local level, especially the traditional rulers must play a very important role in this issue. Our religious leaders also have a key role to play in this matter, so that we can avoid these problems. We are all brothers and sisters, and we must continue to live together peacefully. We will do our best to ensure that the communities are protected. But primarily, you know it is the police’s responsibility. We could only be called in when it gets out of control, and we have been doing our best in that regard.

 

How overstretched is the military in the battle against Boko Haram, the Niger Delta militants and even the Biafran agitators, as it now appears that the military is taking up the role of police…?

We have been brought out to perform the role of the police because of the level of confidence people have in the army and the military generally. Secondly, because of the level of our professionalism, which include our patriotism and we have discharged our responsibilities professionally with a lot of commitment and neutrality in all our operations. We have been in total support of the civil authority. Constitutionally, as I said earlier, we can be called out to support the civil authority and we have done it professionally. The army in particular is spread across the country. Though we are not more, the strength of the army is not as much as the police and other paramilitary agencies, but because of the level of our commitment and loyalty and patriotism, we have always addressed some of these security issues. So, I will not say the army is overstretched even if we operate in all terrains: both land and other places. We have been trained to do this but by and large, it is a well-known fact that the military solution is always the final solution. It requires everybody to make sure that things are working rightly. If we are called out now, as we are in Southern Kaduna, it is an issue of peace. The land is very wide and it has become an issue of our own personnel, an issue of our capability and mobility. If we can do that, then we will achieve a great feat. Once we move in somewhere and we feel peace is being disturbed, we follow all the necessary procedures to safeguard lives. Once we apply our rules of engagement, be rest assured that we will find a solution to whatever crisis that arises. What happened in the South-East in December is that, we carried out just an exercise and were able to mobilise other security agencies, and for the first time in many years, the crime rate in the South-East dropped drastically in the yuletide period. You can see the result of our engagements with the militants who engage in pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta towards the end of last year, especially the Operation Crocodile Smile. We will not say we are overstretched, because this is our national assignment. But definitely we cannot do it alone; we always carry other services along. Other paramilitary agencies are always being carried along.

 

How did you manage to restore peace in the Niger Delta after the Operation Crocodile Smile which you launched was  derided by the pipeline vandals who gave it different names. But along the line, incidence of vandalism stopped. What kind of magic did you use to tackle these problems?

There is nothing like magic. That’s why I talked about professionalism and the level of commitment and patriotic disposition. We know that if we are to do anything on it, it is an issue of criminality. It is an issue of sabotage to our national asset, so we went in there with a clear objective to checkmate those criminal activities. We have the capacity and the requisite training to deal with the issue. Yes, they have been making noise before; they gave the people impression that the military is incapable of checkmating them. They appeared several times with gunboats, displaying as if they are stronger than the Nigerian military, but after a week or two weeks operation, they saw our mobilisation, not only in the creeks but also on the land. It was a combined operation, which included the police, Navy and Air Force. There is no way you will play with the national might and the capability of the state against some few criminal elements who are trying to show they are strong. We will perform our duties professionally in accordance with the rules of engagement. Anybody who doubts our might can try us again; I can assure you that we will clear his doubts.

 

Do you think military might is all that is needed to ensure peace in the region?

I have never said anything like that. I only said that we have the military might. Everybody needs to come in. The dialogue is another means of engagement. The role of the traditional rulers to persuade the indigenes to be peaceful is also key to the operation. But whenever we are called in, we move in. When you take up arms against the state to inflict serious damage on the people, the military will not allow that to go unchecked.

 

There was a video that went viral on the social media and was said to have been shot by some soldiers who complained about lack of water and other amenities. From your disposition, you have tried to encourage your men, what more efforts are you making to ensure that they get the maximum comfort as they continue to sacrifice their lives for the nation?

