Service Chiefs Brief President Buhari As Their Mandate To Defeat Boko Haram Is Challenged

President Muhammadu Buhari and several service chiefs met to discuss the logistical and weather challenges hampering the military campaign against the terror group Boko Haram.  After the meeting the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin, and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Aliyu Ismaila, spoke with reporters about the meeting.  

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This briefing comes days after President Buhari’s exclusive interview with Al Jazeera English where he was pressed on his leadership on ending the Boko Haram insurgency according to his own mandated timeframe, human rights abuses in the military, and his commitment to democratic reforms.

General Olonisakin informed the media that they have provided President Buhari with a 60-day review of the current security situation pertaining to Boko Haram.

“It is normal to inform him [President Buhari] about the issues on ground. We briefed him on the security situation on ground after a 60-day review.  We briefed him on the challenges we currently face, and the need for these challenges to be solved to ensure that our mandate is properly delivered,” according to General Olonisakin.

He continued, “of course, the challenges we are looking at include weather, as it were, and some other logistical issues which we feel should have been resolved.”

When asked about President Buhari’s reaction to the briefing, General Olonisakin he described the President’s reaction as amenable, and noted the President’s eagerness to aid the military in their campaign against Boko Haram.

However General Olonisakin did tell reporters that they did not request for an extension of President Buhari’s mandate to defeat Boko Haram by the end of the year. According to him, “the mandate is that we should clear Boko Haram from the occupied territories and ensure that we reclaim all the lost grounds. That is exactly what we are doing.”