Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has told newly recruited soldiers to be ready to be deployed to the dread Sambisa Forest, the stronghold of the Boko Haram Islamist fundamentalists at the end of their training.
He vowed that the Nigerian Army will uphold thoroughness in its recruitment processes to ensure that only qualified persons are recruited henceforth.
The Army Chief made the declaration during the final screening for 80 regular recruits at Falgore forest training camp in Kano State on Monday.
According to him, the exercise was a new approach to the screening and recruitment process of the Nigerian Army, saying this was aimed at recruiting the best.
“You must make up your mind that you are ready to serve your country as a soldier and you should be ready,” he told the recruits.
“All of you will go to Sambisa at the end of your depot training. If you are not ready to move to Sambisa and other parts of the country, and of course, our border areas to defend our country from any act of aggression, then you have not started.
Sambisa has been the fortress of the insurgents who have waged war in Nigeria’s northeast since 2009. Despite known facts about the area, the Nigerian military is yet to undertake a full-scale attack on it.
The Army Chief pointed out that lessons drawn from experiences in the field had made it imperative to recruit the best saying the faulty process could lead to “faulty training and subsequently, faulty operations’’.
Emphasizing that the Nigerian army is not ready for that again, Buratai said, “As such, you must make up your mind that you are ready to serve your country as a soldier and you should be ready, anywhere you are deployed, after your passing out
“If you are not ready to move to Sambisa and other parts of the country, and of course, our border areas to defend our country from any act of aggression, then you have not started. “It is not yet late, if you have any doubt if you are not ready for discipline and loyalty at any point, then you can stand up and go. “There is no room for laziness and indiscipline in the army and no room for malingering,’’ he said.
Buratai declared that all screening for recruitment, selection and commissioning would henceforth be conducted in the Falgore forest.
“This is where we will select those that will become cadets and be trained as officers as well because, at the end of all the training, the officers and soldiers will operate together under the same condition. “As such, all must be subjected to a similar process of recruitment and selection.’’
