Insurgency: Correcting a fluke with a worse one

The resident, Goodluck Jonathan, has been derided by his African counterparts, at times, more disparaging than even his domestic opposition.Meanwhile, Boko Haram has continued with its campaign, picking soft targets and setting off bombs, killing more innocent unsuspecting common folk.Meanwhile also, we are getting insights daily into the institutional problems that have made it impossible […]

The resident, Goodluck Jonathan, has been derided by his African counterparts, at times, more disparaging than even his domestic opposition.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram has continued with its campaign, picking soft targets and setting off bombs, killing more innocent unsuspecting common folk.
Meanwhile also, we are getting insights daily into the institutional problems that have made it impossible for the Nigerian Armed Forces to nullify the Boko Haram challenge. After maintaining stoic professional silence for all this time, military top brass came out publicly to accuse the government of starving the forces of budgeted funds. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala did not deny the accusation. She merely said ‘No budget will be enough to meet military demands, but for now, I think the sector takes almost a trillion of the budget’ Service Chiefs have calmly rejected this position pointing out that ‘It is not just about non-release of appropriated funds. Even money approved by the President was not released’
Until these disagreements surfaced, the impression from abroad has been very ugly, and very much still is. The United States Under-Secretary of State for Civilian Security Democracy and Human Rights, Sarah Sewall, on Wednesday told the American house committee on Foreign Affairs that the entrenched corruption and incompetence has hindered the Nigerian Armed Forces from wiping out Boko Haram. She asserted that the Nigerian military can only rescue the abducted 200 Chibok girls when they completely flush out corruption. ‘’corruption prevents supplies as basic as bullets and transport vehicles from reaching the frontline of the fight against Boko Haram.’’ She pointed out. The house was further told that the Nigerian soldiers’ morale was low causing desertion to be rampart in the Nigerian army’s 7th army division fighting the Boko Haram sect. the house was further briefed that in spite of the budgeted 1.3 trillion naira (5.8 billion dollars), the army still lacks the needed apparatus to fight the insurgence.
Already the Chief of army staff Lt General Kenneth Minimah is reportedly leading the investigation of nine generals on the suspicion selling military grade weapons to Boko Haram. The military officers are also alleged to have been giving Boko Haram tips on troop movements, operations and were involved in the theft of weapons from the Nigerian army armoury in various military outposts in the northern states of the Nigeria. The army’s investigation is said to be based on the united states/European Union military intelligence sources that revealed that top Nigerian military chiefs were colluding with Boko Haram resulting in the insurgence gaining offensive capability and upper hand over frontline troops.
Reported mutinies in the 7th Army have been denied, but Nigerians hardly believe the denial. The Nigerian army is known for its impressive level of professionalism and discipline, thus this spate of embarrassments is undoubtedly a result of the given impression that budgetary allocations were being made and the soldiers believe that their top brass is engaged in diversion of allotments, leading to unnecessary loss of lives of so many gallant soldiers in the war against Boko Haram. That Government has not instituted a strategic and public enquiry has not helped the public confidence and troop morale. Incessant bomb attacks of soft targets like Nyanya Park, Sabon Gari in Kano, and Terminus and Bauchi road in Jos, even the death last week, of the Emir of Gwoza, increase terror and give the impression of strength and victory of Boko Haram over the armed forces, known reputably to be capable of dealing with this. With released budgets, communication radios not GSM, including the satellite surveillance that gives America its capabilities would have been afforded, and this challenge overcome long ago. Even the infiltration of the troops by the insurgents would tactically have been compromised.
It is clear to me that the Military have many times, near crushed Boko Haram. Hamstrung by logistic deficiencies, they have often stopped short, enabling the insurgents to regroup and reorganize again. I dare say that the abduction of the Chibok girls was in the face of imminent defeat of the insurgency. The girls as intended have become human shield. Boko Haram knows that in conventional war, no army will attack insurgents while holding hostages. A forced delay will enable regrouping. That the girls were abducted with ease as if through an opened demilitarized corridor by an unhindered Boko Haram continues to be baffling.
When you put all this together, what is the way out?
First is dialogue; and I‘ll go with Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar on this. Said he, “There is nowhere in the world where force brought peace to any country in the world. I have been round the world and have seen it…If anybody attempts to rescue the abducted Chibok schoolgirls by force, he is only going to be an accessory to murder because those girls could be killed in the process of military operation to free them and the problem is that we are back to square one.”
Next, Northern governors should face the challenge with a home-grown solution, cooperating with the federal government. Past governors of Borno and Yobe left the country this legacy of Boko Haram, and must lend a voice, an arm and a leg to the solution. The Federal Government must be courageous to use the profiling of Boko Haram at its disposal and proceed to arrest all known sacred cows public officers believed to have been culpable in the genesis and growth of Boko Haram. For of a truth, protecting them is what has laid the blame on the feet of President Jonathan and the People’s Democratic Party, and we notice now the dangerous path leading to an amnesty without apportioning blame. We would be correcting a deadly fluke with a worse one, far more deadly. Those given amnesty will return to society more resolved to execute justice denied them by the system.
Finally, there is no running away from the national issue of corruption. Where there is corruption, there will be the insurgency. It appears States that have made extra-budgetary fund, ordinance, and vehicular donations to the Armed Forces and the Police and you would find that they suffer upsurges in the insurgency. Indeed many fear that these are the Hillux jeeps acquired cheaply by Boko Haram at give away prices.
It cannot be hidden. There is a global impression of corrupt enrichment, financial and resource mismanagement in the fight against the Boko Haram. But should corruption in the Armed Forces be treated in isolation of the national predicament? If the political class made away with trillions in subsidy payments fraud, and other open floodgates of treasury looting, it seems begging the issue if we expect the armed forces to stick out as the clean shining minaret. Nigeria’s systemic corruption has run aground the shaky ship of state. A fresh start under strong and resolved leadership alone can rescue.