Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, on Monday said that Southern Generals performed far better than their northern counterparts in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency.
According to Shetima, the insurgency regained momentum after 2016 because of the failure of commander at the theatre of war who incidentally was a northerner.
He particularly called out Major General Attahiru Ibrahim, who he said did not give a good account of himself as Theatre Commander as his tenure witnessed embarrassing attacks on troops and civilians.
Governor Shettima said he was disappointed to observe that the previous commanders, who are from the southern states of Nigeria, did much better than the last occupant of the office who is from the north.
“The last Theatre Commander who is even a northerner had woefully failed to perform,” said Mr. Shettima.
He said the replacement of Mr. Attahiru with Mr. Nicholas, who is a southern Nigerian, was a game changer for the counterinsurgency operations.
“When General Leo Irabor, another southerner, was leaving, he left the Boko Haram insurgents in their degraded state. But the insurgents picked up their hostility shortly after he left,” he said.
Mr. Shettima said the recent victories of the military over Boko Haram were as a result of the change of guard at the Military command and control centre.
“Some of our greatest accomplishments in the current counterinsurgency efforts were recorded under army generals who are not from Borno and northern Nigeria.
“And what we have recorded in the last six weeks outweighs what was accomplished in the last three years, especially under General Nicholas who is yet another hero of our time.
“We want the federal government to deploy more resources and sustain the current tempo before the rainy season sets in”, said the governor.
“We need to root out the Boko Haram now before the now dry Sambisa forest becomes an impregnable fortress for Boko Haram”.
The governor made the disclosure in Maiduguri when he hosted a delegation of the federal government who were in the state for a special town hall meeting on military operations in the North East.
The delegation comprised of the minister of defense, Mannir Dan Ali, minister of internal affairs, Abdulrahman Dambazau, minister of information, Lai Mohammed and minister of state, budget and planning, Zainab Muhammed.