Extension of state of emergency

It was a formality to which not much opposition was expected although the Adamawa State Government has protested, with justification, the state’s inclusion in the measure. As in the initial process in May, the lawmakers met behind closed doors to debate on and approve the president’s request, made in a letter he forwarded to the […]

It was a formality to which not much opposition was expected although the Adamawa State Government has protested, with justification, the state’s inclusion in the measure. As in the initial process in May, the lawmakers met behind closed doors to debate on and approve the president’s request, made in a letter he forwarded to the National Assembly.
In the document, President Jonathan justified his request on the ground that there still remained pockets of security challenges in the areas to which troops were deployed to counter and defeat the nascent insurgency of the Boko Haram sect.
“It has become pertinent to request the approval … for an extension of the state of emergency for a further period of six months, during which time it is expected that normalcy would have been fully restored”, the president said in his letter.
Back in May, the assault on Boko Haram by soldiers under the emergency measure appeared to have gained the upper hand and restored some semblance of security and stability. It was thought that the last days of the insurgency, which has claimed thousands of lives, were numbered. However, in one spectacular act of brutality after another in quick succession, with mostly women and children and unarmed civilians being the main victims, but also on army formations, the insurgents showed some resilience in inflicting mayhem.
In September, the insurgents broadened their attacks on soft targets, invading school dormitories and killing students.  A particularly gory incident was the attack on the College of Agriculture in Gujba, Yobe State, on September 29, in which more than 41 students were killed. The invading gunmen set fire to the student hostels and other school buildings before making good their escape.
The Gujba episode was not the first massacre for which the Boko Haram posted online messages claiming responsibility. More than 40 students were killed in their hostel in a school in the town of Mamudo, Yobe State. On the same day, the insurgents blocked the Benisheik-Damaturu-Maiduguri highway, stopping traffic and killing scores of commuters and dispossessing them of valuables.
These audacious engagements appeared to make nonsense of the state of emergency, under which thousands of troops were deployed in the operation to contain the insurgency. Under the emergency regulation, all telephone communication from and to the affected states were cut, because the security authorities said that the insurgents were using mobile phones to communicate and to detonate explosive devices. Adamawa State has had its telephone links restored, however. Further deployment of troops helped in containing a large number of insurgent activities, some estimates say by as much as 90 per cent.
While the renewed state of emergency may provide ample opportunity for the remaining 10 per cent to be subdued within a window that would remain open for the next six months, it is by no means certain that the last of such atrocities is over. This is why questions remain as to why and the insurgents could regroup and keep on attacking with such bloody ferocity despite the surges in troop deployments.
Reports that some of the latter attacks were carried out by gunmen kitted in military fatigues and drove in vehicles marked with military colours added a complex dimension to public apprehension of the nature of the conflict and why it dragged on for this long.
How could a convoy of such vehicles evade detection from wherever they came, pass through the myriad of checkpoints that dot the landscapes of the affected states, carry out their dastardly operations, and return to their bases? The authorities have not offered a sufficiently credible explanation for this.
The notion that the military stage-managed some of these attacks in order for senior officers to keep getting more money from the huge security vote may sound nonsensical, but the inability to subdue a band of insurgents, no matter how determined, by Africa’s biggest nation does raise issues of competence and focus and feeds into a frenzy of conspiracy theories of the army’s intentions.
It is therefore important, for the nation, as well as the international community, particularly Nigeria’s neighbours, that the military keys in to the president’s pledge that normalcy would be fully restored in the next few months.