Fresh concerns over govt’s ability to tackle B/Haram

The increasing spate of Boko Haram attacks has raised fresh concerns about President Muhammadu Buhari’s strategy in tackling the insurgency.  EZUGWU OBINNA reports

The growing rate of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria has obviously thrown the entire populace into a new phase of panic, thus raising serious concerns about the ability of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration to curb the menace as promised during the electioneering campaigns.

In the past one month alone, Boko Haram has carried out numerous attacks resulting in the death of over 377 Nigerians. In Maiduguri alone, the insurgents have in the past few weeks killed over a hundred individuals, wounded dozens of others while razing over 400 homes. On Thursday last week, terrorists numbering over 70 stormed Bama town in convoy of pick up vans and motorcycles and perpetrated violence on the village.

Eye witnesses put the number of those killed on the spot at 27 and the injured at 12. Earlier attacks in Monguno Local Government resulted in the death of over 70 persons. The attacks have become very frequent in many Borno villages recently.

Speaking on the renewed strength of Boko Haram, a former minister of aviation, and spokesperson of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organization, Femi Fani-Kayode, said that Nigerians asked for the recent upsurge in Boko Haram attacks by refusing to renew Mr. Jonathan’s mandate, instead voting in Buhari as President.

Mr. Fani-Kayode said President Buhari had always been sympathetic to Boko Haram. “Anyone that honestly believed that a man who secretly shares the same vision and core principles of Boko Haram and who spent many years defending them can do anything but give them a free hand when he comes to power is living in cuckoo land,” he said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

The Number of deaths as a result of terror attacks in Adamawa and Yobe states has also run into hundreds. Only last Sunday, Jos the Plateau State capital which had witnessed relative peace over the past few months was greeted by gruesome attacks at a restaurant and a mosque that left 44 persons dead on the spot, the number has risen to over 55 since then. On Tuesday, another attack at yet another relatively peaceful city of Zaria, Kaduna State took about 20 lives instantly and injured 32 others.

The Jos and Kaduna attacks are significant in that they represent further shift from the North East Zone where the terror group had confined its attacks for a long time now towards the North Central zone, which invariably implies that their reach is expanding the more despite the initial lull in the attacks.

Expectedly, Nigerians are beginning to question the capacity of the Buhari led administration to provide the much anticipated framework that would guide the anti-insurgency war. The level of optimism is beginning to drop, not surprising that many have begun to accuse the new administration of moving too slowly.

Buhari has, as he promised during his inaugural speech, moved the military command headquarters to Maiduguri in a bid to strengthen the efforts against Boko Haram, but the move has not yielded any noticeable result and it is beginning to look as if it was actually a move in futility. But the very tactical error made by the administration so far, in the assessment of many was its decision to remove military checkpoints in all parts of the country except the North East and South East zones which was even an afterthought.

The belief is that the absence of military checkpoints have further enhanced the mobility of the terror group, hence their recent attacks in Kaduna and Jos. This was particularly the concern raised by the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong who visited the victims of the recent attacks on Sunday. He called on the President to reconsider his decision to withdraw military checkpoints in various parts of the country, explaining that lack of security gives the terror group the opportunity to move around more freely.

“Today, I have made an appeal to Mr. President to allow us to go back to our checkpoints. Allow the security to go back. Without security, insurgents can come from all angles to start attacking innocent people,” Lalong noted.

Indeed, one cannot but agree that Buhari’s strategy has not worked thus far. While it had appeared as if the country was on the verge of ending Boko Haram attacks towards to end of Jonathan’s administration, the rising spate of attacks is almost dashing those hopes.

Not least helpful is the recent indicting report by Amnesty International which accused the military of committing “horrific war crimes” in the war against Boko Haram and the President’s insistence on investigating the reports not minding the backlash it generated from notable political figures and groups in the country. The thinking is that such move may not sit well for the morale of the soldiers on the front lines and their commanders.

Speaking on the withdrawal of military checkpoints in some parts of the country, Professor Remi  Ajekigbe, Head, Radiotherapy and Oncology Department,  Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) noted that the move is what has indeed enhanced the movement of Boko Haram leading to the group’s rising attacks. Prof Ajekigbe expressed shock over the recent attack in Zaria, recalling that he had visited the city and had only just left when he heard about the incident.

“Taking the military off the road has given Boko Haram more freedom to move around and attack people. I just came back from Zaria and was shocked to hear about the attack there. Military checkpoints have both merits and demerits, you have to look at it both ways and see which outweighs the other.”

“The other day, I was going from Enugu to Awka, and as soon as we got to one military checkpoint, information got to them that there was an armed robbery attack going on and they rushed to the place. The robbers that attacked some banks in Lagos were caught by the military at a checkpoint in Ondo State. The soldiers stopped one of them on his way home, searched him and found raps of bank notes in his car. They interrogated him and contacted Lagos. That’s how others were apprehended,” Ajekigbe said.

He however noted that Buhari may have thought it necessary to remove checkpoints due to the fact that the prolonged stay of soldiers on the highway may lead to them being compromised. “Buhari ordered the removal of checkpoints in a bid to fight corruption, if soldiers stay too long in one place, they may be corrupted. So it was right then, but now he has to re-strategise,” he adds.

For Dr. Greg Ezea, the Head of Mass Communication Department, University of Nigeria,  Nsukka however, the problem goes beyond military checkpoints. He advised Buhari to crosscheck the security apparatus in other to find out if there is indeed sabotage.

“The insurgents are probably daring the President because of the promise he made in his inaugural speech to flush them out. It goes beyond military checkpoints. Buhari should look beyond military checkpoints and look inwards to find out if there is sabotage. Crosscheck the security apparatus to fish out any bad eggs.”

“Where do they stay and plan these attacks, where is the intelligence, why are they not being discovered in their hideouts?” Ezea queried.

At any rate, Mr. Fani-Kayode, who recently changed his name to Femi Olukayode, in celebration of his court victory in a corruption case, said he was not surprised with the recent bombings and killings.

“I am not surprised by the resurgence of Boko Haram and their new-found barbarity, courage and zeal,” he said.

He also said the cause of the Boko Haram sect may have been aided by the removal of military checkpoints in towns and along highways. Olukayode stressed that the Nigerian government is also transferring Boko Haram suspects to Prisons in the Eastern part of the country in order to ”spread the word” adding that no less than 182 Boko Haram suspects were released on the President’s orders just a few days ago.

“Is all this just a coincidence or is something that is dark and sinister now afoot in our country, he asked.