Gov. Shettima of Borno State said that Boko Haram cannot be defeated and many have jumped on him as making inflammatory and provocative remarks. Many are in fact hinting that his statement was a Freudian slip and that he may know more about why it would be impossible to defeat Boko Haram. I believe that Gov. Shettima was simply saying that BH cannot be defeated by the way the Federal Government is approaching the BH menace. I tend to agree and for the records, I support President Goodluck Jonathan but must not fail to admit that his score card on BH is abysmally poor.
Gov. Shettima of Borno State said that Boko Haram cannot be defeated and many have jumped on him as making inflammatory and provocative remarks. Many are in fact hinting that his statement was a Freudian slip and that he may know more about why it would be impossible to defeat Boko Haram. I believe that Gov. Shettima was simply saying that BH cannot be defeated by the way the Federal Government is approaching the BH menace. I tend to agree and for the records, I support President Goodluck Jonathan but must not fail to admit that his score card on BH is abysmally poor.
If it were easy to defeat BH, why has Jonathan not done so in spite of the Shettima’s of this world and it would be a disservice to innocent Nigerians dying in the hands of Boko Haram to simply make a scape goat out of Gov. Shettima. Perhaps, Jonathan’s approach is not working. At least let’s put that option on the table and leave APC and Shettima alone for now for lack of credible evidence.
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Let’s be Nigerians. BH is not a problem for Borno State; it is a problem for all of us, even in the hinterlands of the South. I see serious strategic lapses in the way GEJ is going after BH and Gov Shettima should not be crucified for hinting at that. Nor is APC a BH sympathizer because it sees lapses in how GEJ is going after BH. Placing the BH label on APC is bad politics and such issues are too important to play politics with. Some political strategists believe that the most potent strategy for winning the votes in the South is to associate APC with Boko Haram. Last time we checked, it is innocent Nigerians on the streets of NE Nigeria that bear the full brunt of it while our politicians cool off in billion Naira mansions at Abuja.
I also do not believe that replacing Gov. Shettima with a Military Ruler is the way to go. Last time I checked, the Armed Forces Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police all report to GEJ. GEJ should sit squarely on the saddle and take care of BH business.
One thing we know - it is better for the chicken to bring home the carcass of a dog than for a dog to bring home the carcass of a chicken? Why? Because naturally, one would assume that the dog had a hand in the death of the chicken.
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Amongst the approaches for dealing with BH is the use of maximum military force and I think that GEJ is letting his foot off the pedal because he is not a Northerner and does not want to be perceived as having other motives other than just a good old smash mouth war on terror. Umaru Yaradua bombed BH to blazes and damned the consequences. GEJ is acting soft and Shettima has nothing to do with that. This is war. GEJ should have people like Namadi Sambo take a more leading role on the maximum force arena and simply go full throttle on BH. We are at war and there is no sugar coating it.
When was the last time a terrorist went to jail in Nigeria? In fact, they get bailed and disappear right under police custody. Has NASS and the President done anything with the criminal justice system as far as BH goes? So what are we talking about here? In a country that works, many Imans busy inciting terrorist acts would be cooling off in jail until further notice. Let's see how many Pastors can go to American Churches and incite terrorism without cooling their asses off in an FBI facility. Can Jonathan do that? Why not? He runs the Police.
I could go on about intelligence lapses; failure of military strategies, diplomatic lapses; and financial monitoring lapses. The 2.5 billion Naira unoccupied mansion in Maitama could easily be a slush fund savings account for BH and no one would notice. Politicians hide billions of Naira with fictitious names in Abuja real estate and some of that money could be sponsoring further training in Improvised Explosive Devices for BH in Mali or Northern Sudan and SSS will be busy on the road side looking for newly imported Tokunbos on Nigerian roads to collect 4000 Naira here and there on bogus claims when they should be tracking terrorist funding. What have we done on financial monitoring laws in Nigeria to strengthen tracking of funding to terrorists? That is part of the problem. Nigeria is not doing enough to choke off funding of Boko Haram.
