Python Dance II: All The Code Names Army Has Used Since Buhari Became Civilian President

For the military, a code name before an operation is sometimes everything.

Army Chiefs sometimes sit over beer and cigarettes in cavernous officers’ mess to arrive at code names.

Like every army in the world, the Nigerian army uses code names to signal its readiness for an operation.

The latest army occupation in the Southeast is code-named “Operation Python Dance II”.

If you consider a Python dancing, the weirdest name the army could have come up with as it seeks to quell criminality, secession and kidnapping in a part of the country, you’ve got another think coming.

Because, well, ‘Crocodile Smile’ is also a thing in Nigerian military circles….

Since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed the reins of leadership in May 2015, the army has dug up quite some queer code names as it continues to protect the nation’s territorial integrity.

Here there are:

1. Operation Lafiya Dole:

This code name literally translates to ‘Peace by all means’ in Hausa.

Operation Lafiya Dole is the army’s code name for the war on terror in Nigeria’s northeast.

It was launched by Chief of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai in July 2015 as a replacement for “Operation Zaman Lafiya” (Let’s live in peace).

2. Operation Sharan Daji:

This operation was launched in July 2015 to tackle recurring incidents of livestock rustling and armed banditry in the Northwest region of Nigeria.

3. Operation Awatse:

Launched in the Southwest to tackle militants and oil installation vandals around the Arepo, Ishawo and Elepete creeks in Lagos and Ogun States.

Awatse translates to “scatter” in Hausa.

Operation Awatse was implemented by a combined team from the Airforce and Navy with plenty of support from army boots on the ground.

4. Operation Shirin Harbi:

Launched in 2015 to combat restiveness in Bauchi and Gombe States.

Shirin Harbi was also useful as the military sought to rein in the killers in Southern Kaduna.

5. Harbin Kunama I:

This was the military’s answer to cattle rustling and armed banditry in the Dansadau Forest of Zamfara State and environs.

Harbin Kunama translates to “sting of a Scorpion” in Hausa.

It was a Northwest operation launched in 2015.

6. Crocodile Smile I:

This was a South-South operation flagged off in August 2015.

Its aim is to improve operational effectiveness in the creeks and halt the destructive activities of oil thieves and militants.

This operation sought to rein in Niger Delta militants crippling Nigeria’s oil installations.

7. Python Dance I:

A Southeast operation with Anambra State as its base.

Python Dance I lasted over a month and its objective was to check the spate of robberies, kidnappings and cultism in and around Anambra.

8. Harbin Kunama II:

Northwest and North central operation launched in July 2017.

Its brief was similar to Harbin Kunama I—deal with Cattle rustling, armed banditry and clashes between pastoralists and farmers.

9. Operation Dokaji:

Another Northwest and North central drill with similar objectives to Harbin Kunama.

Launched in July 2017.

Operation Egwu Eke (aka Python Dance II):

Ongoing operation with the mandate to check kidnappings, robberies, cultism and of course secessionist agitations in Southeast Nigeria.

Abia State is its operational base.

Python Dance II will last a month.

10. If you reside in South South and Southwest Nigeria, be on the lookout for Crocodile smile II in October 2017.

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