A Civilian's Experience of Examining Counterinsurgency in Front of Military Generals, By Yushau A. Shuaib

As a security and crisis communicator, I have underscored my belief that the work of Air Vice Marshal Olatunde will go a long way in equipping commanders and leaders with the know-how needed to proactively resolve insurgency through sharp assessment, in a way that enhances our national security. And more profoundly, it will strengthen their abilities to effectively communicate operational plans in verbal and written form.

Air Vice Marshal Sayo Olatunde, Commanding Officer, Nigerian Airforce War College, Makurdi, Benue State, is an excellent host whenever I am at the college as a guest lecturer on crisis communication and the social media engagement.

We often discuss in depth contemporary issues of the military's hard and soft power policies, as well as the place of the media in psychological operations.

In October, he asked me to review his new book, Critical Thinking To Operational Planning and Resolver Insurgency With Net Assessment. Being a writer, I gladly agreed to write and have published in the press a critique of his very crucial and significant intellectual intervention in the eradication of a debilitating national malaise.

A multi-award winning officer, AVM Olatunde is a member of 39 regular courses of the Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA), and holds a first class Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. Her Masters is in Public and International Affairs from the University of Lagos. He started as an engineer officer before becoming a pilot in the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

This friendly engineer-fighter pilot is very passionate about using net assessment in counterinsurgency strategy and operations. Although the notion of net valuation may sound like an economic, financial or political term, it is actually a comparative analysis of military, technological, political, economic and other factors governing the relative military capability of nations. /p>

The purpose of net assessment is to identify issues and opportunities that warrant the attention of senior defense officials. Seeking to contain the insurgency through clear assessment, Olatunde recommends associated analytical tools to promote preventive rather than reactive operational planning and management in the Nigerian Armed Forces, as essential anchor point for counter-insurgency operations.< /p>

A few weeks after our discussion, I received a copy of the book from the commandant of the War College, the preface of which was written by the Minister of Defense, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd.).The very admirable 337-page book is structured into three sections, including, “Harnessing the Potential of Analytical Frameworks with Critical and Analytical Thinking”; “Resolving the Insurgency with a Network Assessment” and “Effectively Communicating Operational Plans”. These interesting sections consist of 12 chapters dealing with "Habits of the Mind in Critical and Analytical Thinking"; "Analytical Techniques"; “Analytical Writing Skills, Theoretical Frameworks for Insurgency and Counterinsurgency”; "Overview of Network Assessment and its Methodology in Counterinsurgency" and "Environmental Scanning". Also, there is “SWOT analysis and short-term strategies”; "Scenario Planning and Long-Term Builds" and "Communicating Operational Plans Effectively: Avoiding Common Writing Mistakes."

Besides the articulate foreword by Gen. Magashi (rtd.), this extremely insightful book is also recommended and praised by the military's top brass, including the Chief of the Defense Staff, the General Leo Irabor; Air Chief of Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao; the Chief of Defense Intelligence, Major General Samuel Adebayo; and Commandant of the Nigeria Defense Academy, Major General I.M. Yusuf. The book was acclaimed by the Com...