Former General Officer Commanding (GOC) Division 1 of the Nigerian Army,
Retired Major General Danjuma Ali-Keffi,
has said the persistence of insecurity in Nigeria was largely due to the wrong military strategies being adopted and the shortage of troops to confront insurgents across the country.
Speaking on Arise News ‘Prime Time’ show on Wednesday evening, Ali-Keffi explained that counterinsurgency warfare demands overwhelming presence on the ground, but Nigeria’s armed forces remained grossly understaffed.
“The wrong strategies are being adopted, that’s number one. And two, it has even been said severally, even in the military, there are insufficient troops, insufficient soldiers. When you talk about counterinsurgency, you must saturate the ground with troops to overwhelm the insurgents,” he said.
Gen. Ali-Keffi recalled past conflicts in other countries to highlight how troop surges had turned the tide against insurgencies.
“When Liberia had civil war, we were there, and when things appeared to be stalling, General Malu was appointed a commander and then we had a troop surge. Sri Lanka is less than half or one-third of Niger State, yet it created about 16 additional divisions to make it 18 divisions to address that issue. A division is between 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers, so we are talking about an additional 116,000 troops,” he explained.
Comparing the situation to Nigeria, Ali-Keffi said the country’s vast landmass, particularly in the North, requires far greater number of troops than are currently deployed.
“So if Sri Lanka with its land mass could do that, look at Nigeria — Niger State alone will swallow Sri Lanka four times,” the retired Army General noted.
He acknowledged the enormity of the security challenge inherited by the current administration but insisted that citizens were growing frustrated with the slow pace of results.
“I must say the present administration inherited a difficult situation. In two years, Nigerians expect better results, but it’s not forthcoming,” Gen. Ali-Keffi stated.
