Upon assuming office in May this year, General Muhammadu
Buhari will place a call to the President of Niger Republic - Mahamadou
Issoufou – and explain to him that Nigeria intends to escalate hostilities with
Boko Haram and all other terrorists who have been using Niger as launching pad
to attack Nigeria.
He will tell Issoufou to expect a high-power delegation of
Nigerian military and foreign relations experts within a couple of days. He will tell (not ask) Issoufou that, as a fellow
non-radical, true Muslim, his full support for the impending military actions
is non-negotiable. Major General
Muhammadu Buhari in military uniform Corbis Issoufou, a fluent French speaker,
may not speak English very well, but he is ethnic Hausa
Buhari may speak Hausa
to him or they may get French and English interpreters; it does not matter as
long as the message from Buhari is clearly understood – that Nigeria intends to
kick up a lot of dust (literally and figuratively) in the desert towns and villages
around its border with Niger.
Finally, Buhari will call the Cameroonian President – Paul
Biya – and relay to him the same discussion he had had with Issoufou and
Deby. Buhari will remind Biya of the
favor Nigeria did his country under Obasanjo when, in June 2006, it ceded the
Bakassi peninsula to him under the Greentree Agreement. Obasanjo took a lot of flak for that at home
while Biya scored big for his country.
Buhari will remind him it is time to return the favor. Again, Buhari will tell (yes, tell…not ask)
Biya to fully support Nigeria in its up-coming escalation of hostilities with
Boko Haram terrorists who have been launching attacks on Nigeria from the
Cameroonian western border area.
Buhari will then dispatch no more than a five-man delegation
comprising of the Ministers of Defense and External Affairs along with the
Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Chief of
Air Staff (CAS) to all three countries.
Their message will be clear: Nigeria intends to cordon off a section of
the northeast, starting from the border with Niger just north of Gashua in Yobe
State, southward to Gashua itself and to Damaturu; then southward from Damaturu
to Biu in Borno State; and further southward to Jimeta in Adamawa State, and
eastward to the Nigerian border with Cameroon.
Nigeria intends to mass its forces on the western fringes of those towns
and begin sweeping through the towns, villages, farms and deserts, taking on
Boko Haram elements. Nigeria expects the
insurgents to flee when overwhelmed; and they would flee into western Cameroon,
western Chad and southeastern Niger.
Nigeria expects Cameroon to also cordon off parts of its northwestern
region from its border with Nigeria near Jimeta, to Garoua, just across the
border inside Cameroon, northward to Guider and then northward to Maroua. Nigeria expects Chad to also cordon off parts
of its western territory from Maroua, northward to N’Djamena and further
northward to Haraze-Al-Biar, and from Dagana to Lake Chad itself, then through lake
and up to kanem on the eastern side of the lake.
Nigeria expects Niger too to cordon off parts
of its southwestern territory starting from its border with Nigeria’s Yobe
State near Maine Soroa, to Nguigmi and all surrounding towns and villages
leading easterly towards Lake Chad. This swath of land, on the Nigerian side,
will, of course, encapsulate Maiduguri, Bama and Mubi and a host of other towns
in which Boko Haram operates at will.
Nigeria’s plan is to push northeasterly into Lake Chad. Nigeria will expect Cameroon to push
northwesterly into Lake Chad, while Chad pushes southwesterly into the
lake. Niger will push southeasterly into
Lake Chad. These pushes will be synchronized
and coordinated with the respective countries such that Boko Haram’s Waterloo
will be in and around Lake Chad.
The thinly veiled message from Buhari to the presidents of
these three countries will be that if, for whatever reasons (internal political
considerations, money, equipment, personnel) they cannot fully cooperate with
him, Nigeria is coming through their territories like a freight train
anyway. The USA does it. Russia does it. Israel does it. They all do it, even sometimes preemptively,
to safeguard their country and their people.
