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There has been noticeable terrorists’ inactivity since the relocation of General Buratai-Colonel Sageer Musa

Published

4 years ago

June 9, 2020

By Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani

From all indications since the relocation of Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai to the frontlines of the war on terror (Boko Haram ISWAP) is as good as won. Available records show that the Nigerian troops are winning the war back to back having killed about 150 terrorists in the first week of the reinforced assaults on terror. This, of course, is attributed to the uncommon selfless commitment of Buratai. The relocation of the audacious, fearless and courageous COAS is recording tremendous successes. Nevertheless, there still exist some mind boggling questions on the operational engagement of the troops in the northeast in particular. In this exclusive interview with the Acting Director of Public Relations, Nigerian Army, Col. Sagir Musa, these issues are addressed. The intelligent and eloquent spokesman of the army, Musa who exudes confidence speaking on the accomplishments of the army under Gen Buratai, sheds light on sundry issues.

In this interview with JOHN NWOKOCHA Colonel Sageer Musa bares alot, Excerpts.

Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Buratai

What can you say has been the impact of COAS’ relocation to frontlines of the war on terror?

Musa:

On the impact of Gen Buratai’s relocation to the Frontline, I will say that as at today, over 1500 BokoHaram/ISWAP terrorists have been killed. Gen TY Buratai relocated temporarily to the Northeast Theatre of Operation on 4 April 2020, where he personally and passionately oversees and directs the operations. In some cases, he led the operations with resounding successes. Many BH terrorists’ gun trucks, assorted arms and thousands of ammunition, several motorcycles and bicycles have been captured from the BH/ISWAP terrorists.

We should be able to recall the high losses suffered by the insurgents during Buni Gari encounter (where 105 BHTs where eliminated) and also their failed attack on Geidam town (where 13 terrorists were deleted).

In addition to that feat, as we speak there is abundant evidence that hundreds of kidnapped victims have been rescued by the troops from April till date.

As a result of the overpowering assault launch on the terrorists by our troops I will say indeed, there has been noticeable terrorists’ inactivity since the relocation of Gen Buratai to the Battlefield/Theatre of Operation.

In fact, on arrival at the Theatre of Operation, Gen Buratai interacted with alI the key field Commanders, Sector Commanders and Commanding Officers at the Headquarters Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE in Maiduguri. Same day, he moved on a tour of all the major troops’ locations in the North east covering some parts of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, where he interacted with officers and soldiers and strongly sensitized them for the impending task to destroy BH/ISWAP terrorists.

Driven by his uncommon zeal, he moved to the Army Super Camp 1 at Molai and the Special Super Camp 12 in Chabbol near Maiduguri. In the same spirit the COAS took a bold step and toured other places/infrastructures such as troops’ location at Alau Dam at the outskirts of Maiduguri and also personally led troops on reconnaissance around Mairimari Forest located southeast of Tamsu Ngamdua in Mafa LGA of Borno State. The brave Gen Buratai also entered the dreaded Maigilari forest in the east of Tamsu Ngamdua south east of the same Mafa LGA. These areas are generally seen as the routes and directions of approach into Maiduguri by BH/ISWAP terrorists.

Colonel Sageer Musa

He was also at Headquarters Sector 2 in Yobe state, Special Forces School Buni Yadi, 130 Battalion Goniri all in Yobe state among others. In all the places he toured, he inspected/assessed the equipment disposition/ serviceability of the equipment and Platforms and interacted with officers and soldiers as well as gingered them to brace up to end the terrorism soon.

What is your assessment of his relocation on the morale of the soldiers?

Musa: With his presence, concurrent activities have been taking place across the operational arena. There has been injection of new fighting equipment and platforms, gun trucks, additional special forces personnel have also been deployed. We also witnessed reinvigorated troops patrols, ambushes, attacks on terrorists’ camps, hideouts and crossing points. Generally, BH/ISWAP terrorists were effectively blockaded or quarantined and therefore had no freedom of action or movement. The battle was obviously taken to their door steps with remarkable successes as already reported by the media.(including your platform, Laughter…)

How about soldiers’ welfare, does the leadership give the welfare of soldiers particularly those in the war front the priority it deserves?

Musa: On top of the accomplishments of Gen Buratai Troops’ Welfare in the areas of feeding, medicals, military stores/kits, uniforms, boots, fragment jackets, still helmets have been supplied to the troops on a regular basis occupies number 1. Above all, troops’ welfare has always been paramount to Chief of Army Staff’s permutations. Consequently, his presence further mobilized and raised the morale and fighting spirit of the soldiers. You need to hear the applause, the commendations, the cheering from the troops on the mere sighting the Chief of Army Staff. His presence alone is inspiring.

