By Ireti Asemota.
War, indeed, unfolds as a relentless chain of surprises—ambushes that shatter expectations, turning routine patrols into fatal traps. Those who fear death wisely steer clear, but it is precisely this courage that demands our deepest salute to the heroes who charge into the fray, shields raised not for glory, but to safeguard their compatriots from the shadows of invaders and terrorists. Brig. General Musa Uba, Commanding Officer of the 25 Task Force Brigade, embodied that valor until an ISWAP ambush along the Damboa–Biu Road in Borno State claimed him on November 14, 2025. Heartbreakingly, this echoes the loss four years prior of Brig. General Dzarma Zirkusu, ambushed and killed by the same ISWAP forces in Askira, Uba Local Government Area, alongside three soldiers. Such tragedies erode the Armed Forces’ image, transforming what should be a bastion of strength into a perceived graveyard for the promising—officers felled not by folly, but by an enemy that exploits every vulnerability.
The military must never devolve into a charnel house, where lives are squandered amid systemic strains. Whether in the skies or on scorched earth, the toll is grievous: Families shattered, widows multiplying like echoes of grief. In the Northeast’s cauldron, we’ve mourned Col. Dahiru Bako (ambushed in Niger in 2021), Lt. Col. Mohammed Abu Ali (killed in Borno in 2021), Lt. Col. Aliyu Paiko (slain in Yobe in 2023), alongside Air Force and Navy stalwarts. Thousands more—enlisted souls—have perished in ISWAP and Boko Haram’s cunning ambushes, evolving from ragtag raids to sophisticated assaults that claim 454 soldiers alone between 2019 and 2025, per security analyses. Borno bears over 60% of these scars, a testament to the insurgents’ grip on the Lake Chad fringes.
Our forces have shone abroad—from Liberia and Sierra Leone’s ECOMOG grit to Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Angola, Congo, and The Gambia’s stabilizing hand. Domestically, the last cataclysm was the 1967–1970 Civil War, a scar that lingers. Yet today, personal encounters with loss keep the wound raw. The 1992 C-130H Hercules crash—en route from Lagos to Jaji, plunging into Isheri-Oshun swamp near Ejigbo—still haunts, claiming 159 lives, including 104 Army officers, 17 Naval, 17 Air Force personnel, eight foreigners, and crew. That ill-fated flight, overloaded with three engines failing mid-takeoff, robbed Nigeria of its brightest, bound for the Armed Forces Command and Staff College.
I often hear these echoes from survivors. Etcheta Egejuru, a stellar sprinter from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and NYSC instructor at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna for the 18th Regular Course in 1977, recalls his cadets with piercing clarity. Posted directly post-graduation, he taught General Science post their Battle Inoculation Camp, forging bonds with names and hometowns now etched in tragedy. “I recall my bright naval cadet, K.O. Igwara (N/0652) and MP Onyeozuru Mba (N5945), from Ovim, Abia State,” he shared, voice heavy with the nation’s irreplaceable void.
Veteran goalkeeper Tope Ogunkua lost Squadron Leader Kolawole Odubanjo, a Puma helicopter pilot from ECOMOG’s Liberian and Sierra Leone campaigns. Their last morning: Environmental Sanitation Saturday, plotting a party in Ijebu Igbo. Odubanjo’s car stubbornly refused to start—pushed futilely by friends—before his wife ferried him to the airport. “He was a lovely gentleman, amiable,” Ogunkua reflects, part of the Sharp Shooters squad under Coach Mutiu Okunnu, alongside Siji Lagunju, Idowu Jimoh, Jude Oluyede, and Fatai Atere.
Engineer Kehinde Ogedengbe, now US-based, mourns Major P. Iyayi (N/6069)—a jovial doctor—and Squadron Leader F.O. Akede (NAF/920), fresh from overseas. “Iyayi was such a fun guy… Akede, too,” he says, memories undimmed. His brother Nath anchored St. Finbarr’s College’s soccer dynasty in Akoka, Lagos.
These threads weave back further: Lt. G. Ezeugbana (N/57), Sandhurst-trained, felled in Congo’s 1961 UN peacekeeping—juniors like Chukwuma Nzeogwu, Chude Sokei, Joe Akahan, Chris Ude, and Alphonsus Keshi would shape history. And Flight Lieutenant Emmanuel Adeniyi Thomas, RAF-commissioned in 1942 as Nigeria’s first Black African pilot, perished in a 1945 crash; his remains rest in Bath Cemetery, UK.
Uba’s death—a Borno native slain in his homeland by local terrorists—stings deepest. It underscores the betrayal of “enemies within,” demanding sharper intelligence to thwart ambushes. Losing another to ISWAP’s snares would be unforgivable. These heroes deserve not just salutes, but systemic shields: Better intel, fortified convoys, and a nation that honors their legacy with resolve, not rhetoric. In their memory, we must forge a Northeast where patrols end in triumph, not tombs.
#NigerianHeroes #BrigGenMusaUba #FightAgainstISWAP #ArmedForcesSacrifice
