The story of Major Generals Lucky Irabor and Ibrahim Attahiru, the new Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff, respectively, is like that of two blood brothers following one another.

Before their appointments as service chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari, Irabor and Attahiru were Commander and Deputy Commander at the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC Minna) of the Nigerian Army, located in Minna, Niger State.

Established in 1981, TRADOC is a research-oriented formation in the Nigerian Army. It is nevertheless dreaded by many officers who regard it as a kind of Siberia, a dumping ground or a quarter-to- retirement construct for senior officers who have fallen out of favour.

In reality, TRADOC is charged with doctrinal training and combat development, while supervising and coordinating research and development of all training schools, depots and the command college of the Nigerian Army.

Before the establishment of the Nigerian Army Resources Centre (NARC) in 2015, TRADOC had served as a major senior think-tank and a liaison centre between the Army and educational establishments, in ensuring the professional development of officers. It also serves as a corps headquarters for directing the operational tasks of various divisions of the Army that are on deployment.

Annually, TRADOC conducts and supervises the Senior Staff Course Qualifying Examination (SSCQE) for officers in the ranks of Major and Captain across all Army formations. This examination is a major prerequisite for officers to attend the Senior Staff Course in Nigeria or subscribed staff colleges overseas.

While Irabor, an Igbo from Agbor in Ika South of Delta State, was born on October 5, 1965, Attahiru, a Hausa from Doka in Kaduna State, was born on August 10, 1966.

Irabor is a member of Regular Course 34, whereas Attahiru is a member of Regular Course 35 of the Nigerian Defence Academy. They have both served as Theatre Commanders of Operation Lafiya Dole, the central counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency outfit of the Nigerian Army in North-Eastern Nigeria. It was Irabor, as Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, who handed over the leadership of the unit to Attahiru on May 30, 2017.

General Irabor, the new Defence Chief obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and Master’s degrees from the University of Ghana, Accra and the Bangladesh University of Professional, Dhaka. He is an alumnus of the National Defence College, Bangladesh and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, USA. He also attended the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) and Ghana Armed Forces Staff College, Teshi, among several other military courses.

Attahiru obtained a Graduate Diploma from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and holds Master’s degrees from the Nigerian Defence Academy and Salford University in the United Kingdom. Attahiru also attended the National Defence College, Kenya; the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Special Forces Academy, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province,; Bournemouth University, United Kingdom; and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Major General Lucky Irabor has held several appointments in the course of his career. Notable among these were the Nigerian Defence Academy Adjutant; Commanding Officer, 515 Signal Regiment; Commander, 53 Signals Brigade; Principal Staff Officer to the Chief of Army Staff; Coordinator, Nigerian Army Aviation; Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole; Force Commander, Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF); and the Chief of Defence Training and Operations.

Similarly, before his most recent posting, General Ibrahim Attahiru held top military positions, including serving as Deputy Director Office of Military Secretary; Spokesperson and Director, Army Public Relations; Commanding Officer, 146 Battalion in the Bakassi Peninsula; Commander, 13 Brigade (Pulo Shield) in the Niger Delta; and the General Officer Commanding 82nd Division, Nigerian Army, Enugu. He was also Deputy Chief of Policy and Plans at the Army Headquarters; Chief of Defence Transformation and Innovation; and Chief of Defence Logistics, at Defence Headquarters Abuja.

In terms of foreign operations, both Irabor and Attahiru in their ‘follow-follow-brotherhood’ have undergone tours of duty with the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), and served in peacekeeping with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), where they were honoured with medals and awards at various times.

The two Generals brought relative stability to the North-East region while they were Theatre Commanders of the counter-insurgency effort at different periods.

In fact, Irabor, as the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole in 2016, was responsible for the capture of Alargano forest, the acclaimed spiritual base of Boko Haram, and the rescue of thousands of civilians, including two Chibok girls earlier abducted by terrorists. He also led the MNJTF in the clearance and domination of the towns of Gashigar, Arege and Metele in the North-East, as well as the destruction of several terrorist camps and IED-making factories in the Lake Chad Basin.

Meanwhile, as Theatre Commander, Attahiru created dugouts along the crossing points of the Boko Haram terrorists, to deny the group freedom of action and stem the conduct of their nefarious activities, before launching Mobile Strike Teams (MSTs) to reinforce the Mobile Brigade Concept (MBC) adopted in the Theatre to facilitate the quick defeat of the terrorists. At least five top commanders of Boko Haram and over 70 of their fighters were killed in the offensive, while 72 other members of the terror group surrendered to the Nigerian troops through non-kinetic and coordinated media operations he commissioned.

Even with their closely related professional attainments, yet in terms of personal dispositions, Irabor could be diplomatic in approach on necessary exigencies, while Attahiru is noted as being quite rigid on the levels of military discipline and operations.

With the appointment of these new service chiefs, the next counter-insurgency campaign should not only be aimed at the deadly Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists but it must also be targeted at their informants and the communities that harbour terrorists. It is undeniable that terrorists do not drop from outer space to launch their attacks on troops, travellers and other innocent citizens, as they are also located in the same communities that Nigerian troops are trying to protect.

Therefore, in the two remaining years of President Buhari’s administration, the military should deploy sophisticated surveillance equipment for intelligence gathering, and to tackle informants and communities that are protecting and harbouring terrorists. It is high time the government puts an end to these treasonable acts of sabotage of the security and well-being of the country, which also undermines the effectiveness of our gallant forces and leads to the unfortunate erosion of their numbers.

