It is no longer news that President Muhammed Buhari, GCFR, has appointed new Service Chiefs for the nation.
This, many say, has been long overdue, considering the porous security challenges being faced in the North-Eastern part of the nation, Southwest region and many other parts of the country. One of the newly appointed service chiefs is the former Commander, Multinational Joint Task Force, Major-General Lucky Irabor, a Regular Course 34 officer who was promoted major general in 2014. He is an alumnus of the Ghana Armed Forces Staff College Ghana, the National Defence College Bangladesh and Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Programme, USA.
He is also a recipient of several military, ECOMOG and United Nations awards and medals.The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) is an effort by the Lake Chad basin states – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – to pool resources against jihadists that threaten all four countries. The joint force has carried out periodic operations, often involving troops from one country fighting in the country next door. Offensives have won victories and helped instil an esprit de corps among participating troops. Under, Gen. Irabor, an improved MNJTF boosted its planning and communications capacity, intelligence sharing, human rights compliance and civil-military coordination.
The task force was first organised as a solely Nigerian force in 1994, during the administration of Sani Abacha, to “checkmate banditry activities and to facilitate free movement” along its northern border. In 1998 it was expanded to include units from neighbouring Chad and Niger with the purpose of dealing with common cross-border security issues in the Lake Chad region, with its headquarters in the town of Baga, Borno State. Islamist groups grew and expanded their operations during the 2000s and early 2010s. Boko Haram’s insurgency began in 2009, and security forces across the region were increasingly directly challenged by jihadist militant groups. Boko Haram and Ansaru were the most active and well known. In April 2012, the MNJTF’s mandate was expanded to encompass counter-terrorism operations. Lucky Eluonye Onyenuchea Irabor (born October 5, 1965) is a Nigerian Army Major General who was appointed as the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff by Muhammed Buhari on January 26, 2021.As the Theatre Commander Operation Lafiya Dole, in Maiduguri, Borno State, Major General Lucky Irabor led troops of 28 task force brigade to Maiduguri, where heinous activities of the dare-devil boko-haram was brought to a bearable halt.
Delta State born, Irabor hails from Aliokpu Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. He gained admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna as a member of the 34 Regular Course in 1983 and was commissioned Second Lieutenant on 28 June 1986 into the Signals Corps of the Nigerian Army.Irabor attended military and civil courses both locally and abroad. He attended Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji (AFCSC) for his Junior Staff Course in 1995 and Ghana Armed Forces Staff College, Teshi, Accra, Ghana for Senior Staff Course in 2000/2001 amongst others. He equally attended the National Defence College in Bangladesh in 2010 and Harvard Kennedy Schools of Government and Executive Education, the USA in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Irabor obtained a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and holds two Masters Degrees from University of Ghana and Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka. Irabor, before his new designation, was the Commander, Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army. He was also the Commander, Multinational Joint Task force, from May 2017-2018. He led Boko-haram Counter-insurgency codenamed Operation Lafiya Dole from Mar 2016 to May 2017. During this period, Irabor’s troop successfully wiped out the insurgents.
Recall that, in January 2017, Irabor, who was then the Theatre Commander in the military campaign against the insurgency, distinguished himself as an honest officer when he called a press conference to admit the bombing in error of an IDP camp in Rann village of Kala Balge Local Government Area of Borno State. He said the military had mistaken the camp for a terrorists’ hideout. The incident led to the death of many displaced persons.He proactively made honest moves to make the incident public, before journalists got wind of it. This honest disclosure had helped the government in managing the crisis.He also won the respect of many Nigerians for taking responsibility for the actions of his troops. He won the respect of many Nigerians for taking responsibility for his troops’ action in the war against the Boko Haram.We wish Major General Lucky Irabor all the best in his new national assignment.
