Feb. 4, 2022

A former Nigerian Army spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman says hiring mercenaries is not the solution to insurgency in Nigeria

He added that the country has all it takes to defend its territories and defeat those threatening its sovereignty and peace.

General Usman said this on Friday while speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

Giving inferences as to what the nation needs to totally decimate the terrorists, he said additional numbers to the ranks, more equipment, and weaponry, will serve in consolidating the victory over the insurgents.

He also asserted that authorities look at the feats attained by the Nigerian Armed Forces and stop denigrating the military, even as the war against insurgency rages on.

His comment was in reaction to a statement by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, who during the weekly ministerial briefing at the State House on Thursday, asked the Federal Government and the Nigerian Army to fix gaps in the fight against insurgency by considering, as a matter of utmost importance, the need to engage external mercenaries for support.

General Usman believes that such statements are highly demoralising to the troops and as such should be stopped forthwith.

Enumerating some of the feats attained by the troops including the dismantling of Boko Haram and ISWAP caliphates in the Northeast, said what is required now is to “build on the gains rather than denigrating the efforts of the Nigerian Military”.

Gen. Usman said it is one thing for Zulum to commend the military when he is in their midst and then head to the seat of power and propose something in contrast.

“We should be on the same page, if there is anything, we should always be talking to each other on the same platform; so that even if the soldiers are doing wrong, then they will be made to know that they are doing wrong and correct it, this is how it is supposed to be,” the General declared.

“These guys (troops) are doing marvelously well,” the former army spokesman remarked.

He also advised that issues that have to do with local support and good governance must immediately be addressed, adding that constructive engagements with the host communities are pivotal to winning the war.

General Usman urged people to commend the Nigerian troops for what they have done and are still doing, stressing that the grounds they have covered in less than two decades within which the war has spanned, is indeed laudable.