Let’s be honest, Nigeria is a country made for terrorists. Everything they need to operate is there - poor military and intelligence coordination, porous borders, corrupt police and military establishments, religious fundamentalism etc. Military assets disappear right in front of our noses and some of them end up in a BH training camp near us. This is Nigeria.
Is it really that hard to infiltrate BH terrorist camps?
Somebody or some people are sponsoring BH, who are they? If the President knows who they are, does he have the guts to go after them? Let's say hypothetically that Nigeria's intelligence believes that some top ex-Generals are sponsoring BH, does this President have the guts to go after them? Not easy, I know but they can be no sacred cows in fighting terrorism in Nigeria.
If everything else fails, GEJ could outsource BH problem to Mossad intelligence and they will take of that business the West Bank way for less money than Sanusi donated to Bayero University. True that.
For less money than Sanusi “gave” to El-Rufai, Nigeria can have spy satellite monitoring every single inch of real estate within 300 miles of Borno State and feed that information to Nigeria Air force and take care of BH's skirmishes. Boko Haram has declared war on Nigeria. GEJ is being very economical with the politics - there is war going on in Nigeria and GEJ should rise up and command the war.
Just as 9/11 changed the way of life in America for good, so should BH change the way we approach life in Nigeria. We are not just dealing with fundamentalist Islam here. We are also dealing with Nigerian politicians who believe that the quickest route to Aso Rock is the terror and nuisance route. It works. We have history. That is what Gov. Shettima might be trying to say and that is that there may be some politicians who do no want BH defeated.
The easiest way to get away with gratuitous mob violence, terror acts, and political violence is to do it under the cover of fundamentalist Islam. Time and time again, organized acts of violence has been fore shadowed by religion to make is seem as if the underpinning agitation is all about religion. Not every terrorist seeking to blow Nigerians to pieces is looking to sack Western education in the North.
There are, without a doubt, politicians who are waging their struggles under cover of fundamentalist Islam hoping to make the case as to why Nigeria will never know peace until Jonathan steps down or steps aside. That is politics by blackmail under cover of religion. It is a brand of politics that our politicians need to do a serious soul searching about because BH is too organized, too sophisticated, to be just a rag tag army of uneducated Moslems looking to oust Western Culture from Northern Nigeria.
In the area of border patron and customs, Nigeria’s Northern borders are so porous that life stock, human beings, improvised explosive devices, arms and ammunitions are ferried to and from our borders like we are not even a country. What are we doing in the area of border patrol in the North?
In the area of international diplomacy, Nigeria military pursues Boko Haram to the border and turns back while BH continues on into the jungles of Cameroon, Mali, Niger, and Chad and come back stronger and more equipped. How about having serious discussions with these other countries to be able to pursue BH to the ends of the earth?
I am not trying to absolve Gov. Shettima of anything. I am not saying that he has done absolutely everything he can against BH. All I am saying is that the BH menace so seriously implicates the survivability of Nigeria as an entity that no one – not APC, not PDP, should play politics with it. The inability to contain BH is not simply a failure of leadership; it is a failure of Nigeria at every level. The National Assembly is not doing what it should do; the Federal agencies are not doing what they should do; our financial institutions are not doing what they should do. Ordinary Nigerians who see terrorist formations in their backyard and fail to report them are not doing what they should do.
Nigeria is a country tailor made for Boko Haram and we are all busy playing politics. Until our politicians eschew terror as a political card, we will be simply playing musical chairs with it. Today, it is Boko Haram operating against a Southern President and tomorrow it could be the South’s imitation of Boko Haram operating against a Northern President. We need to take nuisance factor out of our politics before we start pointing fingers at the likes of Gov. Shettima.
The tragedy is that nuisance works. APC knows that and one can easily see through their forked tongues on terrorist incidents when serious discussions are demanded on why innocent Nigerians keep paying the price of Nigerian politics with their blood. Nor should PDP pin BH on APC. That soft label may work in deeply prejudiced areas but it is tragic that the ruling party is not taking responsibility for its inability to contain BH.
Respectfully,
Chris Aniedobe
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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