From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
FOLLOWING the renewed security and safety threats in the Niger Delta and the North-East, the Nigerian Army has adopted the “maneouvrist approach” to warfare in its bid to checkmate the groups.
In an interview with newsmen shortly after the graduation ceremony of Junior Course 81/2016 at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, Kaduna State, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, said the army had gone a step further by inaugurating a motorcycle unit that was already operational in the North-East.
The army chief said the new approach to tackling insecurity was being improved upon with the training of middle level and senior military officers.
“We look at the issue of counter-revolutionary warfare as well as the counter-insurgency training, and that is what we are focusing on. I am proud to say that virtually all of our training institutions have adapted to these changes and have since begun the process of integrating them.
“Since 2001 to 2002, we have shifted towards the maneouvrist approach to warfare, and this is further being developed to incorporate more seriously, the counter-insurgency aspect of the strategy, based on our experiences with the Boko Haram terrorists and, indeed, by extension, the militancy in the Niger Delta,” Buratai said.
To the graduating students, he said: “As members of the Nigerian Armed Forces, your sense of judgment in applying the skills gotten would be more apparent now that we are confronting a lot of internal security challenges, especially the menace of Boko Haram which you must brace up to with courage.”