Fighting Boko Haram is a Spiritual Battle - Buratai

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has said that terrorism and terrorist groups could not be eliminated alone by the military unless religious bodies and organisations in the country come to the “forefront of this spiritual battle.”

The Army chief noted that the focus must be religious groups interfacing on addressing the ideologies which fuelled the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists.

Buratai  stated this on Monday in Abuja during a spiritual warfare seminar at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre with the theme, “Countering insurgency and violent extremism in Nigeria through spiritual warfare.”

The Army chief, who was represented by the Chief of Administration, Maj. Gen. Sani Yusuf, urged Islamic and Christian clerics across the Army formations to join the fight against terrorism, and reorient the people against negative ideologies.

Buratai said, “It is easier to defeat Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists than their ideology because, while we degrade the terrorists and their havens, the narrative of the ideology grows the group.