Nigeria is about to stand up and protect its sovereignty. Nigeria will kick do what it has to do to
protect its people. Buhari will demand
the three countries share with Nigeria locations of any of their military units
stationed in parts of their territories under discussion, to include exact town
or camp names, grid coordinates, unit names, designations, numerical strength
and types of weapons on hand.
Commanders of all four countries will understand that the reasons for
wanting those pieces of information include positive identification of friendly
forces to avoid fratricide.
Buhari will invite the French, British and American
ambassadors to Aso Rock – separately. To
the French ambassador, he will ask for French government’s understanding of and
acquiescence (if not full support because of its close ties to Niger, Chad and,
especially Cameroon) to what Nigeria is about to do. To the British and American ambassadors,
Buhari will seek support of all kinds, promising them that Nigeria will not
summarily execute anybody but will conduct its military campaigns in accordance
with relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention Articles. Buhari will then travel to Paris, London and
Washington to personally meet the leaders, reminding them that it is in the
overall interests of everybody, and especially those of the West, that
terrorists everywhere are decimated in place before they spread. Nigeria will not be asking them to commit
boots on the ground.
For Washington and London, Buhari will ask for technical
assistance in areas of intelligence – Imagery and Signal. Nigeria needs real-time satellite coverage of
the conflict areas – the Nigerian sector as well as the Nigerien, Cameroonian
and Chadian sectors. For Imagery
intelligence, these countries have more versatile Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
otherwise known as Drones. These Drones
fly quietly just above the clouds and can hardly be seen with naked eyes even
during the day. They are equipped with
highly sophisticated cameras that can film and take still pictures of areas
under coverage. Those films and pictures
can be accessed by ground control in real time while the Drones are still in
the air. These Drones operate well
whether during the day or at night, irrespective of weather conditions. And, of course, there are no pilots
onboard. So the threat of losing a pilot
if shot down by Boko Haram is eliminated.
A few other countries (Israel and Iran included) also manufacture
Drones.
But Nigeria needs to ally with
those who can provide robust support.
(It is public knowledge that India is currently trying to purchase
Drones from the US to use in monitoring Kashmir.) Of course, Drones can also be armed with
highly sophisticated weapons of different kinds, the kinds that the US has used
successfully in Yemen, Iran and Afghanistan.
But no country will sell those kinds to Nigeria.
For Signal intelligence, Nigeria needs to be able to
eavesdrop on radio, telephone and internet communications of terrorists
operating in the troubled areas. These
countries have means by which this can be done.
Now, they will be reluctant to share the technology with Nigeria or even
compromise methods by which they conduct eavesdropping operations, but they can
find ways to help if they trust us and they believe it is also in their
interest that Boko Haram is not allowed to take root in Nigeria.
Beyond Imagery and Signal intelligence, Nigeria needs Human
Intelligence. Human Intelligence is
simply “snitching” on people and reporting it to government. This, however, is a long-term process that
may not be very helpful for the immediate need of crushing Boko Haram. It behooves the Buhari administration to
revamp the Directorate of Military Intelligence, National Security
Organization, Directorate of State Security and similar organizations that have
failed to contribute significantly to unearthing sponsors and foot soldiers of
Boko Haram.
Nigeria needs the immediate support of aforementioned
countries in the areas of Financial Forensic Investigation in order to unearth
and unravel the sources of financing for the Boko Haram terrorists. Somebody is providing them funding for their
weapons! If we follow the money, we will
get their sponsors.
Buhari will seek the support of America and Britain in
supplying all sorts of arms and ammunition to Nigeria – light and heavy weapon
systems. Of course, Nigeria will pay for
these…these are not aids items…these are going to be business deals. But these would be conscientious business
deals.
Buhari will tell these presidents that without their help,
Nigeria would disintegrate; that he plans a massive assault – a Powell
Doctrine-like overwhelming force operation - which he expects should be over
within a few months. He would promise
them unfettered access for the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and all United
Nations organizations that want to monitor the operations. The operations will, of course, be open to
local and international media. The
operations will be conducted according to the internationally recognized Law of
Land Warfare.
