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Buhari IMinister of Defence· November 2015 — May 2019

Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd)

Defence Minister during the peak of the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgency.

The record

Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali, retired Brigadier-General from Zamfara, served as Minister of Defence for the full first term of the Buhari administration.

His tenure spanned the recapture of Boko Haram strongholds in 2016–2017, the ISWAP/JAS split of August 2016, the Dapchi and Chibok schoolgirl negotiations, and the start of large-scale banditry in the North-West.

He drew controversy in July 2018 for attributing rural killings to 'blockages of cattle routes', which critics read as exculpation of armed herder groups.

Sources

  • Office of the National Security Adviser — Annual reports, 2015–2019
  • International Crisis Group, Stopping Nigeria's Spiralling Farmer-Herder Violence (2018)
Methodology

Tier 1 · primary

Courts. Gazettes. National archives.

Tier 2 · corroborating

OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.

Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged

Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.