Nigeria’s army chief reveals there’s apathy in hierarchy

Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai

Nigeria’s army chief reveals there’s apathy in hierarchy

Possible reason for mounting insecurity in Nigeria may be lack of willingness and cooperation by officers and men of the defense infrastructure.  

Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, made the provocative revelation in Abuja on Tuesday, explaining setback in the fight against insurgents in Nigeria’s northeast.

Buratai said the setback was due to lack of commitment among the younger generation in the military

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The Army chief said those on the frontlines were displaying insufficient willingness to perform assigned.

Reports say that while speaking against the backdrop of the security challenges in the country, especially the Boko Haram terrorists’ activities in the northeast, Buratai lamented the lack of commitment among the younger generation in the military

This is coming barely four days after an insurgents’ attack on a market in Mandari community, Konduga local government area of Bormo state, which claimed 30 lives.

He said those on the frontlines were displaying insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks. Buratai spoke on Monday, June 18, at the opening of a “Transformational leadership workshop”, organised by the Army Headquarters Department of Transformation and Innovation at the Army Resource Centre, Asokoro, Abuja.

Describing the development as “unfortunate”, the Army chief, however, said the theme of the workshop was apt as it would draw attention to areas that need to be addressed for professionalism, patriotism and national enthusiasm.

The workshop, he noted, has been clearly and explicitly designed to teach/preach transformational leadership values to the next generation of Nigerian Army leaders (officers and soldiers).He said: “It would also establish a platform for subsequent mentoring of participants after the workshop, hence the theme has been aptly chosen as ‘lead, follow or get out of the way.

“It is unfortunate, but the truth is that almost every setback the Nigerian Army has had in our operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks or simply insufficient commitment to a common national/military course by those at the frontlines.

“I, therefore, believe that the transformational leadership workshops will again remind and clarify to participants what our President and Commander-in-Chief meant by ‘this generation and indeed, future generations of Nigerians have no other country but Nigeria, we must remain here and salvage it together.”Gen.

Buratai recalled that the Army has had good success over the years in the grooming of military leaders.

“This is evident in the many successes that the NA has achieved in our operations and the high performance of our personnel (both officers/soldiers) in international/multinational operations or other military duties.

“And this is the reason why I have always ensured that the promotion of NA personnel is essentially based on professional considerations only. But we all know that professional capacity is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task; willingness to perform the task is equally necessary,” Buratai said.