Lt–Gen. Tukur Buratai: soldier
and historian, has a place in history. If it’s correct that no list of
the greatest people of the 20th century is complete without General
George C Marshall and that of the World War II without Winston
Churchill, the world will remember Buratai as the ‘organiser of victory’
and ‘the last great Nigerian soldier’ in the fight against terrorism.
His
choice by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Chief of Army Staff was
spot on. Not because he hails from the terrorism-ravaged state of Borno,
but because of the professionalism and military dispatch with which he
carried out the assignment of routing the mindless Boko Haram that
slaughtered children, men and women in the North-eastern part of the
country.
Courageously
foxy, brutal in mien and disposition and deliberate in the deployment
of troops, Buratai will enter the pantheon of war heroes, if as the
Defence Headquarters said, the expedition will be over before the three
months deadline given to uproot the terrorists by President Buhari.
Unlike
his predecessors who barked orders from the comfort zones of their
offices in Abuja or preferred to grandstand in Aso Rock, Buratai was on
the field with the troops.
Wednesday
morning, he led Nigerian troops on a field inspection of the recaptured
strategic town of Gamboru Ngala in Borno State, crossing a bridge to
Fatokol where a huge crowd of Nigerians received them with cheers and
tears of joy.
An
appreciative director of defence Information (DDI), Col. Rabe Abubakar,
enthused, “these terrorists have been subdued, even if they are
adopting other means and are re-strategising, we are also doing the same
and pre-empting them.
“So,
right now, they are completely in disarray, have no command and control
of where to plan. We have even taken over their camps that most of them
abandoned and are attempting to blend into towns and communities. We
have also apprehended some of them and very soon, innocent Nigerians can
move back to their communities.”
The
war against terror took a different turn since July 13 when the rotund
service chiefs were replaced with new ones, who, apparently more
apolitical, discharged their duties as officers and gentlemen.
Buratai,
who had been in the trenches with the troops as the commander of the
Multinational Joint Task Force which has its headquarters in N’Djamena,
Chad, all the same came to the fore, shooting from the hips and with all
barrels.
He
exhibited the uncommon canny to identify with the troops. He exercised
with them, ate with them and boosted their morale through welfare
packages, including adequate supply of drugs, equipment, compensation
with accelerated promotion for deserving gallant soldiers on the field
and ensuring that those unjustly court-martialled were given reprieve.
At the last count, 3,032 officers and men who would have either been
sent to their early graves or imprisoned have regained their love for
soldiering, for God and country.
But
the 20th Chief of Army Staff could also be weird. Said to be an
accomplished infantry senior officer, he enjoys the company of wild
reptiles and rears snakes. He has two snakes farms in Nasarawa State and
keeps some in his personal house in Mararaba on the outskirts of the
nation’s capital.
Commissioned
in 1983, there has been no time that his multiple command,
administrative and instructional appointments over his 34 years
illustrious career has been called to service more than now. His
meritorious discharge of the responsibility at once, restored the
confidence of the civil populace in our military as it called to
question the judgement, integrity and professionalism of those who had
superintended the fight against terror since it broke out in 2009 and
for which over 5,000 lives have been reportedly lost.
Born
November 24, 1960 in Buratai town in Biu local government area of Borno
State that has suffered greatly from the brutal threat of the Boko
Haram group, General Buratai is a highly decorated officer. He is a
Member of Historical Society of Nigeria, with two Master’s Degrees, one
in History from the University of Maiduguri and another in Philosophy
from the Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka.
Buratai
attended the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Course in
the year 2000 at Cornwallis Park, Annapolis county, Nova Scotia, Canada
and the United Nations Staff and Logistics Officers Course, India. At
the height of militancy in the Niger Delta, he was also called upon to
quell the uprising. These must have equipped him for the assignment that
will place him in the nation’s hall of fame as a soldier-statesman.
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