Tukur Buratai Plays Fiddle While Nigerian Army Burns

The recent report that the Nigerian Army will probe the shooting that resulted in the death of an officer and a senior non-commission officer in Borno State can best be described as playing fiddle by the Chief of Army Staff [COAS], General Tukur Buratai while Nigerian army burns.

According to the report, a Board of Inquiry [BoI] has been constituted to unravel the circumstances surrounding the shooting which took place in Chibok and that the BoI is expected to turn in its report and findings in one week.

Speaking about the inquiry in a statement, Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Sani Usman said the incident occurred on Sunday, where the officers were deployed

He said that the Headquarters of 28 Task Force Brigade received a report at about 12.50 p.m. on Sunday that a “staff was seen to be drunk and misbehaving to civilians.

“An officer was dispatched to the scene with a view to bring him back to base.

“The officer did his best but the SNCO refused several entreaties to calm him and be disarmed by the superior officer.

“Unfortunately, the Staff Sergeant shot the officer dead and then killed himself”, and that “their remains have since been evacuated to a military facility”.

Describing it as playing the fiddle, an Army source with Elombah.com, who spoke on condition of anonymity, wondered what Inquiry is there about while Nigeria is losing too many soldiers”

He cited a report by Tribune Online which said that “thirteen soldiers [were] killed today, 11 killed the previous day, yet another six or seven a fortnight ago”.

Tribune cited another incident about one month ago whereby 30 soldiers were slaughtered in an ambush and the enemy proceeded to make gory videos of this killing, to be posted on YouTube.

The report then asked: “What does all this mean?” and answered its own question: “Nigeria is at war! Yet, the Army hierarchy is in denial.”

The writer expressed disgust as photos of the Chief of Army Staff paying courtesy visits to political appointees in the midst of all the slaughter.

It could be recalled that the same Army told Nigerian Boko Haram has been tamed, and the menace defeated.

Our source, therefore, stated categorically that Buratai must quit playing the fiddle and accept the bitter truth that Boko Haram is yet to be defeated.

He seconded the Tribune recommendation that “the military adopts traditional old-school Pattonism by sending division-size force components in a pincer-and-holding pattern against the occupying Boko Haram hordes”.

Inn that way, they can easily “wear them out by sheer force of numbers and patience”.

Meanwhile, he asked the Nigerian Army to let go of distractions like setting up BoI to look into a case of drunken soldier and concentrate on the bigger picture of securing the lives of its soldiers in particular, and the citizenry in general.

—