 Welcome back. The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Major General Farouk Yahya as the new Chief of Army staff. The lawmakers took the decision after considering the report of its Joint Committee on Defence and Army. The new Army Chief has a lot to deal with. Boko Haram Banditry is swapped, the incursion of the Army into internal security, low morale of Nigerian Army officers and of course questions of other management of budgetary locations. We have a security expert and former Air Force officer, Sadiq Shehul with us this morning. Good morning, Mr. Shehul. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. We're getting into, you know, Farouk Yahya and of course the expectations for the time that he has been given to be Chief of Army staff. There's a lot of pressure, I believe, that is going to be on him. Where would you think that his biggest challenge will be? Well, thank you very much. Yes, now that the Senate has done the formal, you know, approval for the appointment of General Yahya, what remains for him now is to go back to task. But the good thing in this appointment is that General Yahya is coming directly from the North East. The major challenge facing the Nigerian security or even the Nigerian military is the operation in the North East, of course, together with the other non-war operations like the anti-banditry and kidnapping that are happening all over the country. So for someone who has been at the warfront, I think you know from where to carry his relay. And the good thing about the military organization is that there is continuity. What do I mean by continuity? All the structures, the deployments are already in place. So General Yahya will be working on a familiar terrain, even though it's a very difficult and challenging terrain. But the fact that he's coming from the North East, from his biography is somebody who has had a different common structure. I think this will help him in tackling the task at hand. And like you said, a lot of Nigerians are placing a lot of expectations on him. Having said that, every new commander, apart from the fact that basic things in the military still remain the same, every commander brings to some extent his way of doing things. So definitely I expect General Yahya to bring his own style of doing things without completely abandoning the good things that his citizens have done. So he will look at what is on the ground, definitely make a few changes either in his appointments, in his appointment, and then the tactics to pursue. But all the same, he will be held by the operational, I mean, by the institutional memory that resides in the Army. That also have been there and he will be benefiting from them while bringing with him his own personal coach. I think accepting the fact that he has a lot of experience, and of course, like you said, it's from the northeast, he's also been in a forefront of the war for a long time now. But what I'm asking is, where do you think the challenge will be, the biggest challenge that he might face with prosecuting this war? Is it with the morale of the officers? Will it be with funding? Will it also be with Army-civilian relations? Or anything like that? Where do you think he might need to have the most focus? Okay. He will be facing challenges that his police officers face in the area of personnel. We've been saying it over again and I think it has finally reached the government that definitely the Nigerian Army, or the Nigerian military as the whole, they have a shortage of personnel. So he will be inheriting that problem. But we hope the, I mean, I'm happy to see that there have been some, recently we had a large recruitment at the Nigerian Army in Zaria, just before the demise of the former Army staff. If that's why he was going when he had his accident. But we hope this has to be continued. The military machine has to be oiled and serviced many years over. We don't have to wait for war. Please, I hope the, I mean, in solving the problem of personnel, government will give him the resources and the go ahead to continue recruitment. Apart from resources, apart from human resources, there's also the resources of equipment. The Nigerian military has serious gaps in equipment. I'm sure he will look at, he knows what is on the ground. He will look at it and tell the political masters exactly where the Nigerian Army stands in terms of equipment. Of course, both the personnel, personnel resources and the equipment resources again is a function of funding. Again, we, we may say that we are seeing some movement as I have the federal government have approved or has submitted for national assembly consideration, a supplementary budget to allow. But again, here, I will still emphasize that the problem we are facing now in terms of personnel and this is a problem that has been on since 1999. If you study the pattern of recruitment and buying of equipment, the truth is that Nigeria has not done much since 1990. And we always say that the military is just like a fire tender. If you have a fire tender, if you spend six years, you don't have a fire problem. But as a wise mind, you will continue to make sure that that fire tender has well into service. So when the fire is not that, so the lesson we are learning now is that we have to continue whether during peace or war time, the military machine has to be completely sharpened and oil. That is the price we are paying now. But it is not insurmountable only that it is very difficult. If the time you are fighting is also this time you are looking to recruit is the time we are also looking for equipment. But these are the challenges. Of course, there are also the challenges of morale. Moral is related also to the low number of troops. It is unfortunate that due to lack of troops, rotation cannot take place. So troops are overstained. Ideally, in most countries, the maximum that the soldiers should do in the war front is one year and then it comes back. That's why in post planning, you always plan that for every soldier that is in the kill, there are four other soldiers behind him. One resting, one training, one doing admin, and one trying to come back. That's how we should be. But because of the low numbers, we do not have that loathing of changing the truth. So again, that is part of welfare. And then you have to remember that the soldiers are also human beings. They have wives, they have children, they have not seen them for a long time. You know, we don't want situations where a soldier will come and then his wife is not there. This are things that could happen. So the morale also could raise. The other issue which was what I say is to ensure that whatever entitlements the fighting soldiers have that it reaches them. These are the issues that you have to be confronted with. All right. Mr. Shehu, I want us to focus on the challenge of Nigeria's porous borders. For example, we know that Nijay borders about four states in Nigeria. There's also, you know, the challenge regarding, you know, the insecurity about how these borders, you've seen pictures and videos about how there's minimal to zero security in these borders. So how do you think the chief of Amis staff in the person of Farikia Haya can begin to check, you know, these borders and for stricter border control to ensure that there is no, you know, crossover of terrorists. Since the president keeps saying these people are foreigners and are non-Nigerians, to check their movement into the country. Well, the issue of border security is the province of Nigerian immigration services and some extra Nigerian services. Even though in the approach to all of government approach, the army has some units that are stationed in the borders. They could give assistance if requested to the Nigerian immigration services and the coastal services. But we have to be aware that the major role