By Augustine Ehikioya
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede Command Philosophy has begun to change the security narrative in the entire South East and parts of Cross River State.
His Soldier-First Mantra and other new reforms are taking the region to a new level of a secured and peaceful environment.
Besides recording new security achievements, the sit-at-home order that used to trouble the region has been brought down to the barest minimum.
These verdicts were given by the General Officer Commanding 82 Division/Commander Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA, Major General Oluyemi Olatoye.
He spoke with the Security Watch Africa (SWA) crew recently in Enugu.
The GOC said “Let me commence by giving you a kind of a slight overview of my area of operations. The 82 Division Nigerian Army covers the five South East States, as well as one State in the South South that is Cross River State. The security situation in all the States right now is relatively stable and firmly under control.
“Looking at the concept of national security, which entails the government, the people, and of course, the security agencies, these three major actors have done a lot in ensuring security in these States.
“What I’m saying, in essence, is whatever you are seeing in the Southeast States has to do with the collaboration of the government, the people and security agencies.
“It’s not just us. It is because the government is willing to provide the guidelines, and at the same time safeguarding the lives and property of people that they are in charge of, while the people themselves have also shown their readiness to abide by the laid down rules and of course, ensuring that they live peacefully”
He added “Agencies are also gotten from the people. Most times, people tend to separate these people from the security agencies. No, the people are a true reflection. The security agencies are actually a true reflection of the people. I usually say this because I always want people not to separate themselves from security agencies.”
On how the Command Philosophy of the COAS is impacting the area, he said “And of course, one of the first things I did was to study his Command Philosophy very well. I read through it and I digested it. It became obvious that the Command Philosophy was born as a result of his experience over the years in the service, and he has come up with a compass for us, his followers, telling us this is what you should expect from me, your Chief of Army Staff. And at the same time, these are the things I’m expecting from you, my followers.
“Going by that, I also evolved my own Command direction, which I’m using for 82 Division Nigerian Army, which is to consolidate the efficiency and effectiveness of 82 Division Nigerian Army for the discharge of Nigeria’s constitutional responsibilities during Joint and Multi-agency environment.”
While the Chief of Army Staff has four pillars in his Command Philosophy including professionalism, leadership, sound administration and combat readiness, he said, that his own Command direction has the four pillars and another one to reflect the peculiar nature of the area.
“I added one, looking at where I’m operating, which is our agency and inter-service collaboration and cooperation.
“Looking at the environment in which I am operating, one of the things we do a lot here is to start sensitisation of the Command Philosophy. There is no training programme conducted in the two Divisions that doesn’t teach his Command Philosophy as well as the core values of the Nigerian Army.
“Our constitutional responsibilities are stated in the Constitution, as well as my Command direction.” he stated.
According to him, there is more emphasis on training and not just purely on welfare alone.
“I looked at the key concepts in his Command Philosophy, talking especially about the constitutional responsibilities of a well-motivated and combat-ready troop.
“How would you get well-motivated troops? Most times we think it’s just about welfare alone, and that’s not what he is telling us. He’s talking more about our training. And we ensure that training is done effectively.
“There is this saying we met in the system that says the best welfare you can give your troops is training. And not just training, we give them a realistic training based on what the Chief of Army Staff is also doing.”
He stressed that they follow the COAS training directive to the letter.
The GOC said that everything is done to ensure the fulfilment of regimentation in the area.
He added “When you overlook anything when a person has done something wrong, he assumes that it’s the correct thing. So we always ensure correction and that this is preached amongst our troops.”
On administration as a whole, he said “I want to tell you that administration here, we look a lot into welfare. I start as much as possible to ensure that my Commanders, they give Leaves and Passes to troops when they consider it necessary.
“And this is because it’s a personnel with a good frame of mind that you can expect the best from.
“Now, let me even go back to the word the Soldier-First concept. It was born out of the fact that there is no leader when you don’t have followers. It’s because the Soldiers exist that’s why you have the officers to lead them.
