By Joy Odor Reportcircle News Borno
The dust rose gently under civilian sandals, not armoured tracks. Traders walked freely, commuters passed without fear, and villagers lingered long enough to talk. For a region once defined by fear, this ordinariness was the loudest signal of change.
Standing before Defence Media Correspondents during the Second Bi-Annual Media Tour held between January 20 and 22, 2026, Captain Kabiru Musa, of the Commander Forward Operating Base (FOB) Tungushe, delivered a message that cut through years of conflict rhetoric: life is moving again.
“Our main objective here is to explain the area we are and the locals,” Captain Musa said, gesturing toward surrounding communities. “You can see that the locals have free access to their daily activities.”
This was not a show of force briefing. There were no choreographed checkpoints, no staged patrols for cameras. In fact, Captain Musa made a point of stressing the opposite.
“We don’t go for bounties, unnecessary patrols or checking points,” he said. “With our presence here, the locals themselves have testified that they now move normally into the general area.”
For communities battered since the early years of the Boko Haram insurgency, that statement marked a quiet but profound shift.
The military presence, once synonymous with tension, now functions as a stabilising backdrop, visible, restrained, and effective.
He acknowledged the weight of history. “This place carries information from the period since the 2010s when Boko Haram was a major issue,” he said. “But today, we are here, and thank God, things are moving normally.”
Behind that calm, he credited Command discipline and institutional backing, Support from the Chief of Army Staff and senior Commanders, he noted, has allowed troops to operate effectively without any problems.
Musa uses the Area of Responsibility (AOR) now includes the secured community, where residents have returned, rebuilt and resumed daily life.
The nearby community has been resettled and remains under constant protection.
Also, at FOB Molai, the journalists were told that along the Maiduguri–Damboa axis, a critical economic and transit corridor linking Borno to Adamawa and beyond, soldiers maintain daily patrols and picketing operations to keep the road open.
“This is a place of liveliyhoods,” he said plainly. “We keep it open for commuters. It is a very important route, and we secure it every day.”
The results are measurable not in statistics, but in absence, no recent attacks, no ambushes, no disruptions to the civilian movement.
For a region long accustomed to violence, that silence speaks volumes.
The media tour also took correspondents into direct contact with local leaders, Ulamas and residents, men and women who once fled, now standing firmly on reclaimed ground.
As the briefing wound down, the tone shifted from operational to human. Residents offered prayers. Journalists shook hands. The Nigerian flag fluttered above FOB Tunguhse, not as a symbol of conquest, but of endurance.
“We appreciate what you are doing here,” one of the journalists commended. “Keep the Nigerian flag flying.”
In a conflict often measured by body counts and territory maps, Musa is telling a different story, some of roads reopened, communities restored, and a military footprint light enough to let civilian life breathe again.
For Borno’s recovering heartland, that may be the most decisive victory yet.
