The next Commander-In-Chief

Whether we continue to delude ourselves that what has been happening in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states is but a minor series of skirmishes, we shall soon be forced to acknowledge that what confronts us is war, not a minor skirmish; the victims are real human beings who had hopes, aspirations, dreams and also left […]

Whether we continue to delude ourselves that what has been happening in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states is but a minor series of skirmishes, we shall soon be forced to acknowledge that what confronts us is war, not a minor skirmish; the victims are real human beings who had hopes, aspirations, dreams and also left behind real families whose lives will never be the same again. The horror witnessed by the survivors cannot but scar them for life. It is not simply a northeast matter. It is a matter that concerns humanity. Anyone who claims to be human must be horrified by how easy it is to serially depopulate a section of our country.
When Governor Kashim Shetima said the military had been outgunned and outmanoeuvred in the ongoing war, and suggested the deployment of more sophisticated armaments and troops, and the improvement of the morale of the servicemen, the presidency took it as a challenge and several officials descended on the frustrated governor with ill-thought-out diatribes. To confound the political ostriches and expose them for the liars that they are, Boko Haram quickly upped the ante from gory picnic to festival of gore.
I have come across several conspiracy theories on the Boko Haram phenomenon, both on the government’s side and on the side of the opposition, or even on the international plain – on the struggle by capitalist forces to use the soft underbelly of religious extremism to undo our social cohesion. I find several of the postulations quite far-fetched but in the world of spooks and international influence-seeking, I am aware that what appears impossible may actually be plausible. But international conspiracy against Nigeria cannot be an excuse for ineptitude in the face of terror so awesome the country quakes with fear from the coast to the desert.
Never since the civil war of 1967-70 has the very existence of Nigeria been threatened the way the Boko Haram terrorism is doing. General Danjuma warned us about two years ago that what was confronting us was more than an insurrection; it was war. Some ethnic champions called him names at the time. Now, what name do you give to what Boko Haram is doing in the north? Rebellion? Protest? Religious campaign?
Even the most rabid theorists of the school of conspiracy now agree that what is happening has nothing to do with religion but everything to do with carving a territory out of Nigeria where the terrorists will exercise both spiritual and temporal power. They have horrified the world by their level of debasement. The worldwide web is full of images of children whose throats have been slit and others who have been incinerated as if they were garbage.
I have no doubt that the men and women of our armed forces are doing their level best to contain the terrorists, but they need greater logistic assistance. The system has to invest more in intelligence. The Boko Haram boys, truth be told, are strong in intelligence gathering. If you move troops from point A to B today, they would attack point A tomorrow knowing that there would be little or no resistance. That is how they manage to operate for five uninterrupted hours in some cases. They are not spirits, but they have good intelligence, sophisticated weapons, good training and very high morale fuelled by fatalism and blood-thirst.
Our military had acquitted themselves creditably in war zones all over the world in the past. So, there is no question that we have the men to do the job. What we have to do now is reorder our priorities by giving more attention to the armed forces to enable them acquire the hardware and training they need to win this strange war.
Biafra was easier. It had a recognisable territory. There was an identifiable war front. The Nigerian army knew where the enemy was. The navy pounded specific targets from the sea before foot soldiers moved in. The air force dropped its lethal cargo of bombs on identified places. The Boko Haram terror however has no recognisable war front. In fact every inch of Nigeria is potentially a war front. As you are snuffing out the fire in Borno today, the terrorists resurface in Yobe the next day or in Adamawa or wherever else their reconnaissance team identify as ready for the picking.
I make no pretensions to expertise in military strategy or warfare, but we are in this together and we all have to chip in ideas on how this nightmare and the under-reported human misery can be brought to a quick end. What is provided for the armed forces in the 2014 federal budget gives me the impression that the government has still not come to terms with the seriousness of the threat posed by Boko Haram and the need for appropriate response.
I say all this without prejudice to the attempts at finding a negotiated end to the war. But I must quickly add that even this option must not be treated as a PDP affair. As has been stated by those knowledgeable in the matter, negotiating with a terrorist group with religious pretensions can only be done by erudite clerics and skilled negotiators, not presidential Man-Fridays.
Last October, in a piece on the people’s expectations in the next presidential elections, I did say that “what Nigerians in all parts of the country desire is a truly Nigerian president, not one beholden to a section thereof…. Our people are tired of rotational incompetence!”
The contest by the major parties to produce the next president in 2015 is also the one that will produce the commander-in-chief because the president combines both offices. In war, the troops can only follow the lead of their generals who in turn follow the directives of the commander-in-chief. A dynamic C-in-C inspires dynamism. If he is perceived as competent the troops will strive for clinical efficiency. But is he is seen as tepid, lame-duck or uninspiring, the fighting forces will not go the extra mile for him.
The next Commander-in-Chief must be a decisive leader who has the milk of human kindness and also the required level of civilised ruthlessness necessary to navigate the treacherous waters of terrorism. Am I communicating?