The new service chiefs including Rear Admiral Auwal Z. Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff; and Air-Vice Marshal Isiaka O Amao, Chief of Air Staff. should be aware that is not how long they are in office that really matters, but the swiftness of the sea-change in the impact that they bring to bear on Nigeria’s deeply deteriorating security situation, towards the reclamation of national safety and stability. As they set out in their new, even if highly formidable engagements, may the best of their efforts be all that our country needs in restoring its balance.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author “An Encounter with the Spymaster”
www.YAShuaib.com

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Dear President Muhammadu Buhari,

This open letter was actually intended to be an appeal to the service chiefs to turn up their letters of voluntary retirement after they have served their mandatory two-year tenures, and another two years of extension, which expired last year.

Since their stay in office is at the discretion of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I have rather decided to write this memo, appealing to you in the spirit of fairness, standard procedure and progression in the service, to allow the longest-serving service chiefs go after exceeding their run-out dates (ROD), which is the mandatory 35 years of military service, and the additional discretionary extension, which is generally time-bound.

As you are aware Mr. President, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin from Ekiti was born on December 2, 1961. He enrolled at the Nigerian Military School, Zaria in 1973 and later joined the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) as a member of the 25th Regular Course. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1981.

The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas from Cross River, was born on September 27, 1960. He enlisted into the NDA as a member of 26th Regular Course on June 20, 1979 and was commissioned a sub-lieutenant on January 1, 1983.

Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar from Bauchi was born on April 8, 1960 in Azare, Bauchi State. He joined the Nigerian Air Force as a member of the Cadet Military Training Course (CMTC 5) in November 1979.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai from Borno was born on November 24, 1960. In January 1981, he attended the NDA as a member of the 29th Regular Course (29 RC). He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on December 17, 1983.

Meanwhile, the most senior military officer, besides the service chiefs, is Lieutenant General Lamidi Adeosun from Osun, who was born on August 22, 1963 and enrolled into the Army on July 4, 1983. He has also clocked 35 years in the service.

As you may be aware Mr. President, apart from attaining the ROD, the tenures of the defence and service chiefs have since expired, going by the revised Armed Forces of Nigeria Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service (HTACOS) for officers.

In Section 09.08 of the said HTACOS, which is the authoritative and official service order in the military, it is stated that, “An officer appointed to the substantive appointment of the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff will hold the appointment for a continuous period of two years. The appointment could be extended for another two years from the date of expiration of the initial two-year period.”

The service chiefs were first appointed in July 2015 and their tenures were extended for an additional two years in 2017, which finally expired in 2019. It has always been the standard practice, since the return of democratic governance to Nigeria in 1999, for service chiefs to be in office for a maximum term of two years, except on a few occasions of discretionary extension by Mr. President, after which replacements are made.

The retention of the chiefs stagnates the careers of other senior officers and induces unfair early mature retirements, in the absence of vacancies at the topmost echelons of the services.

As in the practice in the past, the exit of a service chief automatically impels the departure of their course mates from the service, such that officers who are next in seniority, such as the chiefs of various corps and departments at the service headquarters; general officers commanding; commandants; brigade commanders; and directors then experience an upward movement in their careers.

As it is now, at least five sets, and generations of regular course (RC) members, including those in the 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd courses, with the exception of Lt. General Adeosun, have left the service without any of them attaining the highest military positions in their various services. There is likelihood that those of the 33rd and 34th courses may also not have the privilege of producing a service chief among them if this trend continues. With limited vacancy, only a few officers can be promoted, while several other brilliant officers would be forced to go on retirement.

Meanwhile, after staying for more than four years, with adequate resources provided to the military chiefs for procurements, recruitments and the training of personnel, they have performed to the best of their abilities, yet recent developments call for more strategic thinking, fresh ideas and a change in the administration and style of managing generations of military talents.

The international community has been raising concerns about disturbing trends from the end of last year into the beginning of the new year (2020) pertaining to the steady reversal in the fortunes of our troops in the hands of terrorists.

The European Parliament, the legislative branch of the European Union (EU), observed that there has not been any significant progress in the fight against the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists. The Parliament, in its resolution of January 16, 2020, remarked that the security situation in Nigeria has deteriorated significantly, with insurgents turning the Maiduguri-Damaturu and surrounding routes into an extended death zone.

In the same vein, the United Nations (UN) had expressed outrage over the scale and intensity of the attacks carried out by the suspected insurgents against its facilities and other targets in parts of North-East Nigeria. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon strongly condemned attacks on its humanitarian hub.

There is also the alarming Global Terrorism Index of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which ranked Nigeria as the third country with the highest level of terrorist activity in 2019, after Iran and Afghanistan.

Some of these reports are not only distressing in terms of the upsurge in the insurgency but have been very embarrassing, as terrorists are not only going for soft targets but staging ambushes against our gallant troops while attacking military facilities. In some instances, civilians, as well as soldiers, have been either abducted or killed by the cowardly but deadly terrorists.

In other climes, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and the Niger Republic, such incidents usually necessitate the replacement of service chiefs under whose leadership there are repeat assaults and losses of lives of troops in the hands of terrorists.

While I believe the service chiefs have good intentions and have done their best, I suggest they leave when the ovations are loudest and in order to allow fresh ideas to come into the management of our national security, whilst encouraging progression and the promotion of deserving officers in the armed forces. This will also inspire in a coming generation of officers, the hope of their finding ultimate career fulfilment in the armed forces, after decades of sacrifice.

The President can even promote any one of the military chiefs to the position of Chief of Defence Staff since the current CDS has remained the most senior and older officer in the military in the last four years.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Founder PRNigeria and Author “An Encounter with the Spymaster”
yashuaib@yahoo.com

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