I regret nothing as Army chief - TY Buratai

Counter insurgency: Buratai hails Irabor, others for keeping momentum

By Stanley Onyekwere

Former

Chief

of Army

Staff, Tukur

Yusuf

Buratai,

has commended efforts of all the service chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, for maintaining the momentum and making the armed forces and country proud, in the ongoing counter insurgency operations.

Buratai, who is also the immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic, Lieutenant General, however declared that he does not regret anything he did while serving the country.

He made this assertion at the weekend, in Abuja, during the public presentaion and launching of three books authored by a journalist, Jibrin Baba Ndace, in his honour.

He said: “The military is a force that stands at all times in the defence of our territorial integrity, in the defences of lives. And of course, we defend our country with all that it takes, eve if it means paying the supreme price.

“If I say that I regret anything, I will be telling lies. I’m fulfiled, and I’m happy that I served my country where I did, and I’m happy I am being appreciated. There are so many thing to do, but I have my proofs, which you see my final moments in my books”.

Recounting the pre 2015 security situation, he revealed that the there was so mun devastation in infrastructure and humans in the country particularly in Borno state and the northeast.

He added that it is heart warming the men and women of the armed forces are able to continue the onslaught against the Boko Haram terrorists.

He said: “Nigerians were already feeling defeated by the Boko Haram propaganda, as at the time we came in 2015, everybody was scared of being attacked or bombed. So psychologically, everybody was defeated, so we decided that we have to defeat that psychological or sense of defeat from fear of Boko Haram and unknown.

“And for the first time in the history of Nigerian Military, Journalists are embedded in the war front with us, as media operation is so critical to psychological operation.

“Almost, on daily basis in 2015 -2016 they (Insurgents) continued to attack mosques, churches and so on. So psychologically, Nigerians were traumatised as they don’t feel safe anywhere. So that was one of my strategies to ensure that this propaganda was defeated and eliminated from our minds. “I said we cannot achieve that until the press go along with us, and really that helped us achieve a lot. And this (the book launch) is one of the results.

“ And the book titled walking in the war front with Lt. Gen. TY Brutai is a collection of some the relics in pictures, so that people could see and appreciate the damage that have been done by the insurgents, as it is so unimaginable, not even to talk of the human sufferings that were so pathetic and terrible.”

He continued: “We were able to maintain the momentum right from day one (the first day I took over as the Chief of Army Staff up till the last day that I left, there was never a dull moment. The more we moved in, the more dangerous and daring it became , because we had pushed them to the wall, the became desperate.

“Many would not know that the theater became hot around that time - 2019-2020 especially during the Covid lockdown we relocated completely to the northeast. We were there in the theater dealing with the Boko haram terrorists. And that is how we maintained the momentum before we left office in 2021. So more are to be written, and I believe that we have a lot to tell Nigerians about how the whole counter insurgency went.

Also speaking, General Irabor, eulogised Bruratai, in whose honour the author of the books, was able to identify the key role of media operations and how it can infuse into kinetic operations of the troops in the frontline.

He added that although there are lot of influences on men and women of the armed forces, but posterity will actually judge them in the right context.

According to him:” There is no man or woman who is faultless, as it is only our creator God Almighty that is faultless. We as members of the armed forces remain very professional based on core principles that we entrenched during our training, but even at that there are still areas that every now and then reviews are carried out.

“It will be unfair to disparage men and women of the armed forces, who toil night and day for the rest of this society to go about their businesses even to sleep with their two eyes closed’.

On his part, the author said he was inspired by so many factors especially his experience from direct commitment of a combatant as an embedded, and lack of materials either in form of documentary or books on experiences of journalists in embedded course.

He added that the books as motivating tools, as they afford an opportunity to celebrant them and be able to tell Nigerians that it is not what they see or the perception created about them, as they are committed men and women who put their lives on the line daily to keep the country safe.