of border security is that of those two other agencies. And again, your question is very jamai. Again, it brings us the issue, what do women want to become insurgents? There's always tendency to look at only the military aspect. But the typical definition of county insurgency is the combination of political, military, economic, legal, all aspects of national power. So that's why we're talking of no coordination. While it is not the sole responsibility of the army to check borders, but they have a unit that are across the border and they can lend an interface with the immigration services to ensure that our borders are properly mined. The customs also place the role, even though custom is not directly in border security, but customs do checks and mean along these borders. And if we put more emphasis on those checks, you will see that all the proliferation of arms that are coming into the country will be checked to a large extent. Like we've had in the past, the customs has many seizos along those places. So it is a synergized approach. While the main effort for border security is with immigration and some extent the customs, but military, police, prisons, all other national security and civil defense, all they have a role to play to help the national immigration services to ensure that our borders are properly mined. All right. Mr. Show, I also need to ask you, with the way security now is in Nigeria, do you think, you know, having militarized borders across the country is something we should consider doing? And do we even have the manpower for it? Militarized borders, you said? Yes. Are you talking of placing military on the borders? Yes. Yes. Okay. Like I said, it's not the role of the military to release a few borders, even though they have a supplementary role in assisting the Nigerian immigration services. But again, all the questions have also answered it. Nigeria has the whole military. In fact, somebody has said the whole military apparatus will not have one million people. At least a country of 200 plus million, with our size, with our territorial, you know, I mean, geopolitical aspirations. So definitely, we do not have, we don't have enough military, we don't have enough police, we don't have enough civil defense. That is a reality which the political masters must face. On the part of the mutual army staff, what he owes the government to you, what he owes the political masters is to tell them for this operation, this is the number of them that I need. It is important for the political masters to do the meeting. All right. Some people have mentioned that, first of all, the Nigerian army is not meant to be seen, you know, on the streets, you know, doing day-to-day police work. They currently have spread thin across the country and the southeast and the middle belt and of course in the north, northern parts of Nigeria. And you know, there's people who say that it basically has led to a disrespect for the integrity of the Nigerian army and its soldiers. But I want us to have a conversation about the army, civilian relationship. Amnesty International and other organizations have pointed out rights abuses and sometimes going, you know, against the rules of engagement with civilians, you know, across Nigeria. How do you think that this can be fixed to build a better army, civilian relationship in Nigeria and, you know, be able to get intelligence from citizens? Thank you very much. First, the issue of deployment of military in the internal security operation, apart from the war operation in the North East. When people, you know, bring this argument, it is always easy to forget that the issue of deploying military for internal security operation is an issue which has with the Nigerian Constitution Act in Section 217 or 218 has made adequate operation. So in itself, as long as it is in our constitution, there is nothing illegal about doing that. But having done that, again, there are the issues of rules and rules of enforcement. There are where you are in the internal security operations, our training should always emphasize that you are not dealing with enemy in quotation mark as you are dealing with citizens who are low breakers. So definitely the kind of force or the kind of tactics you use, our military or our police or whoever is in internal security operation should put that at the back of their mind. But again, it is not an illegal concept. Unless we change our, you know, our constitutional provisions, which says, because people are quick to point that in the US, we don't do that. Well, why does that may not be completely true? But in US, they have rules which actually forbid that. We do not have that. Now, on the issue of military civil relationship, definitely the army has to be seen as a people's army. The citizens have to see the army of any military apparatus as they are on. So the military, I must say that I left the military in 2016. From the time I left now, we didn't used to have a civil-military relation out in any of the services. Now, all the services, army, air force and the first headquarters, they have a civil-military relation component. So this shows you that the relevance of civil-military relations in modern operations has been appreciated by the army. Can it be better? Definitely. You can better whatever you do. There is nothing in this world that cannot be better. Even the international, you know, examples we draw, they are always trying to better. So we reduce, but then what I am saying, the evidence of doing more in terms of civil-military is evident. We have civil-military relations out here that are headed by generals now. Really, if you check 10 years back, you do not have such outfits. But continuous training, continuous engagement, especially in the counter-insurgency operation. Counter-insurgency operation is an operation for the heart and mind of the people. If you do not get the heart and mind of the people on your side, you will not win. And also for internal security operation with a basically low-enforcement operation, you need the support of the people. The military and other security agencies should do more to bring the people towards them. However, again, I call on Nigerians to see the military and security agencies as their own. Sometimes some of the things you see on social media or on the regular media about how Nigerians are actually are to the military or security agencies is very disheartening. Because these are the people who put their lives on the line to make sure that you sleep at home. So at least you owe them that little respect. But at the same time, it's a reciprocal relationship. The security forces should ensure that whenever there are an operation against citizens that use of minimum force is emphasized. But when I say minimum force, again, it is not good for the civilian to assume that when you are breaking a law, to a certain extent, that the security forces are not going to use live bullets like I see people saying they should go with the blank round. I mean, a security personal duty does not know what to expect when it is there. So definitely he will go with a selection of force from the minimum to the highest. All right. And then based on the judgment, then on his judgment on the place, he can use any of those forces. So place is good for the civilians to understand that. It's also good for the security agencies to ensure that they do everything to quarrel the friendship of the of the of the Nigerian population. All right, Mr Sadiq Shah, who is a security consultant, we thank you for your perspective on this issue this morning. Thank you very much. All right, our next topic will be about a very important day, even though it's much overlooked and the subject as well. It's International Widow's Day celebrated yearly on the 23rd of June and we're speaking with our analysts later on to stay with us.