Some mischievous mind will read this and conclude that it is paid for. It is. The readers skimming through and those taking their time to read, have paid for this. The subject of this piece, Gen. Tukur Buratai, paid for this. He paid in kind. His towering humility, patience and grace, are creditable imbursement for this piece. By leading the Nigerian military to reclaim 23 local government councils from dreaded terrorist sect, Boko Haram’s stranglehold in Borno, he has earned this compliment. But naysayers may stew in scorn – it could be therapeutic.
Prior to his appointment as Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), just four of Borno’s 27 local councils were under government control. Thus Borno’s political elite as its citizenry, dwelt in a clime of extreme fear and despair.
But in a manner reminiscent of the shrewd and excellent Army General and military administrator he once was, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Buratai as the country’s COAS. And that was undoubtedly one of the very few insightful and excellent decisions he took since he assumed office as Nigeria’s number one citizen.
Buratai is indeed a charming man. In a clime where public officers: governors, council chairmen, legislators and their errand boys or aides if you like, parade their bulk like tin gods, Buratai displays unusual humility and tact.
For instance, the manner in which he granted this writer an interview few weeks ago – courtesy an introduction by Gen. Lucky Irabor, Nigeria Army Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole – contrasted sharply with the haughtiness and stench of the random politician or public officer’s ignoble character. Several Nigerian governors, legislators and the glorified errand boys and girls that they love to call aides, could learn a thing or two from Buratai, the army general.
To this end, I present once again, excerpts from the narrative of my encounter with Buratai. In the course of the interview, Buratai recollected the brutal happenstance that nearly cost him his life, while visiting soldiers fighting on the nation’s frontiers against Boko Haram.
“I was with them and my convoy was ambushed by Boko Haram. Instead of withdrawing back to Maiduguri, I said, ‘No! We are in this together. I can’t go back. We must all go together to clear the ambush,” revealed Buratai.
“No! We must advance to clear them!’ I said. So I advanced with them and that was how we cleared the ambush. If the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) does not turn back, who would turn and run from such an ambush. I advanced with the troops and it paid off.
“Unfortunately, we lost two soldiers; one of them was an officer. One other soldier, a Brigadier-General, got wounded in the attack,” he said.
How many Nigerian public officers would endanger their lives, in a show of moral courage and support to the nation’s troops? The incident, according to the COAS, was one of the major turning points in the country’s war against Boko Haram; that the Chief of Army Staff was advancing to visit the troops at the war front and Boko Haram attacked him in an ambush made good read. But that he refused to retreat to the safety of his guest house in Maiduguri and instead, advanced with the troops to ‘clear the ambush’ resonates even as you read, as the best of military legend.
The legend is true. Buratai did direct an assault against Boko Haram, under hostility and intense gunfire. Boko Haram militants struck at his convoy about 45 kilometers or 28 miles east of Borno’s capital, Maiduguri. General Buratai had been visiting troops to encourage them and boost their morale in their fight against the terrorists.
But between the villages of Mafa and Dikwa, remnants of Boko Haram laid an ambush on the entourage of the chief of army staff. The army killed 10 of the terrorists and captured five. Two soldiers got killed and five were wounded in the ambush.
Buratai chooses to lead by example. Unlike the average Nigerian governor, legislator, council chairman flaunting hideous airs and entitlement to ‘rule’ like power drunk despots where they should ‘serve’ and ‘lead,’ Buratai descends into the trenches to inspire the nation’s troops.
From his perch at the Nigeria Army Headquarters, it could be hard to make out the regular people: the infantry soldiers and officers serving as buffer and hauling themselves as human shields against the hail of enemy bullets, that Nigeria might live.
But Buratai would not be the over-indulgent general with tired girth sitting in his oversized Abuja office, to command the troops. He knows other ways to exert a commanding presence, like actually making contact with the men and woman he is leading. He’s careful and pragmatic, which makes sense, because he spent most of his career as an infantry soldier and officer.
He’s almost reticent yet confident which could be confusing. But therein subsists the peculiar riddle of his persona. Buratai doesn’t unravel to middling eye and mind. He doesn’t do the high society party circuit, because he is not a social butterfly. He prefers to eat at home with his wife when he’s not breaking bread and maasa (rice cake) in the trenches with the troops. Then he gets back to work – because Tukur Buratai is Type-A-workaholic.
I can hardly say the same of several Nigerian governors, legislators among others, in the country. Most of them display unforgivable lack of tact, brilliance and skill. The Ogun State governor for instance is frantically building bridges over cratered roads even as the peasants who braved the sun and rain to elect him die in ghastly road accidents, as you read. And this minute, his counterparts in the nation’s Niger Delta region are busy squandering precious time and resources perpetuating depravity and filth, celebrating the victor in Big Brother Nigeria (BBN)’s perverse reality.
This writer is definitely not interested in whatever ‘heresies,’ ‘alternative truths,’ ‘rumours’ or ‘outright truths or lies’ are bandied about Buratai; this summation is inferred from established facts and personal experience.
Buratai’s milestones and manhood are vastly simpler yet more enigmatic than the random politician’s. He believes that “leadership is all about the people you lead.” Thus he takes “…the soldiers, the troops in general, as the most important aspect of soldiering.”
Buratai descends into the trenches with his men to achieve success. He broke bread with them and transformed the Borno theatre of war into an unusual victors’ space founded on purely patriotic needs. The Nigerian Army chief divorced the military from previous afflictions of public apathy and scorn and thus inspired a military culture characteristic of the quintessential patriot soldier, all in bid to recreate a Nigerian military with a different story; a gripping yarn founded on patriotism and culture indigenous to the people they are meant to protect. It’s the stuff gallant soldiers are made of.
•To be continued
