The Minister of Defence, Major General Christopher Musa (retd.), and the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, visited the Joint Task Force (North East) Operation HADIN KAI headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, to review counter-insurgency efforts. During the visit, Musa praised the Armed Forces for making significant progress, citing improved coordination and professionalism as key drivers. He reaffirmed President Bola Tinubu's administration's commitment to combating insecurity and urged continued public support for the military's operations.
The ministers laid wreaths at the Maiduguri Military Cemetery to honour soldiers killed in action and inspected a new Command and Control Centre designed to boost intelligence and coordination. They also commissioned newly constructed housing for military personnel to improve welfare. At the theatre command, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar reported that over 280 suspected insurgents were neutralised during Ramadan, with logistics networks disrupted and civilians rescued through coordinated land and air operations.
The visit included a courtesy call on the Shehu of Borno and a meeting with Borno's deputy governor at the State Government House, where federal and state officials agreed to strengthen collaboration. The trip follows a series of bomb attacks in Maiduguri in March 2026 at the Post Office area and Monday Market, which killed 23 people and injured 108.
A ministerial visit and a fresh body count—280 "criminal elements" killed in Ramadan—do not amount to victory. Major General Christopher Musa is touring barracks while bombs still explode in Maiduguri markets months after being declared secure. If the Defence Ministry's metric for progress is body counts and wreath-laying, then the definition of success has been reduced to performance. For civilians who survived the March 2026 attacks, the promise of sustained operations offers little comfort when peace remains measured in speeches, not safety.
