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The Nigerian military is working towards realising the order given by President Muhammadu Buhari to crush Boko Haram insurgents by December this year but some sceptics think the deadline for the mission is impossible
| By Olu Ojewale | Nov 16, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |
DECEMBER is less than one month away. If everything goes well, by December Nigerians should be heaving a sigh of relieve that the Boko Haram insurgency, which has been tormenting the nation for the past six years, has been routed out of the country and that the nation could now move on with its life. President Muhammadu Buhari had given the Nigerian military the marching order in August to use its might and all in its arsenal to get the job done. As in the military tradition, you obey the last order. The generals did not argue with their commander-in-chief but they assured that it would be done and possibly ahead of the deadline.
Since the deadline was given, Boko Haram has escalated its nefarious activities with the bombing of soft targets in the North East, killing and injuring hundreds of people. The frequency of such attacks has made many people fear that the military will not be able to meet the December deadline which is fast approaching.
This fear was voiced out when Yakubu Gowon, a retired general and former head of state, publicly disagree with the deadline to wipe out Boko Haram. In fact, as a former commander-in-chief himself, Gowon said the December deadline to end the Boko Haram insurgency was unrealistic.
Gowon said that the military would do its best to meet the December deadline, expressing “absolute confidence” in the ability of the Nigerian armed forces to defeat Boko Haram. He, however, warned that no person could confidently talk about the particular time a military operation would end.
The former head of state stated this in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, when he led an advocacy team on malaria and four other neglected tropical diseases, on a visited to Governor David Umahi, on Tuesday, October 27. “I can tell you this, nobody can really talk about when any particular operation is going to end. And as a (former) commander-in- chief, I know this. Yes, you can say you target a particular time, but it may finish before that time or it may go slightly beyond. To end it, that is the most important thing.”
Gowon, who was the military leader during Nigeria’s civil war between 1967 and 1970, expressed concern that Boko Haram insurgents had resorted to using underage and innocent children as suicide bombers to carry out attacks on innocent Nigerians. According to him “prayer is an alternative and the most effective weapon to defeat Boko Haram,” adding: “With prayers, God will touch their hearts (Boko Haram) to change for better.”
Despite his reservation about the deadline, Gowon said the era of the insurgents being in control was over as the military was on the winning side.
As if that was not serious enough, Theophilus Danjuma, a retired lieutenant general and chief of Army Staff, on Tuesday, November 3, warned that the ability of the Boko Haram Islamic sect to gather intelligence was 100 per cent better than that of the nation’s security agencies.
Speaking in Sokoto, Sokoto State, at the opening of the new secretariat for the Catholic Diocese built by Matthew Kukah, a catholic bishop, Danjuma said that the fight against Boko Haram was entering its most critical stage and Nigerians “must brace up” to weather the new challenge.
Danjuma, who is the chairman of Boko Haram Victims’ Support Fund, stated that following Nigeria’s successes in the territorial war, the insurgents had now devised a strategy of disappearing into wider civilian population and setting up sleeping cells to wreak havoc on softer targets. He said the new strategy had not only bolstered the intelligence capability of the terrorists but had shown that they had superior surveillance techniques than Nigeria’s security agencies.
“When Boko Haram openly denounced all religions, Muhammadu Buhari called them terrorists and urged all Muslims to consider them as such. Later, some who chose to remain on the fence realised the threat posed to all and reluctantly joined in condemning Boko Haram,” Danjuma said.
Also speaking at the event, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, said that ‘’Nigerians must not let the activities of Boko Haram sow the seed of doubt and mistrust among themselves as allowing such will be detrimental to the peaceful coexistence of various religious and ethnic groups in the country.’’
Notwithstanding the anxiety and reservations expressed by some Nigerian leaders, the army generals appear to be unfazed. To accomplish the task within the stipulated period, Gabriel Olonisakin, a general and chief of defence staff, said the military had started to re-strategise to meet the December deadline and end insurgency in the North-East as directed by President Buhari. Olonisakin made the statement on Wednesday, October 7, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while on tour of military formations and units in the state.
Olonisakin said that his visit to Port Harcourt was to ascertain the readiness and preparedness of troops to combat terrorism and insecurity in the nation.
Similarly, Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant general and chief of Army Staff, COAS, said that the December deadline given by the president to end activities of insurgents in the North-East region of the country was realisable. Buratai said there had been improved measure of operations in the region.
Buratai, who was on a familiarisation visit to officers and soldiers of the 3rd Armoured Division at the Maxwell Khobe Cantonment at Rukuba, Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, Saturday, October 24, also disclosed that the military had the required number of troops and the equipment available to achieve the deadline.
He said that the military had recovered all territories formerly occupied by the insurgents despite the recent spate of bombings in the region.
“It is not true that Boko Haram is still controlling territories in the North-East, no Boko Haram is holding any territory. Have you heard them (Boko Haram) making any claim of recent? We are more determined and we have more professional soldiers on the ground. We have been trained and equipped and ready to face the challenges posed by them. We will make sure that we meet up with the deadline,” Buratai said.
As it appears, the military is not alone in the fight. Other paramilitary agencies are also involved.
