Buratai: Boko Haram Fight Not Yet Over

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Lt.-General Tukur Buratai has stated that although the Nigerian army has recorded tremendous successes in the counter terrorism operations in recent time where the notorious Boko Haram insurgents were ‘technically defeated’, the fight is not yet over, as the gains needed to be consolidated to prevent the terrorists from regrouping or re-strategising

Speaking while declaring open the 19th Combat Service Support Training Week recently at the Command Guest house, Bauchi, his representative, the Chief of Logistics, Army headquarters, Abuja Major General Rogers Ibeh Nicholas said the roles of the Combat Services Support Corps in modern warfare was paramount; hence their decision to introduce series of training courses for the officers on regular basis.

”The theme of this year’s training week which is ‘Optimising the Capabilities of the Combat Service Support Corps Towards the Effective Support of the Nigerian Army to meet Contemporary Security Challenges’ rightly shows that the Nigerian Army has made some successes in our COIN/CT operations, especially with our technical defeat of Boko Haram Terrorists. But let me quickly state that the fight is not over yet and our gains need to be consolidated”, he asserted.

He added that logistics was as important as strategy and tactics in modern warfare promising that the army headquarters would continue to encourage the logistics corps in the area of renovations, maintenance of equipment, purchase of major logistics equipment, and ensuring adequate training of officers.

“An army can only neglect logistics to its peril. After this training week, a mini committee from the logistics corps will be constituted here to come up with a policy on equipment maintenance and protection of facilities”, he noted.
In his address, the Acting Commander Nigerian Army Medical Corps Brigadier General Clifford Brown Wanda explained that the training week was an annual event being organised and rotated among the combat service corps for capacity building, which has been a mainstay of the Nigerian Army training schedule for the last two decades.

“It is pertinent to note that in its relationship to strategy, logistics assumes the character of a dynamic force, without which the strategic conception is simply a paper plan. As we select our forces and plan our operations, we must understand how logistics can impact on our concepts of operations. Therefore, Commanders must base all their concepts of operations on what they know they can do logistically.”

The yearly training week provides an interactive forum for officers to share, explore and discuss concepts and issues that will impact positively on logistics support to the Nigerian Army in all operations. It also provides the participants with a good insight into the necessity of synergy between the combat arms, combat support arms and the combat support service in relation to logistics planning and provision within the available resources.

Brigadier General Wanda also said at the end of the exercise, they would come up with workable recommendations that could substantially help in the “complete eradication of insurgency and other security challenges in the nation”.