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HAS anybody been checking out the Real Situation (title of one of Bob Marley’s hit song) in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno recently? All one can see is that brothers are warring against brothers in the name of religion. School girls are being abducted, raped and married off arbitrarily to Boko Haram soldiers without their parent’s consent. Thousands of people – men, women and children — have been displaced and hundreds killed. Scores are maimed and dehumanised, all because of a senseless war. Property worth millions of Naira has been destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency which has now become a hydra-headed monster in the country.

But “Where did it all begin, when will it end? Well, it seems like: total destruction the only solution. And there ain’t no use: no one can stop them now. Ain’t no use nobody can stop them now,” according to lyrics from Bob Marley’s song in Real Situation. Of course, Marley did not have Nigeria in mind when he sang the song but it aptly captures the helplessness of the country over the Boko Haram incident.

But wait a minute! Is it really true that no one can stop Boko Haram on its tracks and save the nation from further carnage, burning, looting sand maiming? Why is it that the Nigerian military is so sloppy in combating the war against the insurgents? Could the war have been so prolonged because the country gave an “inch” to Boko Haram and it decides to take a “yard”. Can our military stop behaving like a child and act like a man? Why is the military constantly surprised, fooled by the Boko Haram antics which made it even believe in the non-existent ceasefire and went a step further to call its soldiers back to base without anything concrete being achieved?  Why is the military not obeying the age old dictum to always expect unexpected from the Boko Haram? If they do, could they have contained the Boko Haram war long before now? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Realnews cover story for this week entitled: Boko Haram: War without End provides a bird’s eye view to the real situation in the North east states, the hotbed of Boko Haram onslaught in the country. It was written by Olu Ojewale, our general editor. Enjoy it.

Maureen Chigbo

Editor

mechigbo@yahoo.com

— Nov. 17, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT

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