Philip Nwosu
Brigadier General Bulama Biu is the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division in Maiduguri Borno State. He is the man at the centre of the war against insurgents in the Northeast.
He was one of the officers who go the award of excellence on July 6, 2019 at the ceremonies of the Nigerian Army Day Celebration in Lagos from the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai. He spoke to Sunday Sun on the strategies and tactics that would help to win the war. Excerpts:
What was it that you got this award for?
This award is the most converted of the Chief of Army Staff for officers and men that have distinguished themselves in their professional calling, which is soldiering. For me being the General Officer Commanding 7 Division in Maiduguri, prosecuting the war against terrorism was an opportunity to showcase myself. I have gone there and I have put in my very best and today the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai has recognized my contribution and he has said by this award that it was indeed worthy of commendation and he has demonstrated that by this Chief of Army Staff medal of commendation for excellence. The award is something that will continue to inspire me to put in my very best as a professional military officer to the service of my country, Nigeria.
How do you feel about this award?
I feel great and it is not even the issue of the monetary value, how else will I appreciate the Chief of Army Staff for bringing me before this mammoth crowd to say I appreciate what you are doing and that what I am doing is worth being recognized, that is a great thing for me and like I said today, if I have anything that I will do to ensure that this war is brought to an end, I will continue to do it.
What is presently going on right now in 7 Division?
Well, all that is going on in 7 Division is ensuring that Operation Lafiya Dole work towards a very speedy resolution of the war against terrorism and this we do with focus and a lot of strategies. For example, you must have heard of Operation Alaka Dodo, it is intended to focus more closely at degrading the remaining marauding Boko Haram. Know that Boko Haram had been substantially degraded, what they do now is to go about looking for soft target and look for something that will make them relevant. So, what we are doing is to go after them to smoke them out from the enclave to ensure we conclude this business that we are very much in a hurry to do.
How many of the insurgents have you been able to decimate within the last six months?
It is not going to be easy for me to say, but on a daily basis, my business is to look out for Boko Haram members, look out for those of them that is very adamant in spite of the fact that they have been given the opportunity to lay down their arms so that they can be integrated in the society. Those of them that have been adamant we are on the lookout for them every minute and every hour. In most of these timings that I have outlined to you, there were occasions we had engagement with them, so I cannot precisely give you the figures. For everyday we go out and we locate them in some of their hideouts and make contact with them as they maraud and try to hide from the attacks of the troops, we try to bring them to book.
How cooperative has the locals been in this fight?
I must say that if you look at the fight against terrorism before now, it had been so difficult because of issue of perception, issue of understanding of the people and that is why we have also upped our game in terms of civil military relations and calling on the civil populace to understand that the war is not about war against the Army and other security agencies, it is not even a war against the Borno government or the state of Borno, but it is a war that seek to undermine the corporate existence of Nigeria as a people, it undermines our national security. Our call had been consistent, that people must be together with us, share with us and understand the problems together with us and then we seek solutions together and I think if I look at it years back and compare it with now, there are a lot of achievements. Today, I can say we enjoy some good level of information from the civil populace and we have seen some individual trying to condemn the war. What we are trying to say which is very fundamental is that we are still not there, there is the need for everybody to continuously come onboard, so that we can all together put hands together in unity to conclude the business that is the only sure way to conclude this business as fast as possible. So, we continue to encourage people to have faith in the Nigerian military, to have faith in the security agencies, to have faith that they are also stakeholders so that we can work together and be able to conclude the business.
How cooperative are troops from neighbouring countries in the war? Are they working with Nigeria or working against Nigeria?
We are working together with them. In Operation Yaki Tache, the Chadians are there with us conducting the operation. Two days ago we had an encounter in Wulgo at the borders between Nigeria and Cameroun and jointly with the Camerounian defence forces, cleared the insurgents from that area, you see the expectation of human being is always very high and at time we work with assumptions, but I can tell you that we have the Multinational Joint Task Forces belonging to countries that are contiguous to us and we are working together, but whatever we are doing on this insurgency war, we know we can do better than what we are doing at the moment.
Can you assure Nigerians that we you are winning this war?
Definitely we are wining this war and the Nigerian Army is not relenting in tackling the insurgents and to ensure that they are flushed out from the territory. We are winning and that is why the hope of Nigerians are increasing on a daily basis and we saw that as amply demonstrated when they provide information to us. I tell you only few of the Boko Haram insurgents are marauding within the ungovernable spaces and I tell you we will surely close in on them.