Why we could not defeat Boko Haram, by ex Defence chief

Ex Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh has identified the military’s lack of equipment and motivation for the inability to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the Northeast.

Alex Badeh Ibrahim Seid Mahamat

Badeh also blamed those he referred to as fifth columnist among the Armed Forces and other security agencies for leakage of intelligence information to the insurgents in the counter insurgency campaign.

“For the first time, I was head of a military that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight an enemy that was invisible and embedded with the local populace.

“Added to this, was the exploitation of a serious national security issue by a section of the press and the political class to gain political mileage.

“Furthermore, the activities of fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to the terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult”, the ex Defence chief stated.

Badeh stated this Thursday in his valedictory address at the pulling out ceremony to mark his exit from the Armed Forces. He was removed alongside other Service Chiefs on July 13.

He regretted that unpatriotic activities of certain members of the military blunted the effectiveness of the fight against the insurgents, leading to the needless death of officers and men in the hands of the insurgents.

He continued, “The decision by certain countries to deny us weapons to prosecute the war also added to the challenges we faced. Despite these challenges, I am glad to note that a lot was achieved during our time in the fight against terror.

“The achievements recorded are largely due to the commitment, patriotism and fighting spirit of our men and women in uniform who saw the fight against terror as a task that must be accomplished no matter the odds and inspite of the campaign of calumny against the military by a section of the media with their foreign collaborators.

“The support of our teeming populace who have continued to stand behind their military has been quite encouraging. Also, our true friends who stood by us in our time of need and provided us the weapons we are now using to conduct the operations will always have a special place in our hearts”.

Further lamenting the underfunding of the military by successive administrations, Badeh said the development left the nation’s military ill prepared for the Boko Haram insurgency.

According to him, this left available military facilities and personnel overstretched, leading to the devastation in the Northeast occasioned by insurgent attacks.

“Permit me to also add here, that nation’s militaries are equipped and trained in peace time, for the conflicts they expect to confront in the future.

“Unfortunately that has not been our experience as a nation. Over the years, the military was neglected and underequipped to ensure the survival of certain regimes, while other regimes, based on advice from some foreign nations, deliberately reduced the size of the military and underfunded it.

“Unfortunately, our past leaders accepted such recommendations without appreciating our peculiarities as a third world military, which does not have the technological advantage that could serve as force multipliers and compensate for reduced strength.

“Accordingly, when faced with the crises in the Northeast and other parts of the country, the military was overstretched and had to embark on emergency recruitments and trainings, which were not adequate to prepare troops for the kind of situation we found ourselves in.

“It is important therefore for the government to decide on the kind of military force it needs, by carrying out a comprehensive review of the nation’s military force structure to determine the size, capability and equipment holding required to effectively defend the nation and provide needed security.

“This is based on the fact that without security, there cannot be sustainable development. The huge cost that would be required to rebuild the Northeast and other trouble spots in the country could have been avoided if the military had been adequately equipped and prepared to contain the on going insurgency before it escalated to where it is today,” he submitted.

Why we could not defeat Boko Haram, by ex Defence chief

#Bringbackourgirls: Presidency, US slam Defence Chief over leakage of abducted girls location

BY SONI DANIEL & UDUMA KALU, with agency report

ABUJA—The United States said, yesterday, that it does not have information to support the claim by the Nigerian military that it knows the whereabouts of the more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh said on Monday that the military knew the location of the schoolgirls, abducted by the Boko Haram Islamic sect on April 14.

Badeh’s claim has also reportedly incurred the wrath of the Presidency.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, yesterday, that, “we don’t have independent information from the United States to support that statement. We, as a matter of policy and for the girls’ safety and wellbeing, would not discuss publicly this sort of information regardless.”

Five U.S. and European security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had no credible information on the location of the girls and were skeptical that the Nigerian government knew where they were. The five officials said the United States and some European allies had provided technical intelligence, including information from spy aircraft and satellites, to Nigerian authorities, who lack such intelligence capabilities.

But the officials said that as far as they knew, technical intelligence systems had not produced precise or credible information establishing the girls’ location.

The five officials said that if the Nigerians had obtained such information from informants on the ground, it has not been shared with U.S. and allied agencies.

One impediment to finding the girls, the officials said, was that since their abduction, they had been divided into small groups. Boko Haram is also believed to be hiding them in densely forested terrain where it would be hard for modern technical intelligence systems to gather information.

Presidency angry with CDS

Meanwhile, Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, has reportedly incurred the wrath of the Presidency over his claim that the military has sighted the 270 schoolgirls seized from their dormitories in Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram terrorists last month.

President Jonathan, it was learnt last night, was unhappy with the claim by the defence chief, which he considered as a breach of military tactics capable of hindering the move to free the children, who have been in the kidnappers’ den since last month.

