A former War Commander and ministerial nominee from Kano State, Major General Bashir Magashi (retd), has told the Senate what he assumed to be the reason for the lost grounds being regained by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Magashi said this on Thursday when he was screened by the Senate based on his nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari as a minister.
He said the infighting among Nigerian Service Chiefs, narrowing it down to the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force, was affecting the war against insurgency and other forms of criminality.
While the Nigerian Army is headed by Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai as the Chief of Army Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubaklar is the Chief of the Air Staff.
Magashi told the Senate: “Regarding the issue of the Service Chiefs, in my own view, we are caught in a situation where you find out that each Commander or Service Chief tries to please the nation.
“Anytime the Service Chiefs conduct operations, you find radio coverage that the Air Force has done this, the Army has done this.
“Thank God we are not near the ports where we can see that the Navy is also involved.
“If the Navy was around there, then the three Services would have been on the same collision course.
“In an ideal situation where I served as an ECOMOG Commander, it was a single unit that was overseeing the needs, the aspirations, welfare of our troops in combat zones.
“In Nigeria today, what we call Command Structure is now being seen as weakness.
“We have almost disseminated all our forces and I do not think the current structure is a true reflection of the manpower requirement in this country.
“We only have divisions probably by name but I do not think we have the required manpower to man them.”
Magashi said to truly combat insurgency and other forms of criminality, the Army, Air Force and Navy should have common troops working together and not operate independent of one another.
He said a single Commander should take care of reinforcement, operations and change of troops among other needs of the Services.
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