Upon securing the support he needs, Buhari will invite the
Minster of Defense and the CDS to his office.
He will bring in the Minister first and tell him that from that moment
on, the CDS reports to him (the Minister) directly. Yes, the constitution allows the CDS to
report directly to the president, but until he has the time to tinker with the
constitution, he would make the CDS accord full respect to the Minister and
re-construct the chain-of-authority in a way that eliminates the kind of
nonsense that happened when CDS Badeh disrespected his Minister of Defense. Then he would invite the CDS in, having the
Minister sit in on the meeting.
Buhari
will then tell the CDS something along these lines: The Honorable Minister is
my trusted representative. I will take
seriously ALL staffing recommendations, to include appointments, retirements
and sackings from him. I will take seriously his budget recommendations. You have overall operational control and
responsibility during all conflicts and training exercises. I expect you to apprise him of all major
actions before they are taken and if they are time-sensitive and can’t wait for
you to appraise him, do so immediately after the fact. I will always call him - not you - for
explanations. You should not leave him
high and dry, devoid of necessary information to brief me when I ask him to do
so. Now, if you feel you can’t work with
him, you come to me directly with your complaints. I will be fair. But from now on, I do not want to see you in
my office unless you are with him.
Buhari will now turn to both of them: “I expect the COAS and
CAS to be primarily stationed no further south than Jos and no further west
than Bauchi. I do not want to see either
of them in Abuja or outside the northeast unless the Minister approves it. If they need to communicate with the CDS, as
I expect them to do regularly, the CDS must go there. Also, I no longer want to see a Major General
as the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Defense. Find better ways to employ all my
Generals. The PRO should be no more than
a Lieutenant Colonel. I expect to be
personally briefed every week on our progress.
I expect a regular, nationally televised briefing to Nigerians and the
international community by the CDS until this is over and we re-deploy our
troops to pre-mobilization status.”
To the CDS: “I know
you have a list of weapons you have requested and did not receive before I was
elected; those are now on their way and should reach us in about 30 days. You need to update that list to reflect what
your needs might be after you have heard my expectations of you today. I leave the operational details to you as I
do not want to micro-manage your operations.
But I promised our international partners an overwhelming but quick sets
of operations. That means you should use
every available man and woman under your authority.
It means you should employ every weapon in
your armory. It means you should call up
all the training our men and women have undertaken. I do not need an army unit sitting idly in
Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Enugu, Ilorin, Calabar or any other part of Nigeria
while the northeast burns. Overwhelming
force means if Boko Haram sends 50 fighters forward, we should meet them with
50,000 fighters. If they come to us, we
should meet them head-long. If they
don’t come to us, we should go to them.
If they come with AK-47s, we should come with fighter jets, attack
helicopters, indirect artillery fires, 50mm guns, full and semi-automatic
weapons, shoulder-fired grenade launchers, hand grenades, AK-47s, pistols,
knives and razor blades.
If they are
comfortable fighting us in the morning, we will fight them all day and all
night, depriving them of rest and recuperation.
We should attack them frontally and we should conduct ambushes and
raids. We should set booby traps for
them and we should conduct sabotage attacks on their fortifications. We will overwhelm them with “shock and awe”
so they don’t ever think of coming back.
I want all fingers on all triggers.
Remember, some of the fights will be unconventional, needing guerilla
warfare tactics. We will have to fight
them in the streets of some of our towns and in the crevices of some of our
villages. We should do so with
overwhelming force. We want this to
serve as deterrence to future terrorists.
When we go through these villages, all possible escape routes should be
blocked and every single house is searched.
Those terrorists who surrender, we should capture and send immediately
to the rear for interrogations. And
those who wish to keep fighting, we should send to their Maker with dispatch
and without mercy. With Imagery
Intelligence and Signal Intelligence support from our allies, you should strive
to always conduct intelligence-driven, full spectrum operations. Try to not send your force into any “blind”
situation. At the very minimum, you
should have credible Human Intelligence about the target before setting
off.
