The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Wednesday came under attack for blaming “inadequate commitment of troops on the front line of the insurgency war” for the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks.
Prominent groups, individuals and political parties expressed shock over the statement by Buratai who said there was inadequate commitment by soldiers involved in the war against insurgents.
Buratai had on Tuesday blamed soldiers at the frontlines for the recent setbacks in the war against Boko Haram.
He had said, “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 and military course by those at the frontlines.”
But groups and individuals including the Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Project, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, the Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze, and a Second Republic politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said President Muhammadu Buhari should sack him and all the service chiefs. They claimed his statement would not only demotivate the troops, it also showed that Buratai lacked the capacity to head the Nigerian Army.