Equally, through enhanced intelligence gathering capacity, periodic, guided military offensive actions like Artillery and air force bombardments as well as ambushes – terrorists’ high profile war Commanders and fighters have been successfully eliminated during this period. This has also been reported by the media.

Many BH terrorists’ key informants, suppliers and collaborators have also been identified and neutralized. Their logistic supply chain has to a greater extent been paralysed.

At the moment, BH terrorists have suffered monumental losses in both human and material resources enough to cause disruption in their offensive actions. Thus, no wonder, we are witnessing glaring absence of terrorists activities in the Northeast.

It was reported that Gen Buratai said he won’t return to Abuja until Boko Haram is defeated. Can you clarify this?

Musa: This is a wrong insinuation and malicious and cannot be substantiated. What he said was – “I’m here with you in the trenches, overseeing/ leading the operations and we will remain with you until substantial progress has been made”. You will agree that as at today substantial progress has been made in the war against terrorism in Nigeria. Everybody can see that there has been a significant change the relocation of the Chief of Army Staff, let us be truthful to ourselves.

When is Chief of Army Staff returning to Abuja?

Musa: Bearing his statement above that he will not leave the operational arena until substantial progress has been made, I can say that you should not be surprised to see him in Abuja anytime he chooses because remarkable achievements have been made in the war on terror. What remains is for the relevant field Commanders to maintain the standards and achieve the final defeat of the terrorists.

How are the troops coping with Covid – 19 Pandemic during the operations?

Musa: This is a very important question. Thank you for asking me this question. Let me state that by the grace of God, we have not recorded any case of Corona Virus in the Theatre of Operation. Despite that, the Nigerian Army has complied fully with governments’ guidelines and directives on Covid – 19 pandemic. Army has strictly enforced on all her personnel irrespective of their deployment to observe self- isolation, wearing of face marks, use of hand sanitizers, body temperature measurements and regular hygiene including hands washing. These are fully applied where applicable or necessary. As you might be aware, we in the Nigerian Army are somehow monolithic, regimental, we are closed, we fight as a unit, we know ourselves and so it is easy to know if anyone of us is sick at any given time particularly during operations. Again, we feel more secured in the bush.

What have to say about the allegation by Amnesty International on Rights Abuses by the troops?

Musa: Typical of Amnesty International (AI), – the allegation is again baseless and lacking in objectivity there is no fool proof evidence. Ordinarily, we would not dignify Amnesty International by joining issues with it. However, it is necessary to put the records straight and clean. We have not deviated from our mission to end terrorism in the country and we are doing it from the point of constitutional duty. We wouldn’t abuse rights of individuals. We therefore dismiss the allegations of Amnesty International as uncomfortable conversations. It is a faux pas and the Nigerian army debunks it in its entirety. There are yet no established cases of torture by the Nigerian Army in her operational engagements in the North East. The Military Detention Facility in Giwa Barracks which is one of the reference points by AI has since been modernized in tune with international best practices. The Nigerian Army(NA) which is at the center of the report has been transparent enough to have allowed human rights groups, NGOs and CSOs like the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch and some media organisations to visit the detention centre (DC) in Maiduguri. (We would be glad to also take you to the Centre to see things for yourself. Laughter…)

Major observations arising from such visits have been addressed or implemented by the military. The Giwa Barracks and Kainji holding facilities have been structurally renovated and expanded to provide basic requirements for a decent living accommodation for Boko Haram terrorists’ detainees. The quality and quantity of food given to detainees is satisfactory.

Accordingly, the sanitary condition and the medical needs and provisions have been substantially improved to keep pace with the requirements of modern DC comparable to expected basic international standards.

On the allegation of Child abuse by the Nigerian Army in the Northeast what is the position of the army?

Musa: Again, let us tell ourselves the truth. It is on record that the Nigerian Army has progressively addressed the human rights concerns of national and international publics. This process is dynamic and is ongoing. Available record which is verifiable on the ground has proved beyond reasonable doubts that Nigerian Army under Lt Gen TY Buratai has remarkably done a lot to improve the human rights disposition or record of the NA. Some of the tangible efforts are:

Establishment of Human Rights Desk

NA has established human rights desk across formations and Units of the NA. These desks are where human rights violations, claims and petitions are received and investigations are conducted by qualified legal and public affairs personnel of the NA on whose professional advice or suggestions the NA appropriate authority will upon confirmation take decision/necessary disciplinary action/s on erring personnel. Members of the public have since been sensitized on this; the effort is continuing and is yielding good results.

