Former Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, in this interview divulged some steps taken by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as the country bids to end the carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram insurgents. As a critical component of the counterinsurgency war in the North East, Abubakar said the service is also not without its fair share of challenges in the areas of men and materials.

Sambisa Forest was ransacked several times. Even the Bring Back Our Girls Group were flown there to see things for themselves. So where are the remnants of Boko Haram operating from?
Sambisa Forest is still substantially under the control of our forces and we fly over it day and night. Sometimes, for some of these pilots, as we are going to sleep, that is when they are getting airborne. They take off at 11pm and land at 5am. All they want is to make sure that Nigeria is safe.
Remember that the forest itself is about 60, 000sq kilometres, and you can’t be on every inch of it, but where the Boko Haram insurgents had their headquarters at Camp Zero has been dismantled. Do we have all the forces to capture every inch of the land within that 60,000sq km?
That is the question we should be asking. From time to time when the insurgents try to infiltrate, we have addressed those threats adequately because we have our airplanes that are keeping an eye on what is happening in some of the areas where we think are too close to our forces, or too close to communities. Of course, we do not have all the assets to cover every inch of Sambisa Forest in order to see what is going on there. What we do is, we go out on Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR), prioritise the areas where we feel there are threats and once we confirm those threats, we take adequate steps to protect our troops and communities.
https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/cover/abubakar-we-need-more-forces-to-monitor-every-inch-of-sambisa/

Good!

Not enough in a complex situation as what we have. What happened to drones, I mean surveillance drones to keep track and record?

What if your men on ground are associates of the terror group? Trust no fucking fly. If your intelligence unit is not compromised we will not be having it so bad.

I have worked with men in uniform of the Nigeria army who will be the first to initiate a criminal idea and when you refuse as an opposing security personnel they tag you an enemy.

In my six years of security experience one thing I learnt is everybody is a potential thief worst are the ones in uniform carrying guns.