Highpoint of the event was the launching of the three books: Walking in the War Front with Buratai; Duty Call Under Buratai’s Command; and The Lonely Grave and other Poems.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu receiving the National Daily Award as Innovation and Infrastructure Governor of the Year from former President, Olusegun Obasanjo while the Chairman of the Occasion, Prince Julius AdelusiAdeluyi, watches during the prestigious National Daily Awards ceremony at the Grand BallRoom of Oriental Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos, at the weekend.

Collaboration: Panacea to solving challenges in Nigeria’s aquaculture -Experts

Experts in the aquaculture industry in Nigeria have identified collaboration among stakeholders as a panacea to solving challenges in the industry. They stated this at the stallholders’ engagement workshop in Ibadan on Tuesday. The programme is with the theme: “Implementation of Best Management Practices in Aquaculture and E-Technology Platform Adoption for Sustainable Aquaculture Development in Nigeria”.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the project is funded by USAID, hosted by University of Ibadan and the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM). Prof. Olanike Adeyemo, the Principal Investigator, FIL

Aquaculture Biosecurity Project, University of Ibadan, said the project was one of USAID-funded projects under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish. Adeyemo said that Nigeria was the host Country, and the project sites are Ogun and Delta states.

According to her, the theme of the workshop is focused on disseminating Best Management Practices in Aquaculture. She stated that it was developed as an outcome of the project with the hope that the uptake of BMP by farmers would lead to a significant reduction in the incidences of diseases in aquaculture. “We should also be presenting a justification for a collaborative development and implementation of a National Aquatic Animal Health and Governance

Strategy (NAAHS). “We strongly believed that communicating our findings will in no little measure assist Competent Authorities with jumpstarting the processes involved in having a NAAHS enacted, implemented, and monitored.

This is to ensure performance sustainability and resilience of the Nigerian aquaculture industry,” she said. Adeyemo said the workshop would showcase best examples of electronic technology platforms for aquaculture development in Nigeria. This, she said, would include demonstrating the improvements of E-Aquahealth Solutions, that was developed to bridge the identified gap of inadequate veterinary and disease diagnostic support to the Industry. Also, Prof. Gabriel

Ogundipe, Head, Department, of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, stated that the industry in Nigeria was growing and Nigeria was depending on it for animal protein supply.

So, many people are in the industry either as fishermen or as fish farmers, whereas a lot of people are also involved in marketing the products of the aquaculture industry. “So, we need to sustain the industry to be able to feed the multitudes of Nigerians. “We also need to sustain the industry to maintain the people who are employed by the industry. “And, we also need to maintain this industry because of the consumers who depend on fish for their livelihood,” he said.

Nigeria to develop Food System Transformation pathwayOfficial

Nigeria is set to develop the implementation strategy for Food System Transformation Pathway in order to boost security and reduce unemployment among youths and women.

Dr Sanjo Faniran, who is the National Convenor of the UN Food Systems and Director of Social Development, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, disclosed this in Abuja.

Faniran said that the strategy would address the questions of poverty, inadequate supply of nutritious food and nonconsumption of minimum dietary diversity in the country.

He said it would also address stunting, chronic malnutrition, underweight, anaemia and diet-related noncommunicable diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, stroke and cancers, among others.

Faniran said that the national food systems transformation aimed to achieve some goals by 2030 as well as promote sustainable food trade, increase women’s empowerment in Agriculture Index Score, and increase Environmental Performance Index score.

The food system pathways aim to improve the productivity and sustainability of the food system while promoting health and nutrition, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing socio-economic development in Nigeria.

The implementation of these pathways requires a multistakeholder approach and engagement at all levels to ensure that the objectives are achieved.

To this end, he said, the ministry would hold a zonal workshop involving stakeholders in Kano on Monday and Awka, Anambra on Thursday on the development of the strategy.

He said that the workshop would be in collaboration with Kano State Government, World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation, IFAD, GAIN and AGRA.

The Kano consultation workshop is to harvest input from all the Northern States towards the development of a robust and inclusive implementation of the strategy.

Faniran said that consultation workshops would be used to harvest input of stakeholders, especially state actors in the Food System Value Chain, to strengthen and ensure an inclusive and jointly-owned Plan, taking into consideration various professional, technical and socio-economic positions of the stakeholders.(NAN)