Strengthening the Department of Civil-Military Affairs of the NA

It could be recalled that one of the earlier measures taken by the current Army Chief to checkmate rights infractions by army personnel was to rejig and empower the Directorates of Civil-Military Affairs (DCMA) and public relations. Under the DCMA, regular engagement with the Civil populace including human rights groups like NGOs, CSOs and professional associations like the Nigerian Bar Association, NUJ, NIPR, youth groups among others, are being conducted with the view to creating necessary harmonious relationship between the Army and members of the public as well as to create the required support/ understanding of the nature and operations of the NA. Sensitization campaigns, lectures and workshops at NA schools and other training institutions on the professional, constitutional/legal requirements to respect human rights have been organized regularly for the troops to enrich their knowledge and reap the obvious benefits of excellent civil military relationship particularly to those on operations. Thus, the necessity to respect human rights and the consequences of failure to respect the rights of others is being pressed in the skulls of NA personnel on a periodic basis. Instructively, the Army under Lt Gen TY Buratai never downplayed on matters of rights abuses, professionalism and discipline. This process is dynamic and is ongoing.

Prompt Application of Sanctions Once Rights Abuses are Established

Through the enforcement roles of the military police and respective Commanders rights violations have been seriously checkmated. Prompt decisive punishment of rights violators by the NA has overtime increasingly checkmated abuse of human rights by Army personnel. The NA is very strict on this.

Establishment of Information and Reception Centres During Operations and Exercises

Establishment of Info Centre especially during operations and exercises among other reasons is aimed to checkmate rights abuses by NA personnel. The centre is where low scale briefing for important VIPs who may not be conversant with the military matters is conducted. It serves as a press Centre, at the same time, a complain centre where the locals can easily access and lay complains or any issue of public concern to the public relations/information officers at the Centre whose major task are to hear/receive, collate and forward such complains to appropriate officer for urgent action. Issues of collateral damage are also looked into and addressed at the centre level where feasible.

What is the most urgent thing for Gen Buratai Since his relocation?

Musa: I would tell emphatically is to end BH/ISWAP’s terrorism. One could see sheer will, uncommon commitment and determination to achieve that. You could clearly see selfless daring actions undertaken by the Chief of Army Staff in the battle field, – clearly leading the operations to outstanding success. As at today 1, 504 (one thousand five hundred and four terrorists) were eliminated in the Northeast Theatre of Operation. This was largely because the battle has been taken to their camps, enclaves and hideouts with remarkable successes recorded so far.

News

Muslim-Muslim Ticket: idea fixation pathetic, religion be excluded in politics and governance, says El-Rufai

Published

2 years ago

June 11, 2022

Misbahu el-Hamza

The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has described the possibility that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, would run a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election as mere speculation.

Making a remark on Channels TV’s political show, Politics Today, he said, Nigerians’ obsession with religion – when it comes to voting – rather than competence is sad. “This fixation of Nigerians on religion instead of competence, capacity, and capability is quite sad and pathetic.”

El-Rufai said that anyone asking him questions about the controversial Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket is asking the wrong person, because, in the 2019 general election he settled for a qualified Muslim woman as a running mate and won the election in Kaduna State.

He said, “I don’t look at people from Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian angle. Most of my closest friends are Christians. It was Pastor Tunde Bakare, a Pentecostal pastor, that took me to the CPC, not President Buhari. I’m very close to Bakare. I’m very close to many Christians. I don’t think the business of governance has anything to do with religion. I think we should look for the best person for the job. A person that will get the job done and let him do that.”

He advised Nigerian journalists to keep religion out of politics and government. He said, “I don’t think we should be looking at religion. We want to develop this country. When I get into a plane, I don’t ask about the religion of the pilot. When I go to the hospital, I don’t ask for the doctor’s religion of the doctor, I just want to get well. I just want to get to my destination when in an aircraft.

Column

Nigerian Universities, the interference of Professional bodies, and the time bomb

Published

2 years ago

November 4, 2021

Nigerian Tracker

Abdelghaffar Amoka, PhD

Having worked with multidisciplinary teams during my PhD at the Department of Engineering of the University of Leicester and postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Electric Power Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), I decided to experiment the acceptability of a multidisciplinary team in Engineering departments in Nigerian universities in 21st century on my return in 2015. Then, I was already due to be a Senior Lecturer in ABU since 2014. So I sent my CV and an application letter for the position of Associate Professor to the VC through the Head of Electrical Engineering Department of one of our public universities in November 2015. And I received the following not very surprising reply.

