The very significant fall of Vintim

It became a prominent item on our national news, Friday last week, when it was discovered that it is the very hometown of the current Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.Though the Defence Chief had dismissed the fact that his hometown had been sacked by the insurgents as a personal tragedy, because […]

It became a prominent item on our national news, Friday last week, when it was discovered that it is the very hometown of the current Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.
Though the Defence Chief had dismissed the fact that his hometown had been sacked by the insurgents as a personal tragedy, because any part of Nigeria affected by the insurgency ‘pains’ him, some of us have several reasons to disagree with the Air Force general. The sacking of Vintim after Mubi had been conquered by Boko Haram, is of particular significance to the rest of us, it cannot fail to have any special effect on the Air Marshal Badeh.
In the last two weeks, the headlines have been screaming nothing but horror in the North-East. Amazingly some of us had been over-optimistic enough to heave a collective sigh of relief at the mention of a cease-fire between the government and Boko Haram. The so-called insurgents did not waste time to show us that there was no such deal. The massacres and deadly ambushes resumed in no time.
Today we are talking about territories attacked and conquered by these insurgents being larger than three states of the federation. With twenty local governments affected and more than two million people displaced and homeless. Apart from the hundreds that had been killed in these places in the last two weeks, we are talking about a humanitarian disaster in which thousands of women and children were forced to flee for their lives through forests and on mountains for days because there was no transportation to safety.
We are talking about a situation in which our military had ample warning of the advancement of these bloodthirsty people but did not do much to halt their advance into areas where they undertook maximum carnage on innocent civilians. As if that wasn’t bad enough the several-times dead Shekau appeared again in his trademark spooky video, to confirm what we’d already guessed, that there was never a ceasefire. He also wanted us to see that he was alive and well. His other chilling message was his saying that the Chibok girls weren’t coming home at all, that the kidnapped schoolgirls had all been married off.
In the midst of all these chaos, the violence in the North-East never abated. Bombs and gunmen suddenly appeared in Azare, Bauchi state; killing and maiming. They reared their ugly heads in Gombe also killing and maiming, in addition to their traditional strongholds of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where they claimed to have created a Caliphate of blood and tears. Most eye witness accounts to the invasion and conquests of these local governments attest to the fact that soldiers always took to their heels at the sight of the Boko Haram forces.
No wonder they had no qualms about attacking military barracks and police academies because they are fully convinced of their ability to overpower them. How the insurgents can acquire such superior fire power to the extent of outwitting our armed forces is the cause of our great amazement, but that seems to be the truth.
So if in the course of their conquests they stumble upon the hometown of our nation’s number one soldier, should we be amazed that the first thing they did was to head for his family home? All reports said that they met no one at Air Marshal Badeh’s country home because all his relatives had been evacuated a day earlier. In fairness to the first family of Vintim, they were not the only ones who ran for dear life before the insurgents arrived, the whole village was said to be a ghost town when the murderers arrived, victorious, from neighbouring Mubi.
Eyewitnesses said they arrived well-armed in fourteen trucks. They showed no mercy to residents and passers-by alike. An aid worker who witnessed their arrival in Mubi told Daily Trust that they ‘Overran the army barracks, burnt a police station and prisoners have been set free. You can hear loud voices, it is the insurgents addressing the people on the streets but we were in a panic, we don’t know what will happen next.’
Recounting his own experience to newsmen, a soldier said that in Mubi ‘After troops had entered the town, the insurgents drove in five Armoured Personnel Carriers and repelled them.’ These testimonies by both civilian and military eye-witnesses point only to the fact that our armed forces have failed our North-Eastern compatriots when they needed them most. This is why the raid on the Defence Chief’s hometown was so symbolic. It is to drive home the fact that they have won over the territories they invaded and even the nation’s highest military officer was helpless to defend his birth place. The significance of the fall of Vintim is that no other part of the country can withstand their fire-power if they decide to strike. If there had been a decisive attempt to counter their offensive when the insurgents reached Mubi, Vintim might have been spared the shame of becoming a ghost town despite the position of their illustrious son.
However it is too late to cry now and the only thing left is for our troops to lick their wounds and go back to the drawing board to re-strategise on how to counter the insurgency. When most of us suggested that the storming of Sambisa was the best way to free the abducted Chibok girls and end the insurgency, the Chief of Defence Staff replied that they didn’t want to endanger the school girls so they will not take any step that could make them collateral damage.
Even when Chibok parents agreed to sacrifice their daughters if the military could descend on Sambisa and end this reign of terror, our generals didn’t heed them. Today Sambisa warlords are expanding their territory and proclaiming a Caliphate that has nothing to do with Islam. They are poking fingers at the noses of our military and taking the fight to their doorsteps. Will our uniformed guys take the hint and deal a decisive blow to the insurgents or will they remain as they are, allowing Boko Haram to trample on helpless civilians and raiding the birth-places of their generals? The example of Vintim is warning enough.