Danjuma: No More Excuses for Insecurity, Service Chiefs Must End the Pandemic Now

Chuks Okocha and Linus Aleke in Abuja

A former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, yesterday, tasked the service chiefs to end the ravaging terrorism and banditry across the federation now, and return the country back to the part of peace and prosperity.

According to him, there should be no more excuses in the coordinated effort to end what he described as pandemic.

But the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen Christopher Musa, replied, saying the military was positioned and working tirelessly to restore peace across the federation.

Danjuma gave this charge in Abuja, during a book launch titled: “Big Boots: Lessons from My military Service,” authored by Maj. Gen. Solomon Udounwa (rtd).

Danjuma, who was chairman of the occasion, extolled the virtues of the author and his commitment to excellence in his military career.

“Number one problem today is security. We must end the pandemic, stop the killings that are going on in our country as soon as possible. Those of you who are still serving, no more excuses, absolutely no,” he said.

Responding, Musa added that the armed forces would continue to uphold the values of service, integrity and honor that define extreme military tradition.

He said: “Let me also mention to our distinguished chairman that the armed forces of Nigeria are positioned, willing, dedicated and committed in ensuring that we restore peace and security in our own dear country.

“We shall not be deterred. There are going to be challenges, but that is why we are here. I want to assure you that we have learned a lot from your record – very, very distinguished senior officers that have modeled us all through the years. We cannot afford to fail and we will not fail.”

The author, Maj. Gen. Udounwa, said he was motivated by the desire to document his experiences for the younger generation.

“Well, I was motivated by a lot of factors. The first one is that the military profession thrives on experiential learning.

“That is to say that younger generations of military officers and soldiers require that you learn from the experiences of those who served before them to know whether it’s issues of strategy, administration, operational management, and the rest.

“If you don’t document your experiences, that could be lost and then those coming behind you might not be able to learn from all the exposure and all the training that you had while in service.

“So, my book is going to be of interest to serving personnel, military historians, the academia, people who are interested in national and international security affairs, and the general public. So, that was the motivation.”

He expressed confidence that the younger generation of officers, who are still serving would learn from some of the challenges he faced and how he was able to navigate through them.

“I hope they will learn that to serve in the military requires discipline, requires professionalism, integrity, character, courage, and so many other virtues that an officer must display while undertaking his duties,” he said.

He further explained that the title of the book “Big Boots was informed by the size of his foot and boots in the military, even as he recalled that he faced bullies in primary school, but the day he decided to unleash his big feet on one of the bullies, it ended.