Like an adult I've accepted the truth painful as it may be about the BH war-
its unwinnable! The Naij army has come up with the Super Camp strategy. Prez Buhari announced small coy FOBs will be closed and the troops massed in larger presumably brigade sized bases. The standard COIN strategy of fighting insurgents on their turf while winning the hearts and minds of locals has been abandoned as the NA has decided to prioritise minimising casualties.
Its been nearly a decade and the same operational shortcomings seen at the beginning in 2011 still predominate:
-poor tactical efficiency:at least 10 bases have been overrun since 2013
-lack of proper gear from footwear,flak vests,comms,APCs etc,etc
-dearth of innovative purpose led formations like the Rhodie Field Force,airmobile and paras ready for immediate action
-serious deficiency in platforms of all types-so bad the NA uses Hilux pickups on operation!
-high level lack of political will if not active treason! Despite a decade of talking there's still no army aviation! The 30k or so troops in the NE battle fields rely on 10 or so Hinds,4 Mi 17s and 8 Aw 109s from the AF for CAS!
"The major factor that hinders the Nigerian army from defeating Boko Haram is the lack of an “army aviation,” the man who heads the army’s operations against the terror group said.
Olusegun Adeniyi, who is the Theater Commander of the army’s Operation Lafiya Dole, said this when he received a delegation of the National Assembly joint committee on the army on Thursday.
Mr Adeniyi, a major general, took over the command of the military’s counter-insurgency operation about two months ago."
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news...ot-defeated-boko-haram-theatre-commander.html
Imo the options are increasingly limited and tbh,I’m now wondering if it isn’t time to reach some accommodation with BH to rearm and restrategise. The only options imo are:
-get back Eeben Barlow’s STEPPS with a blank cheque to retake much of the North
-go the Sri Lankan way,ie,wait for platoon and coy commanders to put their heard earned combat lessons to work when they command regiments and brigades. This should have already happened by now as 2010 platoon leaders when the insurgency began should be coy and btn commanders!