Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima, has said army generals of Southern extraction were the most effective in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency in the north eastern part of Nigeria.
Speaking on Tuesday at a town-hall meeting which had four ministers in attendance to discuss the military and security, Shettima said Boko Haram insurgents enjoyed a new lease of life after 2016 because of the failure of the military command at the theatre of war.
He opined the transfer and subsequent replacement of the former theatre commander of Operation Lafiya Dole Theatre Command, Major-General Leo Irabor caused the momentum to drop.
His replacement, Major-General Attahiru Ibrahim, in the governor’s opinion, did a shoddy job of sustaining the momentum built by Irabor.
Ibrahim has since been replaced by Major-General Rogers Nicholas.
Governor Shettima observed that the previous commanders, who are from the southern states of Nigeria, did much better than the last occupant of the office who is from the north.
“The last Theatre Commander who is even a northerner had woefully failed to perform,” said Shettima.
“When General Leo Irabor, another southerner, was leaving, he left the Boko Haram insurgents in their degraded state. But the insurgents picked up their hostility shortly after he left,” he said.
“Some of our greatest accomplishments in the current counterinsurgency efforts were recorded under army generals who are not from Borno and northern Nigeria.
“And what we have recorded in the last six weeks outweighs what was accomplished in the last three years, especially under General Nicholas who is yet another hero of our time.”
He called for a sustenance of the offensive against the terrorists especially “now before the now dry Sambisa forest becomes an impregnable fortress for Boko Haram”.
The Ministers of Defence and Interior, Mannir Dan-Ali and Abdulrahman Dambazau as well as the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmad, were at the meeting. Also in attendance were members of some states houses of assemblies, emirs and developments organizations, drawn from six states.