“I also tell my Commanders that sound leadership is key to whatever they are doing. I also want to tell you that here the Division will also ensure that.”
The GOC said that the Carrot and Stick system is being implemented in the area to reward those who do well and punish those who err.
“When I say reward and sanction system, as much as possible, when you do something right, it’s taken note of. We ensure that those people are given priorities when necessary.
“I also want to state here, we believe in a level playground for all. There is nothing like godfather, no, a good soldier deserves to be rewarded as much as possible.”
According to him, improved medical services are also ensured in the area.
“Here in the Division, I can give an example of the 82 Division Medical Services and Hospital. I want to tell you that this hospital is highly recognised here in Enugu, a lot of people come to this hospital.
“And why do they come here? Because of the services provided, not just for us, even extended to people outside.”
He disclosed that maintenance culture is not handled with kid gloves in the region.
“In the Barracks as much as possible, talking about our water supply, power supply, housing that we have here, always give the best to our personnel.
“A lot of routine exercises are done to ensure that all these things are at their optimal state.”
The Chief of Army Staff, he said, has come up with a lot of measures trying to improve access to education by Army personnel.
In this direction, he said, the COAS has gone around several places, trying to give some infrastructural development to Army Schools.
To also boost teachers’ morale, the GOC said that the COAS has also looked at teachers’ pay towards upscaling the salaries they get.
According to him, he has also been trying to regularise the employment of the casual staff.
“So by and large, we here, ours is to make sure that all these things are done in the right order. People who have to be screened are screened properly. And also make sure that the school facilities are maintained. And we also add value as much as possible to all these school facilities.” he said.
Stressing that the COAS initiated the increase of the RCA for troops, he said that they are highly monitoring it in their area to ensure that the monies given by the Army Headquarters are judiciously used for that feeding.
“And this has to be achieved only through adequate monitoring. As a Commander, you just won’t sit in your office without any monitoring mechanism, and you need a lot of feedback from the troops.”
Major General Olatoye also disclosed that he ensures that his Commanders meet with their personnel.
“The Chief of Army Staff is a listening leader, and I don’t expect those of us who are his followers not to behave the same.
“We should be very sensitive to the troops under us. You know Mr. A well, you know how it used to be. When you see that he’s not in the right frame of mind, why not speak to him?
“If out of 10 people, one person is not in a good psychological state, it could affect the others. And I don’t just tell this to the officers, I also tell the soldiers, be your brother’s keeper, because that one person could be the reason for our general failure.
“So these are some of the things we keep preaching. But I will tell you that our soldiers here, their attitude towards the Soldier-First mantra, as well as Command Philosophy is very positive. I want to tell you that I am a GOC. I cannot be everywhere. But most of the entire area of responsibility, I have the soldiers deployed.”
He insisted that the troops have been dedicated to ensuring a reduction in crime, criminality and thwarting the sit-at-home order in the area.
“If the troops have not been able to reduce crime and criminality, as well as being able to stand in support of the government and the people to stop sit-at-home, we will not be having freedom of movement.”
He added “After we finished training some troops, they had their field training exercises, and on the day of graduation, I told them, I appreciate all of you for this training, now I’m going to give you a live experience.
“Those troops have been deployed to one of my Sectors, specifically Sector Four for a month, and now in their second month.
“And I will tell you what those soldiers have done in that theatre of operation. It has been a great turnaround for us, for the entire Army and for the country.
“And if those soldiers don’t have a belief in the Command Philosophy of the Chief of Army Staff, they will not be doing what they are doing.
“So I want to tell you that it has really translated and impacted our conduct of operations here. Almost every crime and criminality, we have brought them to the barest minimum, and our hope is to sustain the gains that we have achieved,” he stated.
On achievements, he said, “Since you want us to go into the specifics, I will tell you that since my assumption of duty in January this year, we have been more proactive than reactive in the conduct of operations.