Meanwhile, Air Marshal Badeh declared, yesterday, that the military was now fighting a bigger battle with the international terrorist organisation known as Al Qaeda with networks in North and West Africa, noting that the ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency war has gone beyond Boko Haram

A top Presidency source told Vanguard last night that Jonathan considered the CDS’ claim on the missing schoolgirls as an unnecessary outburst, which could frustrate ongoing efforts by the multinational team currently in the country to rescue the girls.

Counter-productive

The source, which did not want to be quoted, said President Jonathan was still at a loss as to why Badeh made the statement at a time he was expected to be more cautious over the contentious issue, which is generating interest across the globe.

“Indeed the President is really upset over the claim and we do not know what will happen,” the source said but did not give further details.

 

#Bringbackourgirls: Presidency, US slam Defence Chief over leakage of abducted girls location

Jonathan Deploys Defence Chief In Jos for blast assessment

 

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, on Thursday arrived in Jos, Plateau State, for on the spot assessment of the twin bomb blasts that left more than 100 people dead and 50 others injured on Tuesday.

The Coordinator of the National Information Centre for the ongoing war against insurgents, Mr. Mike Omeri, told journalists at a news conference in Abuja, that Badeh was directed to do so by President Goodluck Jonathan .

Omeri also warned Nigerians against circulating photographs and information capable of subverting the war against insurgency in the country.

According to him, relevant agencies will investigate the sources of the photographs of soldiers circulating in the social media who were said to have died in the war against insurgency in the country.

He said, “Following the incident in Jos, Mr. President has directed the CDS to proceed to Jos for further assessment of the situation on the ground.

“The Inspector-General of Police(Mohammed Abubakar) had earlier visited the scene of the blasts . These are all parts of the efforts by the government in uncovering the authors of the crime, bringing comfort and succour to our people and in the long run, helping to defeat terrorism and other forms of criminality.

“The centre notes the emerging trend of misleading photographs by the media to illustrate their stories. The truth is that these photographs create wrong impressions in the minds of members of the public about the efforts of the government in checking the current security challenge in the country.

“Similarly, we take this opportunity to appeal to the media as well as government officials and all other groups to refrain from releasing any kind of information that will harm ongoing operations against insurgency in our country.

“The Nigerian government welcomes the growing support from the international community for Nigeria’s effort to locate and secure the release of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok.”

Asked whether the government had opened informal talks with Boko Haram, Omeri said while all the cards were still on the table, the government remained committed to international best practices in relating with terror organisations.

He said, “The government has stated its position on this issue. Men and women are out there combing everywhere, collaborating with international support.

“As far as we are concerned in this issue, all options are still open and we will apply international best practices as they affect similar situations all over the world.

“The result of this international cooperation will be the rescue of the schoolgirls and the restoration of peace and normalcy in our sub-region.”

In Jos, Badeh said the resurgence of bombings outside the North-East was an indication that Boko Haram members were being dislodged from their hideouts.

He assured Nigerians that the military was capable of overcoming the security challenges facing the country.

Badeh, who visited the scene and victims of the blasts, said the fight against terror required patience and perseverance.

He added, “The insurgents are moving out of the North-East because of the pressure the military is putting on them. So the zone is no longer a safe haven for them to operate and they are moving to other softer targets and we will follow them.

“Fight against insurgency is not something you win in one day, but we will eventually overcome. Some people have fought it for over 40 years and they are still at it.

“For Nigeria, we started our own over a year ago by declaring a state of emergency and we have already done so much in the North-East, that the insurgents are running from there to look for softer targets.

“My impression is that they are cowards, because they are coming to the market to kill people . What they are trying to do is to intimidate us, but you know that terror will not deter us from being Nigerians.

Meanwhile, the University of Jos authorities have declared Friday (today) as a lecture free day in honour of students who lost their lives and those injured in the bomb blasts.

A statement by the Deputy Registrar, Information and Communication, Mr. Steve Otowo, said the period would also be used to conduct a head count of all the students of the university to determine those involved in the incident.

He said that the UNIJOS authorities had commiserated with the families of the victims of the blasts.

Meanwhile, the authorities are still looking for the corpses of five of the seven students of Medical Laboratory Science Department killed by the explosions.

The Acting Pesident of the Student Union Government, Williams Lar, told one of our correspondents that only the corpses of Michael Ogbole and Francisca Nwafor, had been identified.

Lar, who added that the parents of Ogbole and Nwafor had been notified, said that a fresh graduate of the university, Joy Mako, was currently on admission at Our Lady of Apostle Hospital, Jos.

He said that Jimlong Dayol of the Architecture Department and Jumai Audu, a member of staff of the Consultancy Department of UNIJOS were also still on admission.

Lar added that a student of the Pharmacy Department, identified as Tercee, had not been seen since the blasts.

The PUNCH gathered that Tercee, whose real name is Echuku Bala, was to have her traditional wedding on Friday (today) and church wedding on June 7.

Jonathan Deploys Defence Chief In Jos for blast assessment