The attack on Bama army barracks

Indeed, the nature of the attack and its target, resulting in many casualties on both sides, demand an immediate and comprehensive review of the entire operational strategy that has been in place in response to the insurgency that has all but wrecked social life in the North East region. Seen in the perspective of the […]

Indeed, the nature of the attack and its target, resulting in many casualties on both sides, demand an immediate and comprehensive review of the entire operational strategy that has been in place in response to the insurgency that has all but wrecked social life in the North East region. Seen in the perspective of the similar previous attacks, it would seem that Boko Haram has acquired the capability of attacking any target of its choice including military installations, at will.
The more disturbing aspect is that the Bama incident, as with recent ones, featured similar tactics involving insurgents driving in easily identifiable vehicles. This implies that given routine military vigilance, the attackers should have been detected and repelled. Moreover, such large-scale attacks take place under a state of emergency that should provide the military with the necessary wherewithal, including space, to perform optimally. Besides, if military installations and high-profile establishments could be so vulnerable, what happens to less fortified ones which may be classified as possible targets by the insurgents as they have done in the past?
There’s no denying that the Nigerian military is considered among the best on the African continent; to a large extent, this has been demonstrated with respect to the handling of the security crisis in the North East crisis.
 The attacks on military and high profile targets are not so much a reflection of superior firepower over the nation’s military as a confirmation of the style of terrorists to pick such targets that provide optimal visibility and guarantee maximum public revulsion and outrage.
However, even if such is the case with this crisis, it is hardly a comforting one. Instead, what it suggests of the debacle is the need for drastic change in strategy and tactics. This is so as military has just been availed supposedly superior firepower, courtesy of the recent deployment of stock of military logistics, consisting of motorized and armoured units as well as air support. It is therefore disturbing, even baffling, that the insurgents could still muster and launch an a priori detectable, therefore avoidable, attack on the Bama military barracks that was established to forestall just such incidents and even achieve more, the  difficult terrain of the location notwithstanding.
It is common knowledge that every successful military campaign owes its success to an endowment of properly marshalled human intelligence. Needless to state that with the new capabilities which the Bama attack and others have revealed, it has become auspicious to overhaul the military intelligence regime with respect to the operations in the theatre. Even on a more ominous note, given the insurgents’ deadly innovativeness, the probable role of moles in the units operating in the zone cannot be ruled out.  Top government officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan, have alluded to that probability; whether steps have been taken to address it is not clear.   It may be useful for the military to recall some of its retired or disengaged officers whose training and experience may add value to the effort to defeat the insurgency.
At the same time, the intensification of the ongoing dialogue between government officials and the more flexible elements of the sect should be maintained.   Along with the military campaign, there is the need to follow up with a robust effort aimed at attacking poverty and other social deprivations that most people blame as the roots of discontent that feeds unrest.
The need to end the conflict in that region at the earliest possible time is overriding. If for nothing else, the cost of the unprecedented scale of damage, to say nothing of the forthcoming elections in 2015, dictates so.