I can’t pilot a car
Technically, it is sad to see people who can’t pilot a car hoping to buy planes. I know nothing about military operational strategies. In Lagos, when an area boy is afraid of fighting, he huffs and puffs and attempts to quickly take off his shirt even if what he is wearing is underwear. Then he […]
Technically, it is sad to see people who can’t pilot a car hoping to buy planes. I know nothing about military operational strategies. In Lagos, when an area boy is afraid of fighting, he huffs and puffs and attempts to quickly take off his shirt even if what he is wearing is underwear. Then he struggles to take off his shoes. If you let him, he would take off his trousers too as if he’s trying a dip in the lagoon. Lagbaja calls it gragra. If you answer him with a good slap before he concludes his gragra, he’ll probably scram.
People with a fight in them don’t huff and puff, they land you a good one and you are forced to retaliate. Our strategy for tackling insecurity, including insurgency is very much close to the Lagos Area boy. Senior security officials deploy scare tactics as their operational strategy. It is not unusual to hear a new police commissioner advising criminals within his domain to pack up and go.
As news broke that Major-General Bulama Biu, GOC 7 Div advised Boko Haram to give peace a chance, I silently clapped for him. It’s the kind of advice that makes our military’s operational strategy incomparable to any in the world. I never forget that commander-in-chief Muhammadu Buhari is alleged to have a Masters degree in Military Strategy. Bloody civilians have nothing on this tactic.
Boko Haram is evil. It never gives any of its victim warnings before striking. It’s captives are not even allowed to convert to its brand of fundamentalism. They are arranged to meet Allah through the crudest form of death possible. This is why I commend General Biu, the one with the “accelerated promotion” luck with this task of preaching to the choir.
Only last week, the Americans honoured Abubakar Abdullahi, the Imam who saved over 200 Christians from slaughter. General Biu could be heading that road. All we hope and pray is that peace returns to our beleaguered nation. That the few roads or dirt tracks that transport our people from one part to another is motorable again. That the nation is safe for all; including those praying to acquire their own jets without a personal helipad.
Zamfara people have long given up on finding peace or help from government and its law enforcement. After years of mercilessly slaughter by bandits, the government of Zamfara State adopted Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s panacea for peace – love your enemies and pray for those who despise you. The Zamfara people released about 100 captured bandits believing that they’ll be ambassadors of peace. But, it did not appear that bandits understood the memo or the gesture. A day after the announcement of amnesty, residents of Jimrawa took the corpse of a victim of banditry to Gusau, perhaps to convince Osinbajo that incidences of lawlessness in the state are not overrated.
Their arrival scared the peaceful residents of Gusau but not Usman Nagogo, the state police commissioner. He is an apostle of negotiating with bandits. Commissioner Nagogo confirmed that he is “in constant contact with bandit groups in all the bushes” and that “our discussions have been positive leading to the peace we are now enjoying.” By ‘we’ he meant himself and a few government officials.
Commissioner Nagogo vowed that ‘repentant’ bandits have promised to fish out the perpetrator of the latest casualty “and hand the culprits over to me.” According to Sahara reporters of June 21, he concluded: “this is in the spirit of the partnership we are now enjoying.” Note how the man loves the verb ‘enjoy’.
These are awesome peace strategies. If warring Americans said to have only enjoyed less than two decades of peace for their over 200 years of democracy understood this logic, they would have saved a lot of lives and limbs. Special Forces won’t be required if established countries know how better it is to negotiate peace rather than enforce laws. Although the powerful arms lobby would have lost a few shares, there’ll be no need for all the papers wasted on disarmament programmes around the world. Molest of kill one American anywhere, and God help you, your family and your country. We are not Americans now, are we?
I love my country and the lessons it teaches the world. Anybody with access to guns slips through our porous borders to terrorize our citizens and gets amnesty – great strategy. An astonishing video clip of one repentant bandit ran through social media last week. It featured a murderously gangly urchin operating in Zamfara boasting that nobody could capture or kill him. He even had cheerleaders clapping for him. He walked in free and walked away – free!
Believe me, Sai Baba knows what is good for this country. By the time he is done with doing it though, only a handful of us would be witnesses. The man who technically defeated Boko Haram is likely to be happy seeing his GOC preaching peace to them. Anyhow, presently all insurgencies, including bloody killings attributed to herdsmen, robberies and kidnapping are ‘technically defeated’. Just don’t ask the Supreme Court to define technicalities, especially if you can’t pilot a car.