PREVIEW
Major General Ajose inherits Operation Hadin Kai amid reports of a clandestine truce with a Boko Haram faction
Major General Ibikunle Ademola Ajose has taken over the Nigerian army’s main operation against the Islamist fighters of Boko Haram and others in the north-east as part of a sweeping reshuffle of military chiefs involving 15 generals.
Ajose takes over Operation Hadin Kai from Major General, Abdulsalam Abubakar, who was redeployed to the Nigerian Army Heritage and Future Centre (NAHFC) after just 16 months in the post.
Government spokesman Appolonia Anele said the changes were about ‘improving operational effectiveness, strengthening leadership and aligning command structures' but no political reasons for the changes have been offered by officials.
Yet President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s record on security is one of his biggest weaknesses – even according to official statistics – as he campaigns for a second term in next February’s elections. Opinion polling in June suggested that security is second only to tackling the rising cost of living in terms of importance to voters (Dispatches 6/7/26, New polls show rising anger with Tinubu on economy and security).
This reshuffle comes less than two months after President Tinubu approved plans to create four new army divisions and recruit 28,000 additional personnel (Dispatches 27/7/26, Tinubu accelerates military build-up as security anxiety dominates pre-election mood). Last year, Tinubu reshuffled other key security posts, appointing General Christopher Musa, the Defence Chief of Staff, to lead the Defence ministry and replacing him with Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu (AC Vol 66 No 24, Deepening security crisis threatens Tinubu’s re-election plans).
Ajose’s task may be complicated by recent reports that the Tinubu government has had a secret ceasefire agreement with the Boko Haram faction led by Bakura Doro. Unconfirmed details about the arrangement suggest it is an attempt to cut the number of kidnappings of schoolchildren.
Another national security crisis could still undermine the electoral prospects of Tinubu, whose All Progressives Congress controls 31 of the federation’s 36 state governments.
Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu’s leading opponent, hails from Adamawa State in the north-east and has serially accused the APC government of ignoring the security concerns of the northern states which make up the biggest voting bloc in the country.
Associates of Tinubu say he is haunted by the prospect of a rerun of the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping which, after turning into an international cause célèbre, did so much to wreck President Goodluck Jonathan’s electoral chances in 2015 (AC Vol 55 No 18, How terror twists the vote).
The informal pact, said to be operating since June between state security officers and the Boko Haram faction, was part of the negotiations that freed 360 civilians abducted from Ngoshe village in Borno State earlier this year. It does not extend to Islamic State's West Africa Province movement from which Doro broke away. It’s unclear how much money changed hands but kidnapping has become a highly lucrative business for jihadist fighters raising money for operations and for myriad groups of armed robbers and cattle rustlers, especially in the Middle Belt and Northern states.
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