Professionalism aided defeat of Boko Haram, says defence minister

Defense Minister, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali

The Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd), yesterday said observance of professionalism by the military largely accounted for the defeat of terrorism in the North East.

Inaugurating Course 1,2017 of the Army War College in Abuja, the minister noted that the capacity of the once powerful insurgents was decimated in no time when the President Muhammadu Buhari administration took power due to the vigorous training of requisite equipment to prosecute the anti-terror war in the North East.

His words: “The procurement of new equipment coupled with good leadership has boosted the morale of troops, which has led to the numerous successes recorded in the fight against terrorism.

“Additionally, the rate of kidnapping, cattle rustling and even communal clashes is on the decrease. The professional conduct of our military has seen the capabilities of Boko Haram significantly degraded which had before now terrorised and killed innocent citizens as well as seized territories within our country.”

Dan-Ali noted that “professionalism, training and purposeful leadership at all levels contributed to this feat.” He continued: “We must, therefore, continue to train in order to sustain these gains.”

He assured the citizenry that government will continue to support the armed forces in their quest to institutionalize professionalism. The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, noted that terrorism and insurgency were challenges to governments world over due to the transnational nature of terrorists and their asymmetrical techniques.

“It is very germane that we train our operational level commanders to understand the dynamics and think out of the box to develop feasible strategies to defeat the adversaries and their allies,” he said.