Engage mercenaries to stamp out Boko Haram

It might sound like a broken record asking the country to engage foreign defence contractors, a euphemism for mercenaries, to augment the efforts of our own forces to stamp out Boko Haram insurgents. That has precisely been what Professor Baba Gana Zulum has been doing. Afterall, he knows where the shoes pinches as he has […]

It might sound like a broken record asking the country to engage foreign defence contractors, a euphemism for mercenaries, to augment the efforts of our own forces to stamp out Boko Haram insurgents. That has precisely been what Professor Baba Gana Zulum has been doing. Afterall, he knows where the shoes pinches as he has been superintending over the affairs of Borno State for almost three years now – a state that has been bearing the brunt of the calamity wrought by the Boko Haram terrorism. He had another opportunity to reiterate the call in the Presidential villa, penultimate Wednesday, at the weekly briefing organised by the presidential media team.

He said: “While the challenge of insecurity is being solved gradually, it is not yet over. I have said it times without number that in addition to what we are doing, there is a need for government to rethink and look into the possibility of hiring mercenaries….There’s nothing wrong. America, Britain many more countries that are stronger than Nigeria, used to seek support from outside….This problem has been compounded. And it’s not easy for us to solve the security challenges that we are having now. 

“While Nigeria is providing a lot of things, the federal government is buying equipment, there is the need for us to seek support from external agencies, to defeat these insurgents once and for all, before the matter reaches other parts of the nation. This is very important whether we like it or not. We have an existing gap that we need to fill and this gap by now cannot be filled without external support’’.

The governor had made the same public remarks in December 2020 when a federal government high-powered delegation, led by Senate President Mohammed Lawan, including the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, called on him to condole the people of the state over the wanton killing of 43 Zabarmari farmers by the Boko Haram terrorists. Zulum presented six recommendations to the delegation to deliver to the president among which he said: “Our third recommendation is for him to engage the services of the mercenaries to clear the entire Sambisa forest.

A few months later, when he presided over the 4th meeting of North East Governors Forum, he re-echoed the same demand. In his opening remarks at the meeting in Bauchi, in March 2021, Governor Zulum lamented the low impact of military tactics in the fight against insurgency. He said: “The tactics presently employed is having limited impact. The federal government should seek for support from neighbours with a view to finding solution to end insurgency. The use of hired mercenaries should also be employed to end the insurgency.”

Many other stakeholders have been on the same wavelength with Governor Zulum. In the same month of March last year, the House of Representatives, passed a resolution asking the federal government to hire foreign mercenaries to combat the Boko Haram insurgents. This followed a motion raised by Abdullahi Rahis, the member representing Maiduguri Metropolitan federal constituency. In the same vein other state governors have also openly supported the stance taken by Zulum on hiring mercenaries to finish the insurgents. Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State and Darius Ishaku of Taraba State have at various fora lent their support to Governor Zulum.

Of course the federal government has consistently frowned at any idea of hiring defence contractors to fight the insurgents. The president, thinking along with many retired army officers, finds the very thought as shameful. I have weighed the pronouncement of many serving and retired generals on the subjects and they all tend to believe that the supply of better equipment plus a build-up of morale of the forces would ginger them to complete the job of obliterating the Boko Haram insurgents. Many others believe that the size of the armed forces is rather small for the complexities of Nigeria of this age. Nigeria’s land mass is immense, the borders are long, porous and difficult to manage due to homogeneous nationalities occupying its length and breadth. The size of the armed forces would need to be sufficiently upped for them to make real impact.

 But if one can fault Governor Zulum for continuously asking for what seems to be unpopular with the high commands at the federal level, you can’t fault his reasoning for persistently refusing to take nay for an answer. Most of Borno State of today is truly an ungoverned area with the Boko Haram elements running freely. Maiduguri, the capital city, and most of the towns and villages are manifestly garrisoned settlements that rely heavily on the protection of the armed forces to survive. None of the roads linking the towns and villages can be traversed without the fear of attack at any time of the day. It has been impossible to maintain or build any new highway in Borno State in the last 10 years. Farming, herding of animals, trading and most other forms of livelihood have virtually come to a standstill. Primary and secondary school education has been disrupted for many years in most parts of the state. More than half of the population have been consigned to a beggary daily existence of waiting for handouts from government and international do-gooders.

The litany of woes is just endless.