By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
Major General Rabe Abubakar died in the den of kidnappers. Whether from complications related to diabetes or from bandits seems secondary. The man died in circumstances a senior Army General, retired or not, and one who has been a Spokesperson for this Army, should not be caught dead in.
Yet, the man who, as Director of Defence Information (DDI) and chief spokesperson for the Nigerian Armed Forces, between August 2015 and March 2017, defended the military before the media, went to war with anyone who spoke less of the military and its many wars, would be allowed to wallow in the captivity of a rag-tag Army, alongside his wife and many others, for two weeks. This is the most poignant statement about the state of insecurity.
It is a tragedy and I pray for the repose of his soul and for comfort for his family. Fortunately, there is some reprieve that his family will not be doubly bereaved following the successful rescue of the late General’s wife. Because two days after the military confirmed the death of the General, it found the gumption to launch Operation Fansan Yamma to rescue the widow, who sustained injuries during the operation but otherwise, would be grateful to be alive.
Though the operation succeeded in retrieving the widow, it hardly lived up to its name. Not one of the bandits was arrested or killed. Which means they are still out there, available to strike again. Do I expect the military to pursue them to the end of the world to serve as a deterrent? Despite the ongoing Operation Clean Sweep III, which is reportedly combing the Katsina forests, experience has taught us to be cautious about our optimism.
After all, General Rabe is not the first General to be consumed by the insecurity in the country. Air Marshal Alex Badeh who, between January 2014 and July 2015, was Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff before he was retired, was gunned down by criminals on December 18, 2018 on his way back from his farm in Keffi.
While the Air Force was swift to courtmartial five officers who were part of Badeh’s protective convoy for fleeing the scene once the criminals opened fire, the bandits who ambushed the General have still not faced prosecution due to judicial delays. It has been seven years since.
At the time of his death, Badeh was facing a highly publicised trial for allegedly embezzling N3.97 billion tied to the military budget and his death meant he couldn’t be convicted. It would not be the first time that senior military officers will be accused of sabotaging the defence of the country through corruption. Nigerians have been paying the price. Soldiers at the front have been paying the price. And recently, senior military officers too have been paying the price.
Just weeks before Badeh ran into his ambush, Rtd General Idris Alkali was ambushed and brutally murdered on the way to Jos. Since October 2025, Lt Col. Emmanuel Okoye, Brig. Gen. Oseni Braimah, Lt Col Umar Mairiga, Brig. Gen Musa Uba, Col Aliyu Paiko and hundreds of soldiers have been killed by bandits and terrorists.
For a country, officially not at war, losing senior officers at this rate is concerning. Not to mention the thousands of civilians who are killed, kidnapped, or displaced across the country.
The sacrifices of these soldiers are immense and should not be in vain. But the historical antecedent does not give us the confidence that this won’t be the case. We have not seen the fury and retaliation on the bandits and criminals who killed the two Brig. Generals in action for instance. The outrage and fury Nigerians expected, the vengeance whether in the evening or at night, have not materialised yet.
While in conflict controlling the narrative is important, the military has treated the narrative as the end goal rather than a crucial means to an end—the genuine elimination of banditry and terrorism. The late Gen. Rabe himself, while he was spokesman of the military, had vehemently argued that terrorism was an information war. He had chided the public for criticising the military because it “energised” insurgents.
“When you criticise the military, it means you are telling the terrorists that they are doing a good job,” he had once said. And when presented with a viral video of terrorists openly celebrating Eid, General Rabe dismissed it saying, “it shouldn’t bother Nigerians.” As far as he was concerned, the terrorists had been vanquished. “We are done fighting,” he had said confidently, insisting that core military operations were wrapping up. “We know how far we have gone, and we know how far we are planning.”
It is a shame that a few years later, those operations that should have wrapped up and cleaned up the terrorists haven’t and eventually resulted in his death and the continued death, suffering and displacement of thousands of Nigerians.
The military’s information team has dedicated its machinery to creating a narrative that often collapses under the weight of the mildest probe. Ordinarily, the release of 360 civilians abducted by Boko Haram in Ngoshe, Borno State, would have been a significant milestone. The military claimed it was a highly sophisticated rescue operation. The Borno State government insists it was a highly complex negotiation operation. The military said it killed several terrorists during the rescue operations. No evidence of that has been presented.
We have seen this scenario play out many times. For instance, after the negotiated release of students abducted from the Forestry Mechanisation College Kaduna in 2021, the then Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, issued a high-profile press release claiming that troops of 1 Div had rescued the students. He even went on to commend the soldiers for their bravery. However, the victims of the abductions themselves revealed that there were no rescue operations as the terrorists released them after ransom payments.
We have seen this sad pattern repeated across the Ariko Church abductions, the Lake Chad NNPC exploration team abduction, when the Minister of Petroleum broke ranks to deny any military rescue, the Kankara mass abductions, just to mention a few.
The danger in this military’s obsessive focus on carving rescue operations rather than actually carrying out these operations, is that it emboldens the terrorists, who go away with more funds for future operations and the confidence that they have successfully emasculated the military and reduced them to claiming victories that they never had. Going by the narration that the military has persistently pushed, Nigeria’s war against terror has long been lost and won. The reality however is that the military is not only losing parts of the country and thousands of Nigerians, they are now losing senior officers faster than one can count.
This is not the time for spin doctors. This is the time for the military to be angry, for decisive responses. Otherwise, we are in grave danger of normalising the killing of the most senior military officers by these multifarious army of criminals and terrorists. And what does that mean for the rest of us?
As the Hausa proverb says, sometimes you chomp on pebbles to frighten the tiger nuts. We are the tiger nuts here and the terrorists are the ones doing the chomping. If generals die like average villagers, then Nigeria is in more trouble than even the best military spin doctors could spin their way out of. General Rabe’s death is a huge tragedy for his family and the nation (may he rest in peace). It might just be the biggest PR disaster for the military yet.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim can be reached at abubakaradam@dailytrust.com Twitter: @Abbakar_himself Whatsapp: 08020621270