Remember the #BringBackOurGirls campaign Chief Oby Ezekwesili? A fierce critic of the Nigerian military (sometimes for good reasons) ALA Dasukigate.
HAAA !!

That was what came out of the mouth of Oby Ekwezeli when NAF fighter pilots showed her the staggering size and inhospitable terrain of the Sambisa forest.
After lambasting the Nigerian military on its failure to locate the Chibok girls in an "ordinary forest" (exact term she used) on CNN's Amanpour, the NAF invite to join in a short tour of the Sambisa forest to observe the search by the military for the missing schoolgirls.
Needless to say she realised the enormous complexity of military operations in a land area the size of Scotland. Oby Ezekwesili via her Twitter account wrote

QUOTE

The dreaded Sambisa is massive. 60,000 square kilometres. 18 times the size of Lagos state !!
All of Lagos is 3,345 square kilometres. We are doing fine. We returned to Yola after a very full day on a Day Search of Sambisa.

END QUOTE.

Nigerian reporters should grow a spine and embed with frontline units to get a first hand perspective on the war effort.

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More from @DefenseNigeria

30 Oct
Take a look at this. They poured in from across the border. Most of these ISWAP fighters are from as far as the Futajalons. Majority not even Nigerians. Some interest groups do not want peace and stability in Nigeria for fear of this black behemoth living up to its potentials.
We are playing with fire. Why? This is Juan Remy Quignolot, a former French soldier that served in Mali busted in the Central African Republic in June 2021 with a large caches of weapons, ammunition and hard currencies he was to supply to rebel factions in the C.A.R. ImageImageImageImage
Let's not forget Mr Baharat Gnoti caught by border guards trying to enter Nigeria with 22 SA-7 surface to air missiles he was instructed to deliver to Boko Haram. This should keep the Abuja up at night knowing
this is our neighbourhood. We are in the middle of great power ImageImage
Read 24 tweets
30 Oct
A Nigerian army Task Force Battalion conducting Exercise Golden Dawn have neutralized four gunmen of the proscribed Eastern Security Network in a fierce gun duel at Nnoni Junction, Idemiki South LGA of Anambra state yestetday.

Apparently the gunmen attacked troops deployed to Image
Aguata LGA of Anambra state, during which troops swiftly mobilized to the scene. Realizing their folly the gun men fled the scene. Running from Nigerian troops is akin to turning your back and running from a pride of lions, as troops embarked on a hot pursuit of the assailants.
The troops caught up with the fleeing gunmen and put what they have been practising in Exercise Golden Dawn to good use, engaging and neutralizing all the gunmen.
Read 6 tweets
29 Oct
It can be frustrating seeing regional sister nations pick on Nigeria out of pure malice. Nigeria’s 35 year strategic national interests in Pan-Africanism has come at great expense and little reward for Nigeria.
Nigeria would have benefited immensely from independent strategic cooperation dictated solely by its national interests. We sacrificed all that because we were commited to subsidizing the economies of 16 ECOWAS member states whose combined population
..is less than that of Nigeria. So while other emerging power houses like Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam etc are forging deals with countries with over a billion people and thrillions of dollars in GDP, Nigeria has limited itself to economic ties with countries
Read 23 tweets
29 Oct
Few Nigerians know that an integral part of the Sambisa forest was once a game reserve that puts Yankari to shame, attracted tourists from as far away as Australia. The Brits with good intentions had gazetted the Sambisa as a reserve in 1958, making it one of the conservation
legacies bequeathed to the Nigerian state by the colonial power. With the discovery of rare animals in 1977 the area was re-gazetted as a National Game Reserve for the preservation of rare animals..thid brought in a ton of money in revenue from tourism after FESTAC 77.
What is now synonymous with Boko Haram was home to a variety of wild boars, bush elephants, leopards, lions, hyenas, lots of snakes, monkeys of various species, gazelle, as well as about 62 different species of birds. Even till this day there has elephant sightings.
Read 19 tweets
29 Oct
ISWAPS Malam Bako is the fourth leader of an ISWAP to die this year, and 37 other mid level commanders after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in May, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in August and al-Barnawi this month.
Between October 15 and 28, 2021, a total of 1,199 terrorists and their families, comprising 114 adult males, 312 adult females and 773 children, surrendered to the troops at different locations in the North East.
The Economist says ISWAP have set up a Caliphate in the northeast, Bandits control 79% of Nigerian territory, the military is demoralized and defeated and generals are stealing and selling weapons to Boko Haram.
Read 4 tweets
29 Oct
The Western media is where African stories are caricatured, twisted and contorted to fit into the atavistic narratives of those who once held the continent by the neck. When Ngozi Okonkjo Iweala was elected as DG of the WTO,
three Swiss newspapers Luzerner Zeitung, Aargauer Zeitung and St. Galler Tagblatt...shovelled away all her accomplishments and described her as a ‘’66 year old Nigerian grandmother.

"This grandmother will become the new boss of WTO,” the headline of Luzerner Zeitung read.
A distinguished woman, former minister of Africa’s most powerful nation, former World Bank vice-president, and the first woman and first African to be elected as the DG of the WTO. But these European newspapers minimised her with the sexist/racist title "Nigerian grandmother"
Read 11 tweets

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