Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria today: A “Masked Reality”!

The 2015 campaign season was graced with loads and loads of promises. As the major and most powerful opposition party, APC had the most to offer, even with an evident knowledge of the fact that Nigerians had a lot of expectations on them.One of the most important was that concerning the total abolition and incapacitation of Boko Haram as an international terror organization in a stipulated period of time.

But since Buhari’s APC administration was sworn in on May 29th 2015, Boko Haram has been a bottleneck. A level of incapacitation was thought to have been achieved by the ill-informed masses not fully understanding that Boko Haram simply changed their offensive strategies , from the usual use of explosives, mostly suicide bomb attacks to more sinister methods of Gun battles, increased kidnapping rates, silent raids and so on .

So deceptively, people were lured into blindly fathoming the intuition that the activities of Boko Haram as the number one terror group in Nigeria and even West Africa has been grossly incapacitated. To buttress the government’s claim of totally defeating the terrorist group, the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai on 20th November 2016 stated that “It is very clear that terrorist group have been defeated; there is no doubt about that. What we are doing now is a mop up operation aimed at ensuring that we clear the rest of them. It is one thing to defeat, and it is another issue for the terrorist group to surrender. We are working on their final surrender in the remaining enclaves where they are now. And very soon we will achieve that objective."

In furtherance, the COAS on 30th December 2016 presented a flag of Boko Haram to the Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari during a Guards Brigade Regimental Dinner as a symbol for their victory over the terror group.

But most unfortunately, attacks by Boko Haram have been on the rise. About 80 attacks were carried out by the same group in 2016, 109 in 2017 with a massive fatality surge of 967 people in 2017; a reality masked to most of the masses. And to prove the paradigm shift in their offensive strategy, 123 out of the 189 attacks between 2016 and 2017 were in the form of armed assaults as opposed to the regular suicide attacks. They were getting more prudent in their tactics, gaining more and more power day by day; a kind of renaissance.

Most recently came one of the most devastating attacks in years. Metele area of the insurgency-debilitated Borno state which is home to 157 Task Force Battalion was heavily ambushed by Boko Haram militants. A video released by the Boko Haram on this particular attack remains suggestive of the fact that the Nigerian Army soldiers suffered immensely, as they were overpowered in terms of fire power and absolutely discouraged in terms of morale. At least 118 gallant soldiers were killed and 153 still missing in this pre-informed attack as the army were aware of the ambush. Multiple deaths were again reported the following day with reports suggesting that a rescue, treatment and evacuation team which was dispatched a day after the debilitating attack came under siege also with several injured and many feared dead.

Inadequate provision of modern arms, artillery and other military infrastructure is said to have been the root cause of these attacks. A video shot by some soldiers in reaction to the attack made it evidently clear as the soldiers were angrily lamenting on several issues including under funding and under provision of defense infrastructure and pervasive corruption amongst the higher ranking members of the force.

Annoyingly, one could remember that these are the same allegations that were attributed to Jonathan’s administration which partly contributed to his defeat in the general polls.

Convincingly, the budgetary allocations to the security sector from 2015 to date have been relatively improved with N964.7bn in 2015, N1.05tn in 2016 and N1.17tn in 2017. Yet we still hear such complains of underservicing and under provision of modern defense infrastructure. Where is the money? If the money is not being used for this purpose then what purpose is it serving? Is the army an exception to the federal government’s supposed crusade against corruption? Where are our legislators, have you forgotten your oversight duties on each and every penny you appropriate? The ministry of defense, interior and the National security adviser, what have you been servicing with your allocation? My fellow Nigerians where have we been all this while?

I was absolutely saddened on hearing a gallant soldier talking with fear and agony, I was agonized on receiving the news of the passing away of dozens of our brave and valiant soldiers; soldiers that stood in defense of the sovereignty against this barbaric elements. I almost got down in tears on viewing the video showing how mercilessly our soldiers were being slain. If that can be done to our soldiers ,then what can we say about our safety as citizens?

“Urgently increase the capacity and capability of Nigeria’s military, police and other security agencies through the employment of additional personnel, provision of modern equipment, and a commitment to professionalism, merit and excellence in the respective services to meet
the need s of our growing population.” , this statement as captured from the 2015 APC manifesto is one of the major campaign promises  made by APC and Muhammadu Buhari.

Can we now infer that they have delivered?

Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim is a political analyst, an activist, and an advocate for youth participation in politics and governance. He writes from Zaria, Kaduna State and can be reached through haleemabdul1999@gmail.com.