An ultimatum on Boko Haram

President Muhammadu Buhari has told his service chiefs he wants them to put an end to the unceasing and intractable campaign of the Boko Haram in three months. He said this while they were being decorated with their new titles, and that Boko Haram must be completely wiped out, warning however that even while at […]

President Muhammadu Buhari has told his service chiefs he wants them to put an end to the unceasing and intractable campaign of the Boko Haram in three months. He said this while they were being decorated with their new titles, and that Boko Haram must be completely wiped out, warning however that even while at it no human and material resources must be wasted unduly.  Just about the same time PMB was giving his orders, Idris Deby  the Chadian leader, on the occasion of the national day of Chad told the whole world that Boko Haram has been so degraded that it has lost its initiative  and dare devil attitude of wreaking violence and mayhem across large swathes of the Northeast region. Idris Deby volunteered a very important piece of news which is that the former leader, Abubakar Shekau may have been ousted as leader of the dreaded group and replaced by a character called Muhamat Daoud. Except that we now know BK is under a new leadership, the speculation that Shekau may have been taken out and may no longer be with us still remains unconfirmed.  The speculation that Abubakar Shekau may have suffered a tragic fate was fuelled by the fact that the videos he usually posted to debunk his demise has stopped appearing. The videos, whenever they came out made the man look like a cat with nine lives!
As if to pre-empt any tendency toward softening the hardline approach being taken to root out the insurgents which has contributed into degrading its effectiveness, Idris Deby warned against changing from the prevailing approach to one of dialogue. He seemed to be saying time has long since passed for any repartee with murderers and insensitive cutthroats, who have rendered otherwise sedate and regular lives of many people, no matter how poor, a nightmare never before seen in this part of the world. But Deby need not have wasted his breathe, it would be a thoroughly uninformed and misguided person that would now be calling for any talks with Boko Haram. Perhaps had there not been so much violence and dislocations of people’s way of life, with scores of lives wasted needlessly, talk of dialogue would not have been so jarring to the ears as it is now. The brutal savagery of Boko Haram that culminated in scores of deaths has taken away any reason for dialogue, and anyway, with the Joint Task Force (JTF) having been given a new lease of life with weapons and adequate battle ready gears, there is no doubt victory is certain.
On Nigeria’s side, PMB has given his ultimatum-by January 2016, he does not want notions about insurgency, Boko Haram, insecurity etc- now more or less a daily preoccupation of his time to continue to be so. He wants all insecurity matters to be done with by that time-they should be rooted out root and branch, in order to be able to focus on paying attention to the positive demands of work to return Nigeria to the path of moral and ethical regeneration as well as economic growth. And why not? Boko Haram should not have lasted this long had the proper thing been done at the time it reared its ugly head, what was supposed to have been smashed beyond recognition was allowed to fester and come to constitute a clear and present danger to the polity. So totally untrammelled was its violent onslaught in the areas it controlled, that not a few Nigerians thought the state was about to succumb to a superior quixotic power. Nigerians who had been raised to believe that the Nigerian state must not be weakened and made prostrate, particularly in the face of an outfit like Boko Haram, watched helpless while those whose business it was to do the appropriate thing toyed with people’s lives, pretended they were hard at work combating it, but all the while the insurgents’ carnage never stopped. The picture became clearer when soldiers sent to fight the insurgents took to their heels, pleading inadequate and inappropriate weapons and unavailability of basic welfare. Nothing underscored official collusion and complicity in the seeming invincibility of Boko Haram more than the refusal of soldiers to go and engage them in battle.
Thankfully with a new order in place, the idea of Nigeria is being taken seriously. Just about 2 months old, the old habits of sleaze, anything goes and the patrimony is for sale, even for a mesh of potage, has given way to probity and rigorous accountability. Thieves who had been in high places, who had walked with exaggerated swagger are now on bended knees asking to be treated softly as they return stolen funds. Now with some of the returned money soldiers are now being provided with requisite weapons which have made it possible for them to beat back BK’s soulless onslaught. It is this ascendancy of the new ethos, a demonstration of what governance ought to be, not through jingoistic platitudes but by simply doing what is right. Before now such ultimatum may well have fallen on deaf ears, with those to whom it was addressed knowing it cannot be enforced or even meant to be obeyed, after all, you cannot put something on nothing, to paraphrase a legal dictum. Such cannot occur in the new dispensation. The service chiefs know with PMB the party has ended. Duty calls for everyone to go and man his posts which for now, means crushing the BK without trace and stamping it out totally.
Considering Bk’s past brutal exploits, the ultimatum may seem to many, particularly the service chiefs themselves like a tall order, a mission impossible. How do you root out an infernal organisation that took several years to incubate and grow into what it is now, in 3 months? Well, that is exactly why they are now wearing new epaulets on their broad shoulders, the ultimatum is a call to justify their new positions and in the spirit of the times it will be immensely beneficial to be of a positive mindset. The imperative for the ultimatum is simply to return Northeast region to its pre-BK period when one could go from Maiduguri to Mubi without fear of attacks. Its prosperous and vibrant economy consisting of the fish market of Lake Chad, the cross border transactions between Nigerians and countries bordering it, and the rich farming land of the lower part of the region now made comatose need to be urgently revived and government having set funds aside for that purpose cannot wait and endure this seeming hide and seek game with BK, it wants it defeated. The huge re-settlement of displaced people, particularly whole reconstruction of towns, villages and homesteads including their social and economic infrastructure further calls a speedy resolution of the campaign against BK Haram.
All that being so, the service chiefs must realise that putting back the Northeast region on its feet would be determined by how expeditiously they fulfil their assignment of making that part of Nigeria safe again.