New Telegraph

Boko Haram: Mercenaries, not the solution –Umar

…we don’t have to stick to particular set of Generals, that’s old school

A former Military Intelligence Officer, Capt. Aliyu Umar (rtd), has advised the Federal Government to toe the path of Israeli, which he said has been plagued by terrorists’ attacks for years but did not call in mercenaries. Umar believes that the country has what it takes to solve the Boko Haram problem, but regretted that the government does not have the will to do it. In a telephone interview with Saturday Telegraph, Umar, who is a National Security Resource and Solution- Options Consultant, and Chief Executive of Goldwater and Riversand Consults, also noted that the United Nations officially outlawed the use of Mercenaries in 2001.

Officially the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, he said, is a 2001 United Nations treaty that prohibits the recruitment, training, use, and financing of mercenaries.

He said there was no better solution than the home groom solution, saying, “We keep looking for what I call quick fixes. The mercenaries did not create the problem; we did, and we can solve it. “If we are serious about it, we will solve the problem. Generals come as they come; they are not different in principle from footballers, with all due respect.

If you play football or watch football, you would know a coach has a retinue of players; strikers, midfielders, wingers, defenders, goal keepers and each has their strengths and weaknesses. “So, depending on the play or the level, the coach decides who to bring out, and who to put in. If you apply that analysis to Generals, I can tell you for free that among Generals there are different pedigrees; strategists, and field officers.

“There are some generals that if you take them off the field and put them on a table they would die and vice versa. “They have their strengths. Right from the academy, I can tell you my course mates who have made wonderful staff officers.

They are strategists, tacticians and I can also tell you others who right from the academy can motivate anything to happen anywhere, just put them there. “So, basically among Generals there are influencers, stabilizers, facilitators, and pioneers. These Generals are war mongers. Stabilizers are the ones you bring in to stabilize and raise people up. Someone like the present chief of army staff is a stabilizer. “When he came in everything was in disarray and he was able to put people back together and stabilize.

That was what led to our saying the Boko Haram people have been degraded. “Beyond that if you observe, since he came in, he has stabilized, but then before we were still in stability mode, we kept repelling attacks. Now what you need is an assault pioneer General to take the battle further to where it is. That is why Generals have to come and go.

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