Ex-commander of the Nigerian military uncovers the main problem in fighting Boko Haram.
Shortly after being sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 13 the immediate past commander of the Nigerian military Alex Badeh uncovered the main problem in fighting Boko Haram that led to his resignation.
He told that saboteurs within the ranks of the army constantly leaked crucially important information about operational plans to Boko Haram. Many soldiers and officers lost their lives getting into ambushes by Boko Haram militants who knew everything about their movements in advance.
And that fact didn’t add the motivation to fight an enemy described by Badeh as “invisible and embedded with the local populace”.
Another serious problem besides information leaks and lack of motivation is the lack of military equipment. For example, the US refused to sell arms to Nigeria and even blocked the purchase of helicopters from Israel. Besides that Nigeria’s attempt to buy arms from the black market resulted in the confiscation of military equipment in South Africa worth $ 15 million.
Despite weapons have been finally purchased from China, Russia and Ukraine, Alex Badeh told that the lack of equipment had negative consequences in fight with Boko Haram. Badeh also described the operation against Boko Haram as the greatest challenge in his 38-year-long career. Even Badeh’s native town, Mubi, was briefly captured by Boko Haram in 2014.
Alex Badeh also made the previous government responsible for decay of Nigerian military. In his opinion, the government did wrong reducing army ranks.
“Over the years, the military was neglected and under-equipped 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,” – expressed Badeh his opinion, concluding that “accordingly, when faced with the [Boko Haram]crisis, 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.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed new service chiefs following the sacking of military service chiefs on July 13.
Earlier the United States-based Nigerian journalist Abiodun Ladepo in his piece called ‘Air Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh Is Too Fat To Head The Military,’ called Badeh the most out-of-shape military officer he has ever seen.
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