New service chiefs and a resurgent Boko Haram

“All of you, including the National Security Adviser, were chosen on merit,” the President was quoted as saying. “Your records gave you the job. Save for the new Chief of Army Staff whom I briefly met at his Command at the Multi-National Joint Task Force, in Chad, I don’t know any of you. Your records […]

“All of you, including the National Security Adviser, were chosen on merit,” the President was quoted as saying. “Your records gave you the job. Save for the new Chief of Army Staff whom I briefly met at his Command at the Multi-National Joint Task Force, in Chad, I don’t know any of you. Your records recommended you”. Nigerians must find this very assuring. Clearly the hitherto defective service hierarchy has been addressed based on merit, and a winning command structure, firmly established devoid of sentiments that in the past, undermined inter service harmony and cooperation.
When President Buhari in his inaugural address directed that the Nigerian military should locate the command centre of the counter insurgency effort to the epicentre of the challenge, he became the butt of jokes among not quite so few military men. Many of them quipped saying if the U.S. could send a drone to Yemen and locate one terrorist smoking a cigarette and talking on his cell phone, and blow him up to smithereens, why does this old general need a command centre in Borno or Yobe? Well one could retort, America could do that indeed, but you in Nigeria could not locate a taunting TV movie star named Abubakar Shekau even if it meant combing Sambisa Forest inch by inch by the infantry. Instead you lost Local Governments, equipment and men – precious men. Millions of poor rural Nigerians became refugees in their own country.
Then as if reincarnating from its dislodgment at the tail end of the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, not a day has passed for upwards of three weeks when bombs do not go off in crowded markets, eateries, and places of worship. The spilling of blood is a terrifying spectacle. It is restoring worse fears for life and property than had hitherto been known, given the fact that the terrorists appear now to coordinate far flung attacks across North East Nigeria and the neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon. The death toll is over the 1000 mark since May 29. The ongoing acts of terror definitely appear as the coordination of well articulate cells operating within our cities – a challenge to intelligence. This calls for vigilance not only from our men at arms, but from the entire citizenry. Individual and collective vigil is the watch word, as the nation awaits the Buhari plan to meet the challenge. Boko Haram has remained a national humiliation.
The new service chiefs take office faced by the daunting challenge of arresting the Boko Haram surge of suicide bombings and attacks, attributable only to theorised scenarios. Those familiar with a full blown war against an insurgency testify that the war is not won on an appointed day. Aside the fact that the insurgents have no commitment to a command centre, they as expected, engage as they have done in guerrilla war tactics. The insurgency can only at best be weakened, compromised, and subdued, but hardly annihilated.
When President Buhari was sworn-in, Nigerians must have expected to hear broadcasts like “every past political office holder should report to the nearest Police Station”. Yet instead, it has been a quiet, slow, and seemingly irresponsive Buhari that has been impossible to predict as the nation is gripped by anxiety.
Nigerians expecting a quick and decisive fix were already deriding the President for being “slow and indecisive”, and refusing to understand that much more important in finding solutions to the problems of the country is the difficult and often slow task of articulating a plan, based on an ideological framework. Even if you had plans to hit the ground running, it matters where you hit ground.
The fact that the activity of the group  gained momentum after Buhari’s inaugural pronouncement and slow moves to start off, shows the fundamental need to address the challenge from the root cause.  The radicalisation of adherents, and their commitment to their faith-based mission, gives it ability to mutate, splinter, break up into cells and continue with the objective to spread terror. One can assume that momentum gained earlier has been lost due to the delay in determining the new order. One can understand the import of anxieties of the erstwhile service chiefs who Nigerians expected would have been rested long ago. President Buhari it is believed has, by now, received a proper briefing of why the Government did so poorly against the insurgents. Who would tell this better than the men in the situation room, the sacked Service Chiefs? Albeit, it was natural for insurgents to exploit such impasse to revive their deadly attacks that we are witnessing. There seemed to be a letting down of the guard.
President Buhari’s inaugural speech did contain strong promises to deal with the security challenge of the country in fact leading to the elimination of the Boko Haram group, and he did get it right putting together seven neighbouring countries to agree to a joint coordinated crackdown of the common enemy. Earlier in his stride, he had agreed to new stances with the foreign powers on much needed support.
The solution to Boko Haram remains State by State zero tolerance of crime ensured by proactive policing that lays emphasis on prevention. All paramilitary law enforcement agencies must join the fight efficiently ensuring that even petty crimes are checked and taxation and all regulatory statutes are observed to the letter and enforced. Discipline must be restored. Impunity must be punitively addressed.
Justice delivery should be such the ordinary citizen gets grievance disposed of to satisfaction, that common folk are not trampled upon unbearably by the rich and powerful, and democratically, people should not be saddled by detestable Governments that need to be changed through constitutional means.
The fight against Boko Haram must not be politicised so as to have suspected or known culprits of instigators, financiers and sponsors hibernating as supporters of Government or members of the ruling party, a spectre that undermined the fight under President Goodluck Jonathan. Many walk the streets today, already condemned as tainted by the blood of innocents but were close to power and hence free. Indeed there are prominent personalities that deserve being investigated for their errors of omission or commission that could well have triggered, aided, or fuelled the Boko Haram inferno. We must not assume that the insurgency, at least the home-grown component has no basis in unjust rule in the affected States of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States.
The fight against Boko Haram must not be commercialised to the extent that the military rank and file monetise their loyalty to the coat of arms on account of the high command hierarchy being corrupt, unpatriotic, and engaged in self-enrichment in the counterinsurgency effort.