A retired military officer has criticized the current strategy of spreading security forces thin across multiple locations, advocating instead for concentrated deployment to effectively combat bandit leaders like Bello Turji.
Major General Umar I. Mohammed (Retd.), speaking on Daily Trust TV from 17:29, highlighted the dual security challenges facing Nigeria’s military forces in different regions.
“There is a resurgence in insurgency, and not only that, also in the northwest, the issue of banditry,” Mohammed observed during the interview. He specifically identified how certain criminal leaders have become symbols of violence in their regions.
“Turji has become a name that is synonymous with violence, with killing,” the security expert stated, referring to the notorious bandit leader operating primarily in Zamfara State.
Despite acknowledging these challenges, Mohammed expressed confidence in the Nigerian military’s capabilities when properly deployed. “As I told you, the Nigerian Army is bigger and stronger than them. We can be able to crush them,” he asserted.
However, the retired general identified a critical strategic flaw in current military deployment patterns. “We are actually too thin in so many places,” Mohammed explained, pointing to the practice of distributing small contingents across numerous positions.
He provided specific examples of this dispersal strategy: “Even if you go to Zamfara, you see that we have more than 50 points where we keep 10 soldiers, 20 soldiers.”
Mohammed warned that this approach creates vulnerabilities that bandits can exploit for propaganda purposes. “If they come and kill them, people will say, ‘Okay, they have dislodged the Nigerian Army,'” he noted.
The security expert emphasized that such incidents misrepresent the military’s actual strength. “Naturally, the army is big; that is just a section of the army,” Mohammed clarified, explaining that small unit defeats don’t reflect the institution’s overall capacity.
Instead, Mohammed advocated for a concentrated force approach to achieve decisive results. “What I’m saying is that if the army is coming out, let them come out in full strength,” he recommended.
The retired general provided a specific example of his proposed strategy: “We can be able to mobilize like 5,000 Army and face Turji—he will abandon where he is. That’s my belief.”
His analysis suggests that massing sufficient forces against key targets could prove more effective than the current strategy of maintaining numerous small outposts across conflict zones.