We should not maltreat the people
we are trying to protect, but we should not send a piecemeal force to take any
target. Remember that we have to hold
the places we have cleared to prevent the enemy from coming back and surprising
us from the rear as we move forward. I
know you are not a soldier, let alone an infantry man, but you wear those stars
for a reason. You should be able to sit
the COAS down and have him show you his plans, which should be along the lines
of what I just explained, incorporating the COA’s plan for air support in every
major operation.
If any of your service
chiefs are confused about anything and need me to set them straight, have them
give you their resignation letters and you pass those on to the Minister. There is no room for mediocrity and arm-chair
generalship in this government. I
expect you to form no more than three rotations of troops in and out of battle
in case this thing takes a year or more; although if we use overwhelming force,
it shouldn’t last longer than two months.
Go ahead and psychologically prepare your troops for the long haul so
that if the conflict ends sooner, they will be pleasantly surprised. You may now leave. Save whatever questions you have for the
Minister. I won’t take too long with
him. He will join you outside
shortly. Thank you for your service to
our nation.”
Once the CDS leaves, Buhari says to the Minister: “I have gotten the assurances from both the Senate
leader and the Speaker of the House that my extra-ordinary request for funds to
prosecute this war will be approved quickly.
I will make sure you get what you need to fight this war. But you need to make sure these weapons and
other equipment get to the units and to the soldiers. While the military guys are doing their own
thing, you need to go through that ministry and fish out those who have been
diverting funds and materiel meant for our military. There should be no sacred cows. Any person you suspect should be immediately
transferred out of Abuja pending the outcome of investigations. You must project the image of a no-nonsense,
incorruptible Minister. You don’t have
to be brash or rude or dictatorial. But
you have to be proactive, firm and fair.
If you do the due diligence over every issue before bringing your
recommendations to me, you will have my support.
Our loyalty should be to the troops. Make sure every single soldier, whether
deployed to the northeast or not, is not owed his salary for a single day. Make sure no soldier pays for his own
uniforms. Make sure no soldier pays for
his own medical expenses…deployed or not.
Make sure all casualties we sustain are treated with dignity and
respect; that the families left behind are catered for, especially the spouses
and children. Make sure the deployed
soldiers’ deployment bonuses are paid on time.
By the way, I have approved your recommendation for increase in the
salaries of our military personnel.
Those in the ranks of army Corporal through Captain will get 100%
increase. Majors and Lieutenant Colonels
will get a 50% increase.
Colonel through
Major General will get 30% increase and Lieutenant General and General and
Field Marshall (if we ever get one in the army) will get 10%. The same is true for the equivalent of these
ranks in the Air Force and the Navy.
Deployment bonuses will be 30% of basic salaries for everybody. All pay increases take effect immediately. I want you to inform the CDS before you go on
national TV to make the announcement today.
If I didn’t tell you before your appointment, let me reiterate
this: I want you and the CDS to work
together like brothers. Your
relationship should go beyond the office.
He should be able to predict you and you should know what he wants
before he even makes the request.
Although I have made him subordinate to you, do not abuse your office or
rub this in his face. Treat him with
dignity and respect. He has earned his
rank and has sacrificed a lot for this country.
And I have confidence in him otherwise I would have replaced him. I do not want unnecessary acrimony. That does not mean you should be intimidated
by the uniform or the gun. But your
disagreement with him should be civil and about what is best for the
military. I do not want to hear about
any petty, self-aggrandizement quarrels.
If I have to help run your ministry, it means I do not need you.”
No, this writer is not privy to any specific plan by Buhari
to fight Boko Haram. Let no one hold him
responsible for anything I wrote above.
These are just some of what I think, from experience, need to be done in
order to win this war. President
Goodluck Jonathan could have done the same thing, except that he lacked
credibility with the rank and file Nigerian troops and foreign leaders that could help.
Biodun Ladepo,
Los Angeles, California, USA
Oluyole2@yahoo.com
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