`Re : "Buratai's brute bruises on Nigerian troops" by Dr Festus Adedayo, - A Rejoinder.

The aptness in the aphorism that a leopard never changes its spot resonated over the weekend precisely on June 23, 2019 in a watered and colorless article in TheCable News online journal, written by one Festus Adedayo, the recently disgraced one-day Chief Press Secretary of the President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmed Lawan, against the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusufu Buratai.

The drab article, titled, "Buratai's brute bruises on Nigerian troops", reeks falsehood and misinterpreted the patriotic intention of the Army chief who alongside his team is giving tireless efforts, day and night, to keep the country and her territories safe.

The bewildered Adedayo, who just got red carded from the gates of the National Assembly on the account of his trying to reap where he hasn't sow, turned on the head the import of a gentle and insightful admonition of General Buratai to his gallant officers on the need to be more patriotic to the ongoing terrorist war in the North East area of the country.

While quoting General Buratai's statement at the opening ceremony of a workshop tagged “Transformational leadership” which was recently organized by the Army Headquarters Department of Transformation and Innovation, which held at the Army Resource Centre in Abuja, all Adedayo could fallaciously infer from the Lieutenant General is that he was accusing his officers of treason, how come?

General Buratai 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 the insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks or simply insufficient commitment to a common national/military course by those at the frontlines. Many of those on whom the responsibility for physical actions against the adversaries squarely falls are yet to fully take ownership of our common national or service cause.”

From the above-quoted statement, it's translucent even to an early learner of English Language that General Buratai was doing nothing but charging the low-hanging and tiring officers to be awake and raise their commitment level for a crucial national course. But the chameleon "Ph.D. holder", instead, chose to see and read a different meaning to the beatitudes from the Army Chief. What a shame!

For Adedayo to infer that the Nigerian Army is suffering from the "jackboot of corruption" like every sector of the economy is engaging in the fallacy of generalization because at no time has the Nigerian Army leadership through appropriate accounting standard showed an unparalleled commitment to the operational effectiveness and good welfare of troop as this era.

Relevant news item had shown that the COAS had ensured regular payment of allowances and other personnel entitlements since assumption of office. And this has equally risen the morale of troops to a level that was never witnessed in the past.

Granted that Adedayo, under democracy, has freedom of expression within the confines of the law, but he must be told not to abuse the access of freedom by erroneously interpreting people's views and statements to suit his jaundiced and fixated mindset on the current administration and its officials. Adedayo's freedom to write and express an opinion should not be seen as liberty to confuse the people, convict our Military Chiefs and make bogus spurious claims of which Festus Adedayo will surely not be able to substantiate. The acceptable ethics of the writers creed is all about situating the Truth and not finding where to anchor a conjecture. The writer of such an article like " Buratai's bruises on Nigerian troops ", went too far, too bleary, far too effete, immoral perhaps as to even suggest a thing as villainous as the Military top personnel, profiting from the prolongation of terror.

Thankfully, the Federal Government has restored the teaching of History as a subject in our education curriculum and Adedayo should be the first to return to the classroom and learn about the incredible exploit of the Military, especially the Nigerian Army under the leadership of Lt Gen Tukur Buratai since 2015. At least, yesterday, as they say, is history.

The vigour and commitment of the Nigerian Army under the leadership of General Tukur Buratai has been tested and indeed trusted since he came on board in year 2015. This much has been reflected in the operations of the Nigerian Army in ensuring that the territorial integrity of Nigeria is protected at all times and in all situations

Before this administration took over the saddle of leadership in 2015, the era from 1999 in the Military, for some strange reasons, saw to the gradual and steady decline in the operational effectiveness of the Nigerian Army.

The tail off in the military became loud when the country was confronted with the Boko Haram challenge from 2009.

The likes of Adedayo were in this country and saw how the Nigerian Army around the time lost its footing on the threats posed by such evolving warfare such as cyber warfare, insurgency, terrorism, nuclear warfare and other forms of unconventional wars.

From right and left, it was so apparent that the Nigerian Army, despite the huge budgetary allocation at the time, was helpless and clueless in the face of the adversaries. Expectedly, this gave rise to the high number of casualties, both human and properties, the country suffered during the early stages of the Boko Haram crisis.

With the Military at its lowest ebb owing to the forlorn state of the fighting troop, nobody could sleep with their two eyes closed, not even in Abuja, the Federal Capital.

Boko Haram continued to gain grounds so much so that over 16 Local Government Areas in North East Nigeria fell under the control of the Boko Haram terrorists. Other parts of the country too were not safe including the federal capital territory that witnessed scores of Boko Haram attacks. This was as recent as 2015. It was such a bad tale to recount in the annals of Nigeria and the Nigerian Army.

With Nigerians determined to take their country back, they willingly chose to elect President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 to change the daily tale of woes from incessant attacks of the evil-spirited terrorists. Of course, the choice was right and perfect. The attacks were not only stopped, but no Local Government Area is also currently in the custody of the blood-sucking Boko Haram.

President Buhari came on board and found a dutiful and committed Army General, Tukur Yusufu Buratai, worthy to pilot the affairs of the Nigerian Army, and the rest is visible for all to see. After all, it's being said that only a fool argues with the result.

Currently, the Nigerian Army has changed for the better as it has now returned to the path of glory in the past four years with the push of the button on operational effectiveness.

Some salient characteristics of the General Buratai era was a reintroduction of professionalism and accountability. And the return of the once elusive peace to Nigeria

As we speak, the Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists are depleted and only carry out suicide bombings on soft targets in few occasions to prove a point to their sponsors that they are still on the ground. But in truth, they are not.

Whilst Adedayo and his ilk may look sideways to the restoration of sanity in both the Nigerian Army and Boko Haram ravaged communities especially in the North East, millions of Nigerians are daily full of praise to two people for changing the security narrative of the country.

The first is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari and the dynamic Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai. This is what Adedayo and his co-species hate to hear. Hence, the diatribe at any given opportunity. But as it said, the truth will always overcome lies, no matter how long.

Mr. Festus Adedayo should know that General Buratai and his troops are not the sources of his recent grace to grass experience because he wouldn't have penned this diatribe on the Nigerian Army Chief if his undeserving appointment as Chief Press Secretary to the President of the Senate had stood.

Of course, we are all human and one is expected to sympathize with Festus Adedayo on the loss of an undeserving job he wanted to take through the back-door, but one would think that the aftermath of the public humiliation, the tales by moonlight writer would seriously engage in some soul searching of how he lost everything including prestige and honor. After all, the great Philosopher, Socrates, said "The unexamined life is not worth living".

This Rejoinder was contributed by Comrade Oladimeji Odeyemi, A security analyst and a counter terrorist expert, he is the Convener of the Coalition of Civil Society Groups against Terrorism in Nigeria.