Playing the Ostrich with Boko Haram
The ostrich buries its head in a small hole and believes it is well hidden from public view. Those you do not see, do not see you. I was dreaming of a free Borno Christmas, a Borno that is rid finally of the insurgency elements by now. They who began as Boko Haram, a local […]
The ostrich buries its head in a small hole and believes it is well hidden from public view. Those you do not see, do not see you. I was dreaming of a free Borno Christmas, a Borno that is rid finally of the insurgency elements by now. They who began as Boko Haram, a local renegade army of fundamentalists, after engaging our organised Armed Forces for 10 years and counting, have forced us to accept to now call them the Islamic State of West Africa. The military is sensitive to criticism from civilians of my type and ilk, but I come from the area that gave Nigeria some of its finest military men. I can name a few old ones only and earn some respect. General Gibson Sanda Jalo, General Abdullahi Shelleng, Col. Sule Apollo, Major Titus Hauka da Bori, and maternally, Black Scorpion General Benjamin Adekunle, who boldly executed his cousin a lieutenant McCauley Lamurde, to save Nigeria from being blackmailed over a shooting incident. Young ones include General Maxwell Khobe, and Group Captain Sam Ethnan, all of blessed memory. I am from the North East, angry that soldiers are dying in a rebellion we should have quelled before it earned several brand names including ATM for military and non governmental organisations.
The Minister of Defence General Magashi is “my friend’s friend”, and upon his appointment I sent a verbal congratulatory message in which I warned that he should beware of Boko Haram. Without Boko, it has made several Generals Haram in the land. I also noted that he should be aware that General TY Danjuma had fumed out of that office as Minister of Defence under President Obasanjo. I said to my friend to tell his friend that a General in retirement even as a defence Minister, is a “bloody civilian” to those uniformed men who hold armed troops as Service Chiefs. I urged him to go and read General Danjuma’s final frustrating moments in order to cope. We can not as a serious country play the ostrich over Boko Haram. And President Muhammadu Buhari must never lose sight of the one reason the North East, nay, the whole country voted for him overwhelmingly. It was imputed to him to have military expertise he could bring to bear on ending the protracted Boko Haram insurgency going well beyond the tenth year. We must hasten to commend him and his overstayed and tired Service Chiefs. They have truly degraded Boko Haram and given Nigerians a respite from the criminals. But it is hard to contradict the sitting Governor, Professor Zulum, who has told Nigerians that 3 local Governments are under Boko Haram occupation.
Earlier last week, Borno State Governor Professor Babagana Zulum raised the alarm when Defence Minister General Magashi together with the same Defence Spokesman and was indeed universally reported by the Press as begging the Military to please recover Kukawa. Kukawa is a large Local Government with its Headquarters Kukawa significant because that is where the earlier Shehus of Borno were buried.
Governor Zulum specifically listed the affected local government areas as Marte, Kukawa, and Abadam. Why did Nwachukwu not respond there and then that the Governor was not telling the truth? And why was Nwachukwu making the clarification in the cosy comfort of a Press Conference in Abuja and not as should have been the case, in a tour of those disputed local government areas with the Press in tow? Zulum specifically begged Minister Magashi that the three local government areas must be retaken. Same Press reporting Nwachukwu also reported in detail how heavy explosions and exchange of gunfire disturbed Sunday night’s sleep in Damaturu, Yobe State, and Biu in Borno State,. Obviously later it had been revealed that the insurgents had struck those two towns in bids to raid and invade.
Yet according to the Director of Defence Information Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, no territory in Nigeria is under the control of Boko Haram terrorists or the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP). Many of us watched the Press Conference addressed by Nwachukwu at the beginning of this Christmas week in total disbelief! Even his doubling down in the same Press Conference that the “outlawed terrorists remain decimated”, did not go down well, but we all agreed that the military is not “resting on its oars to ensure that they are not only chased to the fringes of Lake Chad but are completely wiped out.”
If the Military High Command must know the truth, Nigerians believe differently and feel that there is no truth in the assertion that “Boko Haram is not holding any territory, any inch of our territory in this country”.
If you want to know which territories Boko Haram is holding, go to the Maiduguri Motor Park and count the markers on the bus and taxi destinations. Wherever is not a destination is miles of Boko Haram occupation. Biu -Damboa-Maiduguri is a perilous access road and so is Madagali-Pulka-Gwoza-Bama-Konduga-Maiduguri, hitherto vital links to Borno. The roads are virtually dead ends. A trip to Maiduguri by road from Yola takes you through Gombe, Darazo, Kari in Bauchi State, then through to Potiskum and Damaturu in Yobe State, and finally to Maiduguri, safely only by day. This is a debilitating plight. It is captured more succinctly by Governor Zulum in his plea, that keeping thousands of displaced citizens, especially in camps in several locations with no source of livelihood provided ready-made soft targets for Boko Haram insurgents on destruction or recruitment missions. This is apart from human suffering.
We can not but appreciate our Military for the progress made so far, but we must establish what to believe in the dispute over what “occupation of Kukawa, Marte, and Abadam Local Government Areas” means, between Military Spokesman General Nwachukwu, and Borno State Governor, Professor Zulum. The world laughs at us if we are not laughing at ourselves. Merry Christmas.