EDITORIAL: Undiminished Boko Haram: Matters arising

No one can gainsay the fact that the terroristic organisation Boko Haram that has devastated much of the North East of Nigeria is growing in strength day by day, Daily Times gathered. Certainly not the federal government or the military high command. It is indeed surprising that this organization that came into being some ten odd years ago as a rag-tag militia has grown into the exertive and coercive force that it is today.

It is even more baffling that the incumbent administration that has a retired military general as the president has not decimated Boko Haram as the APC promised during campaigns Does this not go against the grain of the pre2015 presidential election promise of the APC government? Then did the APC and its presidential flag-bearer not give us their word that they would in three months of gaining power dismantle Boko Haram? What has happened now?

What have this regime and the army whose commander-in-chief our president, a supposedly no-nonsense retired army general, been doing seriously and meaningfully to curb and annihilate Boko Haram? Why is Boko Haram’s strength undiminished despite the huge amount of money voted for the military to tackle and decimate the murderous group? Why is Boko Haram so strong to the extent that this rag-tag and bob-tail militia can dare and even out-match our mighty army? Are we being told that it is vain and useless for us to imagine and proclaim that we have the army to liberate our suffering North East compatriots from Boko Haram?

All these are serious questions for the federal government, President Muhammadu Buhari, and the Military High Command to answer. When we ask these questions, as Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has also done, we expect reasonable answers; we expect the powers-that-be to provide answers to calm the nerves of longsuffering Nigerians. The level of insecurity in the country is alarming and unacceptable. Recently Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State and his entourage were attacked by men suspected to be Boko Haram fighters on one of the highways in the state.

The daring attacks had happened on at least two occasions. Where were our soldiers when the absurd attacks on the governor took place? Were our soldiers in Borno State not part of the security people and professionals to give the governor maximum security and cover as he performs his duties and functions? All these questions and more compelled the ACF to say not long ago that the military has a hand in the unending war going on in that region. Whether or not the ACF is right in its observation, the federal government should renew its efforts to crush the resistance of Boko Haram.

The time is more than ripe for the government to curtail the insurgency, diminish its strength and defeat it through our military forces. The time has come for a full restoration of life and order in the North East. To achieve this, The Daily Times believes and recommends that the high command of the military should be changed without delay. It is not likely that they will bring fresh perspectives to fighting the insurgency anymore. The change, to achieve its desired purpose, should be followed with the following measures. The soldiers in the battlefronts should be highly motivated to triumph or to be victorious.

They must understand or be made to understand and patriotically believe that when they fall in battle, their families will not be neglected and forsaken. Boko Haram suspects and moles in the army should be fished out and summarily punished. This way the information line and link to Boko Haram will be cut off, and saboteurs will be kept at bay. The government should also pay attention to the ideological façade of the insurgency. Most recruits are falsely promised reward from Allah and therefore fight to the death in the name of religion.

The government should take more seriously its recruitment of would-be soldiers. The recruitment of children of the poor, the Almajiri, the uneducated from the North especially should be stopped to halt indiscipline which the Almajiri system introduces into the military. If the policy of recruiting repentant members of Boko Haram into the military in the hope of getting intelligence from them is not yielding the necessary or expected dividends, the logical thing to do is to put an end to it forthwith. The idea of releasing the so-called ‘repentant Boko Haram’ members into their communities has generated pain and frustration.

Finally, our questions and recommendations suggest that the central government should demonstrate more seriousness in tackling Boko Haram whose diminished strength and power will prove that the government in power is headed by a retired military general who once boasted that Boko Haram had been ‘technically defeated! Can the government still affirm that claim?

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