“Having perused your application documents, I found them interesting and relevant to the need of the department. However, I cannot pass your application for further processing because of the post applied for. For your information, the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nig. (COREN) has fixed the bar of an Engineering lecturer who is not registered with COREN at Lecturer I regardless of the number of his/her publications.”

The question that came to my mind was that is the regulation of engineering lecturers in universities part of the mandates of COREN? I read the reply again and he was very emphatic on my PhD and postdoctoral research experience and the relevance to his department. I was made to understand that the University has no academic staff in the area of high voltage engineering, but for them to utilize my experience in high voltage engineering, if I was actually ready to move there, I have to accept to be demoted for 4 years because COREN said so. And I can’t grow no matter my research output till I am registered with COREN. Amazing offer! It will take a complete idiot to accept such an offer. That is the reality of the compartmentalization of our university system and the destruction of the Nigerian university system and the structure by supposed professionals.

This was completely different from my experience in my two universities in Europe. Prof. Len Dissado had a first degree in chemistry and a PhD in chemistry but was a Professor of Engineering at Leicester because his research area was in Dielectrics, a topic very relevant to High Voltage Engineering. He was retained as Emeritus when I left in 2012. Dr. Steve S. Dodd had his first degree in Physics and PhD in Physics but was employed as a Senior Lecturer in Engineering (High Voltage Engineering group) because his research area was in Electrical insulation materials. He retired as a Reader in High Voltage Engineering. The HoD of the Electric Power Engineering as at the time I left the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2015 had a PhD in Physics and was a Professor of Electric Power Engineering. Universities in the rest of the world are closing gaps, while we are widening the gap. Since I could not close the gap, so we decided to have a High Voltage Laboratory in the Physics department.

https://nigeriantracker.com/2021/07/21/kwankwaso-receives-new-phd-holders/

In universities, we are academics and research workers. Irrespective of the field, we are employed to teach and do research. The yardstick for evaluating your performance is research output. Engineering graduates in academia are not left out. They are not employed as Engineers. Universities have their Engineers to do the engineering work. As an academic, you can be COREN registered to enable you to practice outside the university but not for the classroom and research labs in the university. I once asked a colleague some years back if as a university worker, he is an Engineer for real or a teacher and he was silent. I asked about the value of COREN registration in his teaching of Engineering courses, research output, and student project supervision and he could not give me a straight answer.

I still find it weird that COREN, a body regulating practicing engineers on the field is now setting standards for promotion in the Engineering departments of Nigerian universities. They will soon be telling Nigerian universities what to teach and what not to teach. The other councils of professionals will soon follow to set what they perceived as standards for the respective faculties or departments.

The interference of the Councils of professionals in the affairs of Nigerian universities has grown beyond setting promotion guidelines. They are now deciding the establishment of faculties and the duplication of academic departments. It does not matter the burden of running such faculties and departments on the universities. I am still wondering how they are able to twist the hands of NUC and the universities’ Senate and Governing Council to achieve all that. Not long ago, the Faculty of medicine in Nigerian public universities were converted to Colleges of Medical Sciences with 4 faculties and several departments, thanks to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.

What baffled me was the fact that the Department of Biochemistry, for example, that has taught medical students the biochemistry they know since the inception of the study of medicine in Nigerian universities is suddenly no more qualified to teach medical students because the Lecturers do not have a degree in medicine. Very amazing! We now have duplicated Biochemistry departments across Nigerian universities that they called “Medical Biochemistry” in the college of medicine. The “medical biochemistry” will possibly be taught by the Medical Doctors based on what they learned from the Biochemists in life science while in medical school. Could this be a case of trading quality for ego?

We also, for example, have a medical microbiology department in the college of medicine, a microbiology

department in the faculty of life science, and a vet microbiology department in the faculty of Veterinary medicine.

The microbiologists will be able to explain to us the difference between the different versions of the microbiology.

I was in Norway in 2014 when the Norwegian couple at NTNU shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with a Professor at the University College London (UCL). I tried to check the structure of these 2 universities. The faculty of medicine at NTNU has no biochemistry department. The Department of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, a replica of the Biochemistry department, is in the faculty of natural science and they provide service to the faculty of Medicine as we had before the coming of the colleges of medicine in Nigerian universities.

https://nigeriantracker.com/2021/10/21/ptdftetfund-and-other-nigeria-overseas-scholarship-training-schemes-why-are-we-doing-the-training/

How the increased number of departments helping to improve the quality of our academic output is what I can’t figure out. Rather than the duplication of service departments that will only increase the number of academic departments and won’t really add much value to the system but increased running cost, we should have created a college of life sciences and pulled the relevant faculties and departments into it.

