It is becoming clearer by the day that there is no end in sight to the activities of the Boko Haram Sect with the abduction of 110 students of Government Girls’ Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state, recently by the insurgents.
During the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, nearly 300 girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, were abducted and it took almost three years to negotiate with the Boko Haram insurgents to release about 100 of the girls, just as some of the girls were either rescued or ran away from the insurgents while others are still unaccounted for.
Not yet done, the Boko Haram insurgents late last year abducted some lecturers of the University of Maiduguri on exploration and later some female police were also abducted.
They lecturers and the police officers were, however, released after government entered into negotiation with the insurgents. And like Oliver Twist, after they were released, the Dapchi girls were abducted.
It is so saddened, that after all, the
insurgents have the guts to show to the world that they are unbeatable and can abduct school girls with ease.
In fact, it seems that abduction of school girls by the insurgents has become a source of getting financial reward through negotiation. Even the government is not helping matters seeing how porous the school was and less than a kilometre to the town’s police outpost.
Lessons ought to have been learnt with the Buni Yadi killing by the insurgents in the same Yobe state, yet the government failed by not taking proactive measures having seen how the sect used young girls in their activities like suicide bombings.
The army cannot be everywhere combing the whole country. Therefore, it is a collective responsibility for the people to share in intelligence report.
It is imperative for the army to go all out to crush the Boko Haram insurgents so that it would come to an end. The issue of Boko Haram cannot be linked to politics as nearly nine years after, the country is still battling with the Boko Haram insurgents that has wreaked havoc on the country, especially in the North-east.
It is important for the government to give good listening ears to what
Ahmed Salkida says because he knows the mindset of members of the Boko Haram Sect. He has the opportunity of being the known journalist that gives the sect publicity in the media as he recently informed everyone to expect more strikes from the Boko Haram through his tweeter account.
What is happening in the theatre of war between the Nigerian state and Boko Haram is akin to one step forward two steps backward as government’s claims that the insurgents were completely defeated had turned out to be false because the group is waxing stronger by the day.
Farooq Kperogi, a professor in an America University, in his article, in the Nigerian Pilot, Monday, February 26, 2018, titled: “Bursting the Myth of Buhari’s Boko Haram Success,” said, “I periodically speak with my relatives and friends in the military fighting Boko Haram, and they say little or nothing has changed, except that propaganda and media management have become more effective.”
The war against the rag-tag Boko Haram by the Nigeria military speaks volume of so many things. The Boko Haram, up to now, has not been defeated. In spite of claims by the military that they have finished with the insurgents in less than a month, the insurgents struck in Dapchi. How then can the country contain external aggression?
The war with the insurgents is getting to nine years now and we are still grappling with it. What is needed is a total war in full gear and force and nothing less than that. The army should not leave any stone unturned in the fight against the insurgents. The method of abduction is a strategy by the elements of Boko Haram to get finance to continue executing their nefarious activities.
We have a long way to go if by now our intelligence cannot get where the insurgents are, and also cannot detect their attack on the girls’ school in Dapchi.
If need be, let us invite other super powers to assist in defeating Boko Haram completely as the fight is getting somehow.
Usman Santuraki, No 2, Santuraki Close, Jambutu,
Jimeta, Yola.