Tunde Ogunsakin, assistant inspector-general of Police, AIG, in charge of zone 12, on Wednesday, November 4, assured the nation that the police would continue to collaborate with the armed forces to meet the presidential directive to root out Boko Haram insurgents from the country by December. Ogunsakin, who is in charge of Bauchi, Borno and Yobe commands which are among states in the area affected by Boko Haram insurgents since 2009, gave the assurance when he paid a courtesy call to Rilwanu Suleiman, emir of Bauchi, at his palace in Bauchi.
The AIG, who was accompanied by Baba Tijani, police commissioner of Bauchi State, and other senior police officers of the zone, said: “We are possibly seeing the end of insurgency in the north east. The Nigeria police and other security agencies will work hard to meet the deadline of the president. The end of Boko Haram is close. They are now on the run.”
Ogunsakin thanked the president for the measures put in place by his administration to address insurgency, noting that they had started yielding successes as peace was gradually returning to the affected places.
The AIG’s remark was corroborated by Adamu who said the people of the state were pleased with the peace recorded in the state and attributed it to the renewed vigour the security agencies had taken against the insurgency. Adamu also lauded President Buhari for the determination of his regime to enthrone peace back to the affected areas ravaged by the insurgency. He assured that the emirate would continue to cooperate with the police and other security agencies in fighting the dreaded group.
Since the president’s order that Boko Haram insurgence should be crushed by all means by December, the Nigerian troops have made some tremendous gains by capturing all the territories under the control of the insurgents. There have been several arrests and liberation of hundreds of persons who had been in custody of the dreaded group. Hundreds of insurgents have also surrendered to the Nigerian troops.
Just last month, Aliyu Hussaini, another suspected Boko Haram sponsor, who had also been parading himself as a military brigadier-general was arrested. The Nigerian Army said in a statement on Tuesday, October 6, that Hussaini was arrested by soldiers of the 33rd Artillery Brigade in Bauchi State during a raid. Hussaini was arrested the same time as one Ibrahim Mohammed, another member of the sect.
Prior to that time, the military had earlier in the day announced the arrest of a financier of the terror group in Bama, Borno State. It was reported that the sum of one million naira and other items were found on the suspect.
While appointing the new service chiefs to their new ranks on August 13, President Buhari gave them a three months’ deadline to defeat Boko Haram.
In a newspaper interview recently, Rabe Abubakar, a colonel and acting spokesman of the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, renewed the promise by the military. Abubakar said: “We are on course to meet the deadline given to us by President Buhari, with the active collaboration of the chief of defence staff and other service chiefs, the insurgency will definitely be over before the deadline or at worst on the deadline.”
Abubakar added that the military would maintain the recent success recorded. “We are not going to fail Nigerians. I believe the activities of Boko Haram will very soon be a thing of the past.”
Answering questions on the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, the military spokesman said: “The military is doing enough; all of us are in the North East to ensure that, not just to finish Boko Haram but get our loved ones back. I believe as we move on with our operations the possibility of getting them is hundred percent.”
In any case, it is the order to crush the insurgents that seems to have put the military chiefs under serious pressure not to disappoint both their commander-in-chief and Nigerians in general. This has also been causing some anxiety among the populace, who are anxiously waiting and hoping that the president’s order to wipe out the Boko Haram sect would be realised by December deadline.
What has remained contentious also is whether the deadline can actually be met. While some analysts are in doubt just as retired General Gowon, others are emphatic that the task is achievable by the Nigerian military now bolstered by foreign aid of equipment and training.
For instance, Shima Gyoh, professor of medicine, University of Benue, Makurdi, believes that the mandate of the military was not essentially to root out the insurgents but to recapture all the territories they must have been occupying. He said: “I had a feeling that the deadline of December 2015 was for recovery of all Nigerian territory controlled by the insurgents, and I have heard many military commanders say so. Even if he did not succinctly say so, was this not what the president meant?” In any case he said he believed that that crushing the insurgency could be achieved.
Supporting, Alabi Isama, a retired brigadier general, believers that the deadline for the military to crush Boko Haram insurgence is achievable. “The military is doing well recapturing towns and villages from insurgents. What they need to do to fast track the process is to attack their supplying system; stop them from getting water, food, fuel and other daily needs that can make life uncomfortable.”
Apart from that, Isama said the military must stop them from getting recruits by educating those that have been captured and those who surrendered about the ills of their acts. “You can only kill people but you cannot kill idea; that is why education is very crucial. All those who have been arrested, some of them will be tried and jailed. What do you do with those are found not guilty? That is why education is also important. The government needs to educate them. And for us to stop further recruitment into the sect like Boko Haram, we have to dismantle our feudal system. If you don’t stop feudal system, we cannot grow and there will be no unity and peace. France, Britain and a host of others destroyed their feudal system before they could grow. If there is feudal system there will always be revolts. So, is important that we destroy feudal system in this country,” he said.
However, Emmanuel Maduagwu, another university don, believes that Gowon was right about his reservation on the deadline given to the military. He said: “General Yakubu Gowan was head of state and supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Political Science of a reputable University in the United Kingdom. He was the one who deployed (retired General Olusegun) Obasanjo and Buhari to the war front during the Nigerian civil war. Therefore, he knows his onions.”
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