War in itself is something that is not a luxury. That is the first thing that all of us must know. Everybody got into that situation that knowing that it cannot be rosy all through. There are so many challenges. Our training has always addressed this issue, so such things can happen in war situation. So, this is one is not an isolation. There are even more serious issues that had happened; people are dying from enemy’s attacks. And, some people are thinking about water. There is no way, that a commander of any unit will deliberately deprive his troops of such basic necessities. Anybody that gets such video should know that no commander in his right senses will allow that to happen. By the time you see it and you interpret with a political mind, people are sentimental and cast aspersions on everybody in the military. It is just impossible. So much has been spent on this operation and much more would still be spent in terms of resources and money. The truth is that this thing happened more than seven months ago before it was released on the social media and we had resolved it. We are not denying that it didn’t happen, but we had resolved it long time ago. We resolve issues in many commands every day. What of those that died? Can we bring back their lives? People blew this incident out of proportion. They can’t like the soldier better than us. We are here because of the soldiers. If there are no soldiers, there won’t be any officers. We are officers because there are soldiers. Somebody asked on the social media that why are we allowing our soldiers to suffer? Who told them that we are allowing soldiers to suffer? We have the best of administrative arrangement since we came on board. If I tell you what was happening to the soldiers before we took over, you will feel sorry for them.

 

I know there are conscious efforts now to engage the public, especially the social media but when this video came out, all the efforts that the command has made should have been made known to the public that the video was shot seven months ago…

(Cuts in..) we said that but people would not listen. There was a time I commented on Facebook that this happened several months ago and all I got was all sorts of uncomplimentary comments.

This incident had been addressed by the Nigerian army, and if you go to the website of the Nigerian army, you would see our reaction to the matter. I commented on the issue on my personal twitter account, but people were passing uncomplimentary comments. They had been fed with the wrong information and they don’t want to listen to anything else again. That is the unfortunate condition we have found ourselves. The point is when you spread bad information; nobody wants to hear the other side of the story again. Some people came out to say that I have mansions in Dubai, but I don’t have any building in Dubai. If my wife has, does that mean I have houses in Dubai?

 

Could you tell us what you have, because a lot of Nigerians are skeptical about your position on the matter?

The Code of Conduct had come out to make it clear in their statement. They replied them that I don’t have but my wife has but still nobody wants to hear because they like to destroy people’s image.

 

As Chief of Army Staff, you have refused to stay in the office. You are more on the field than the office; do you think your style is making some people uncomfortable?

I can’t answer that question, because I wouldn’t know if my style is making some people uncomfortable. But the point is that as long as you are seated here, you have that authority bestowed on you by the constitution and you should know that you can’t satisfy everybody.

 

Last weekend, we saw the naval troops deployed in The Gambia returned to Nigeria but the troops in Gambia are still there. Is this not taking a toll on your operations, financially and is it sustainable?

It is not the army that deployed troops to Gambia. It is the Ministry of Defence through ECOWAS. It is not strictly our deployment; it is the Defence Headquarters that is coordinating the affairs of the armed forces aspect, not the Nigerian Army. The resources are not from army and the contribution and services have been put under the Defence Headquarters.

 

With all that you have stated, do you have any special message to Nigerians?

I want to appreciate Nigerians for their understanding and acknowledgment of our contribution to national security. We urge them to continue to support us in our efforts to make sure that the country is safe and secure. I want to say that we are committed. The Nigerian Army is a force that is patriotic and committed. We will do all our best to make them proud. The unity of this country is not negotiable. The military remains a strong unifying factor. We have the representation of virtually every facet of our society, and we do that to protect everybody’s interest. We want them to know that anywhere we are deployed, we will discharge our duties professionally.

 

Do you also have any specific message to your troops and their families?

I am happy that we have the best troops in the world that I am commanding. They have done and are still doing great service to their country. We love them; they are our heroes. They are exposed to many challenges every day, but they have remained very committed. I salute their courage and determination and even their patriotism. I believe that we can surmount all our challenges as long as we remain committed, steadfast and patriotic in the discharge of our constitutional duties.