“We have as much as possible refined our tactics, techniques and procedures to suit our operating environment.
“We have conducted over 45 major clearance operations so far. We have a total of over 60 camps that were cleared. We have neutralised several indigenous people of Biafra and ESN members and I will call them terrorists.
“I will tell you again, over 75 of them have been arrested. We have also recovered over 201 weapons of different types. And we have also recovered a total of 69,621 rounds of ammunition.
“Now going to anti-illegal oil bunkering operations, we have destroyed eight illegal bunkering sites. We have arrested 18 suspected bunkers. We have destroyed 11 tankers, 21 vehicles, 12 motorcycles, 29 boats and 335 cooking drums. We have set ablaze over 780,783,281 litres of crude oil.”
On their anti-kidnapping and rescue operations, he said,” we have a total of 36 kidnapping incidents recorded. Anambra State recorded 5, Enugu 11, Abia 8, Imo 5, Cross River 3, and then Ebonyi 4.
“This kidnapping cases increased in 2025 when compared with the last five months of 2024. These increased because of the arrest of Simon Ekpa stifled their source of revenue or support. The next thing they did was to try to go into kidnapping.”
But in all the cases, he said that they usually work with other security agencies, especially the DSS, the Police, and the NSCDC to thwart most of their moves.
“And there was even a case in Anambra where the Commandant of NSCDC was kidnapped, but he was later rescued.
“We also know about their link with the Ambazonians, based on intelligence.”
According to him, the patrol of the waterways was intensified to stop the interaction between them.
On projects, he said “The Chief of Army Staff is this kind of person who believes in decentralised execution of work. And he will keep telling you, just tell me what you need for me to support you.
“We backed up our kinetic operations with the non-kinetic lines of operation. So as a General Officer Commanding 82 Division, and the Commander Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA, on assumption of duty, the first directive I gave to my Commanders was that within a year you must conduct a minimum of two civil-military cooperation activities in your area of operation and they have abided with that for the first six months.
“For the second six months, I have sent a reminder, because I know as human beings, you might forget.
“Like I said earlier, one of the things you should do as a leader is monitoring, evaluation and then control. So I’ve sent out the directives again. Some have started again for the second phase. So it’s on our chart. And my staff here are monitoring if those things are going to take place or not.
“We had humanitarian support. We had the reinforcement of a damaged bridge along a road in Abia State to aid local mobility.
“Now talking about training and capacity building, we implemented a six week reorientation, skill acquisition and empowerment programme for former vigilante members, 46 in number from Ebonyi State involved in communal conflict with the neighbouring area communities in Cross River State.
“They were trained in that and at the end of that programme, the governor assisted them in their resettlement.
“They acquired the training, and he gave them something that they can use now to go and establish themselves,” he said.
The region, he said, has also conducted several Medical Outreach programmes since he took over on the 27th of January 2025.
Disclosing that it has also embarked on some child support initiatives, he said, “We’ve distributed books and other materials to some Community Primary Schools in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, and then Saint Martin’s Primary School and Saint Agnes Primary School in Cross River State.”
According to him, there is also the Human Rights desk where the public is free to come and lodge their complaint.
“And we follow all these things. And as much as possible, we make sure that the outcome of our disciplinary actions are made public, especially when we realise that there are interests Involved.
“So like I said, we can keep talking on and on, but I will tell you, it has been a wonderful experience here, and we also state that a lot of things have turned around for the good of national security.”
On hìs message to Nigerians, he said “What I will tell the people is the Nigerian Army is people-centric. Whatever we are doing is in support of national security objectives. The personnel of the Nigerian Army were selected from the people, trained, and they have become instruments that the government uses in the pursuit of national security.
“I want the people of the Southeast States and Cross River State to note that all the government is doing is to safeguard the well-being of its people and give them the best, most importantly, socio-economic development.
“I also want the people to note that the Army is always a reflection of its people. They should stop separating themselves from the Army,,” he stated.
