Borno war crimes: A storm in a teapot

Those carrying out these illegal killings should understand that the world has moved on now and war criminals are being brought to book the world over International non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International have drawn attention to these issues in Maiduguri, people are collecting and sharing evidence and the perpetrators of these evil acts would not […]

Those carrying out these illegal killings should understand that the world has moved on now and war criminals are being brought to book the world over International non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International have drawn attention to these issues in Maiduguri, people are collecting and sharing evidence and the perpetrators of these evil acts would not escape the long arm of the law, not in these present times they won’t, as someone somewhere has to take the fall for these crimes no matter how long it takes.

The military high command should understand that there is a difference between respect and fear they might win battles with fear but they can only win the peace with respect which is an admiration one has for another, when people fear you it is no cause for celebration but when your people respect you then you can sleep with two eyes closed.

One can be said to be making progress when he knows whom he is fighting but engaging an unknown enemy is a total waste of time, the army doesn’t know who it is fighting that is why the soldiers go about killing innocent civilians. This situation we have on ground begs the question Who Are Boko Haram?, what motivates them? And what are their goals? Not knowing the answer to any of these questions means one and only one thing a total failure at intelligence gathering. The federal government is giving Nigerians the impression that Boko Haram is politically motivated, if that is the case then we are still in luck for there is a great difference between fighting mercenaries and fighting an entity which has a genuine passion and belief in what they are doing.  If it is politically motivated then they are up against mercenaries who like soldiers want to live to enjoy the money they are being paid but if they are religious militant jihadists then we are all in trouble. Going about killing innocent civilians and raping young girls is no way to fight a war but a sure way of making new enemies of the people who will be  motivated by  a genuine will to fight and gain vengeance which if you ask me  is the most formidable enemy. It is not surprising to hear that Boko Haram fighters include militants from Chad and other North African countries or rumors about a coup in Chad as Borno State is home to the oldest Islamic caliphate in Nigeria and the only caliphate in West Africa whose influence encompasses an area covering much of Chad, Southern Libya, Eastern Niger, North Eastern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon.  From the look of things the Boko  Haram is still political in nature but if care is not taken we might have a genuine Islamist insurgency in this country as giving the average citizen a reason to fight by killing family heads and molesting their daughters is tantamount to awaking a sleeping Giant.

Military science assumes that the bigger the army the stronger it is but on the other hand during military combat the final strength of an army is also its true physical capacity multiplied by one unknown X, this X is non other than the spirit of the troops measured as a greater or lesser desire to fight and confront danger.

Men with the desire to fight who also understand why they are fighting regardless of who they are fighting whether under the command of military geniuses or fighting with sticks and clubs will put themselves in advantageous position to triumph. This is a bitter lesson which was learnt by the soviets in Afghanistan after twelve years of unsuccessful military campaign against the mujahedeen even though this was a war between sophisticated tanks versus illiterate men on horseback.  Another very good example is the US military occupation in Afghanistan where the US military occupation have successfully created monsters of majority of the tribal population by doing what the army boys are doing in Maiduguri realizing that wouldn’t work the great US army is now negotiating with Taliban militants who are of the opinion that the US army has the watch but they have the time.

Other examples of unsuccessful military aggressions include North Korea, Vietnam, and Somalia. Another good example is Pakistan where the Pakistani army is engaged in extrajudicial killing of innocent citizens in the swat valley area leading to a large number of affected individuals crossing over the border into Afghanistan thereby swelling the ranks of the Taliban developing more sophisticated forms of attack including suicide bombing in all its cities targeting important government officials making the entire populace live in perpetual fear.

There are different kinds of war conventional and unconventional It is conventional when you are fighting a known enemy at a particular geographical location, what usually happens in such a scenario is that you carry a great force and try to crush the enemy totally. But what we have in Maiduguri is an unconventional war where the army boys don’t even know who they are fighting or where they are, this is a kind of guerrilla warfare which recent history has proved to be the most dangerous as it has been proved time and again to be very effective against a large intimidating force.

Ever since the second world war there has been a steep decline in the success of brute force military campaigns and military strategists the world over including General David Petraeus a schooled diplomat and former top commander US Forces in Afghanistan have come to realize that it never gets the job done but diplomacy and wit can win a war that a million tanks and soldiers can’t.

The point I’m trying to make here is that if the Boko Haram menace is political it should be treated as such, so there is no need in killing innocent civilians and destroying their lives and property as it will only make new enemies of them and give the Boko Haram more legitimacy I can assure you that no one will enjoy a full blown out religious crises as it will only turn Nigeria into another Pakistan as terrorism knows no boundaries and is not confined to a particular geographical location.

This problem is still at its infant stage and how we tackle it now greatly determines what is yet to come, the main aim should not be to send the Boko Haram back to the drawing board to perfect their strategy but to discourage them from such acts. The army is the nations security backbone and last line of defence which saves us from external threats and also ourselves that is why it is important that it should not loose its legitimacy, credibility and respect by carrying out gory acts against its citizens. The federal government should investigate extrajudicial killings in Maiduguri, Niger Delta and other parts of the country where innocent people have faced injustices at the hands of the military so as to prevent the cycle of ethnic revenge killings and atrocities in the future in order to restore confidence in our nations last line of defense as ethnic polarization in the military will be a national nightmare and a recipe for untore seen disaster.

Aliyu Aliyu wrote from Istanbul, Turkey