6 May 17, I was privileged to fly on the last chopper that brought back the released Chibok girls. Seeing the girls - young, naive BUT broken, was a reminder of how cruel man is. When we touched down, I stayed with them briefly in the C-130 before the Abuja lap.
Military medics began basic checks, deworming them and tending their wounds. There was one particular girl who had lost a leg. She said the Air Force had hit BHT positions & during the strike she lost a leg. I stared at her, wishing it was a dream.
Sitting beside her was another girl - the bravest girl I ever met. For the purpose of this thread, let us call her 'N'. N kept a daily journal of what happened everyday at the BH camp. I snapped as many pages as I could. The girls attested that she was the leader of the pack.
Right under Boko Haram's nose, every night, after the terrorists had ordered them for 'lights out', she would organise the girls for prayers & morning devotion the next day. I found myself smiling sheepishly at this. This is faith. This is bravery.
When the medics were done & we were notified that the C-130 would depart for Abuja, N made a signal & all the girls sat up, crossed their legs & bend their heads. N led them in prayers. I would later learn that this was their routine when there was danger or the bombs dropped.
As the C-130 ascended to Abuja to hand them to Mr President, I looked. A pilot who had flown the chopper was sitting on the tarmac, red-eyed.
It took a soldier to talk us to leaving the tarmac that day. We were just heaving like bereaved men.
'Sarkin Yakin Damboa'
The people of Damboa called him Sarkin Yaki (King of War). But Captain MM Hassan was much more. BHT dreaded him to the extent that Shekau placed a 10 million Naira bounty on him.
Hassan was tough as a nail. 2 years after his death in 2018, I met a corporal in Gwoza, who drove him for most of his operations. The soldier was smiling all through & he said something that touched me.
'Sarki dey smile everytime. E talk say nothing worth person cry'.
He said MM Hassan was the toughest officer he ever knew.
"I happy say I pass through that Oga."
He told me of an incident where Hassan fought through an ambush to rescue him. After then, he never thought Hassan was human until 5 Janary 2018.
On 5 January 2018, MM Hassan died from a detonated grenade in the midst of gunfight with terrorists. May his soul continue to rest in peace.
'041116: My Longest Day Ever'
I remember how excited I was to see Lt Col Abu Ali the first time. He was a Major then. Stories of him sounded like folklore, like war stories brought to life. People talked of his sheer brilliance & sacrifice for his men.
So, the first day I met him he actually came from Mallam Fatori to Maiduguri to collect supplies for his unit. Sounds strange. A Major? Coming to the city to take supplies for soldiers? This is not typical of senior officers. It is one task they would delegate.
I was also surprised by his frame. Man was lanky and very quiet. But you saw the fight in him. He embodies the military song, 'Small body, Big Mind'. He didn't talk much.
When he was leaving, after a brief discussion, he breathed, 'We will win'.
In 2015, BHT carried out one of its bloodiest attacks in Baga, killing numbers so much that it was covered up till today. As far as the battlefield is concerned, we would always credit Abu Ali for taking that town back.
I woke up to a text on 5 November that the officer was killed in a dawn attack on Mallam Fatori. This was 2 weeks after I encountered him. His men eventually beat back Boko Haram but his death still cuts deep.
During his procession, I saw generals cried. The COAS wept. His death rocked the Presidency. He defined patriotism.
May his soul continue to rest in peace. Amen.
'In your words, we will win'.
Eyes from Above
I was in Rann in 2016, before the mishap on the IDPs. The Armed Forces maintain strategic outposts to protect the interest of the country. The one in Rann is one of such.
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You had the option of pushing the Alpha jet to base after getting hit by enemy anti aircraft guns. But you refused to take the option. Instead, you nosed down, air rammed into the enemy, like the Kamikaze, to kill 63 of them & deployed your chutes in hostile territory.
It is said that when men die in service, little is said of the alternate story that would have happened if these men never crossed the line. So, on 12/9/2014, when we watched how you were murdered, we knew the alternate story will have been chaos for those communities.
Air Maverick.
Not just for that day but for everyday you gave yourself, like on that hot day in Baga, when insurgents pinned our troops with an MBT & you stepped in to give them havoc; we salute you. The relics still lies in the hinterland.
If you ever work at mid or top level in government, you would soon realize that the productivity of appointees is based on the ideologies of their principals & having witnessed this, I am slow to conclude on who is a failure or not. I would give you two real life examples.
It is always not right to mention names of serving military officers. One of the best directors of operations in one of the armed services in the last 2 years appeared very ordinary prior to this. Reason? At a point, circumstance did not entertain out-of-box thinking.
Most people at the top prefer routines. Routines are low-risk & easy to defend. How do you sit before the Senate Committee of Defence to defend that you lost 50 men trying to use unconventional techniques to grab a high profile kingpin in a location where air recce is limited?
Congratulations president-elect. Every patriot will want you to succeed & this is my 2 cents. You are just about to take command of the biggest & one of the most sophisticated militaries in Africa. In there is an overabundance of highly-trained, loyal men & women, the finest!
For these, you may wish to consider your appointments based purely on merit. After all, the loyalties of officer A & B are non-negotiable. And you know what, if you decide to do otherwise, nobody will complain but you will see the effects in full term.
Please sir, you may wish to now define the appropriate term limits for service chiefs. The services are still struggling with the 'overstay' of the previous chiefs. This has a way of stalling initiatives & cutting the growth of brilliant officers.
Now that the manifestos are coming out & the candidates have been sharing their thoughts on security, we can clearly see that the main strength of all the 3 top candidates is in the economy. Very watery approach to security. Obviously they are not talking to experts. 1/12
First of all, resources are scarce. Setting up new battalions or even an agency isn't what you need. You will lose time in training & administration. The enemies won't be waiting for you. Again, continous recruitment is not a tactic too. 2/12
Talk to locals in the affected communities. Travel and see these communities. How long do you think you will need to populate these areas with men and machines? Any plan without timelines is one with a tortous cycle. 3/12
In the last 3 weeks, I've closely followed 2 families caught in the tragedy of banditry activities around Birnin Gwari.
Kidnapping is currently at an incredible. Bandits requested for 12 million each to release per abductee. But this is not all. 1/10
After negotiations, in each case, when the families had paid the ransoms, they made fresh requests for motorcycle bikes, desert bikes, they refer to as, 'Boko Haram'. Families were instructed to deliver the bikes, alongside 2 million each for fuel (Kudin mayi). 2/10
This is where it gets interesting. The bandits vehemently refused to take money for the bikes but insisted the families have to buy them because of recent clampdown of security forces on the smuggling of these bikes. However, they gave the families the contacts of ... 3/10