Individualistic research is going extinct and most of the novelties of the 21st century are from interdisciplinary researches. One of the winners of the 2014 Nobel prize in medicine John O’Keefe is a neuroscientist in the Faculty of life sciences at the UCL with his degrees in Psychology. But the others, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser are both neuroscientists from the Faculty of Medicine at NTNU and received their first degree from the Department of Psychology and PhD in neurophysiology at the Faculty of Medicine in Oslo.

There is nothing more fascinating than the fusing of different ideas together to produce a unique product. That is the exploration in the 21st century. The world has left us behind in individualistic ideology and moved into multidisciplinary academics. If we must make progress in our universities, we must break our erected artificial barriers that are keeping us apart. The academics in physical sciences and engineering must come together with possibly a research centre that is into cutting-edge research that will involve research groups from all the relevant departments. Same way to bring life science and medical complex together.

I have seen graduates of mathematics that became Professors of Econometrics in Economics departments in universities in Europe, but not in Nigerian universities. I have seen a graduate of Chemistry that became a Professor of Engineering in Europe, but not in Nigerian universities. I have seen a graduate of Physics that became a Professor of Electric Power Engineering in Europe, but not in Nigerian universities. In Nigeria, I have seen Engr (Prof) XXX boldly written on our doors in the department but not in the universities in Europe. Are we having an identity crisis?

Professional bodies that are supposed to focus on the regulation of Professionals in the field should focus on their mandate and not be given free hands to change University policies as it pleases them. If we don’t end their interference, just like the medical council, COREN could wake up one day to tell our universities that there is a need for colleges of Engineering with departments of mathematics and physics to service the college because those in Mathematics and Physics departments are not qualified to teach engineering students because they don’t have engineering degrees. Vet council, Pharmaceuticals council, builders council, architects council, Quantity surveyors council, etc, may follow. So, how are we going to handle that?

https://nigeriantracker.com/2021/09/06/asuu-condemns-alleged-assault-on-their-member-by-dss-operatives/

Let’s stick to the founding principles of the university. Universities have world standards. We can stick to our British standard or borrow a leaf from the world’s top universities to improve our system, instead of allowing professional bodies to manipulate us and create barriers within the university system that will further slow down the progress we are to make.

Our universities are not in it’s best form and we have to do what we have to do to improve them. We should be more preoccupied with that. We should be discussing how to reposition Nigerian universities to be able to stand up to our various challenges and not duplicate departments without facilities because some Councils of professionals said so.

Finally, to my colleagues in Electric power engineering or high voltage engineering in Nigerian universities, you are welcome to experience our High Voltage Materials Laboratory in the Department of Physics, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. We have a 400 kV DC generator and 100 kV AC source with a partial discharge measurement system to serve you. Join us to learn the physics of electric power equipment. We do not have barriers!

Sports

Galadima Knocks Nigeria Sports Handlers Over Laziness in Talent Development,

Published

3 years ago

November 27, 2020

Nigerian Tracker

By Abdulgafar Oladimeji.

Former chairman, Nigeria Football Association , NFA Ibrahim Galadima(MFR) has faulted the administration, promotion and development of sports in Nigeria, noting that the continuous degenerating global status of Nigeria on the sporting arena could be attributed to laziness.

The outspoken sports administrator stated that the absence of clear cut policies on how sports should be driven in Nigeria constitutes parts of the factors that has enrolled Nigeria on the path of total failure.

Galadima in his remarks on ( Thursday)at a one day workshop organized by Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN Kano state chapter held at the conference hall of the Kano state Sports Commission with the theme “Early Warnings and Security Vigilance At Sports Events, he said “we re yet to clearly structure and drive the message clearly to say whether we are in sports for business or for leisure purposes.”

“our sports is going through difficult times, certainly, the Kenyans have a clear concentration, they have shown clearly where they belong by dominating marathon races, recently they came to Kaduna and stamped their dominance.

“The abundant talent in Nigeria remained untapped, no age group graduation, even if you are in Chad, you are considered as a foreign based athlete, we are now so lazy in identifying talents.” Galadima lamented.

He alleged that lack of trust and confidence has sent sponsors out of the industry, adding that potential brand sponsors are shying away from injecting their monies into the industry for the fear of unaccountability.