FG and defeat of Boko Haram – National Mirror

President Muhammadu Buhari, speaking last Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, at a meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki- Moon, on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit, reiterated that Nigeria had made encouraging progress towards ending Boko Haram Islamist insurgency since he assumed office on May 29, last year. The President says the Nigerian Armed Forces, in collaboration with the Multinational Joint Task Force, has driven the terrorist group away from Nigerian territory into what he called a ‘fall-back position’.“They are currently not holding any territory today as we speak”, Buhari was quoted as saying.
The Nigerian President was just three months on his seat as the country’s civilian leader last year August when he charged the new service chiefs he swore-in that month to defeat the insurgents within 90 days because of the wanton destruction of lives, properties; and the disruption of socio-economic lives of millions of Nigerians by the group.
Before Christmas last year, President Buhari told the BBC that the insurgent group could no longer mount conventional attacks against the security forces or population centres as they had been incapacitated to the level of fighting with improvised explosives devices (IEDs); and remained a force only in the heartland of Borno State. Though critics argued at the time that the scale of success the President claimed against the resilient, intransigent insurgents was somewhat exaggerated, it was obvious the joint efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Multinational Joint Task Force yielded commendable results within the short period Buhari took over the seat of governance.
We recall that in late December 2014, in other words, less than a year and one month today, the Borno State Government lamented that the terrorists had seized control of 20 out of the 27 Local Government Areas of the state. Only Maiduguri metropolis, Jere, Konduga, Kaga, Bayo, Kwayakusar and Biu LGAs were said to be under the control of the government. By October last year, five months into the Buhari government, however, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State declared that Boko Haram had grip of only two LGAs, namely: Abadam and Mobbar; though the group maintained partial presence in Marte LGA.
Cheering and encouraging as the efforts of the military in doing battle with the insurgents; and pronouncements by both President Buhari and Governor Shettima would seem, however, it is obvious that a lot more work would need to be done to totally flush out the insurgent group from the entire North East geopolitical zone, especially in the LGs that share boundaries with neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger and Cameroun. Reports filtering in from civil society groups providing succour to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East strongly suggest, for instance, that of the 27 LGAs in Borno State, the hotbed of the insurgency, life is normal in only six LGAs. Residents in 16 other LGAs scarcely sleep with their two eyes closed because of unpredictable onslaughts of insurgents; while in five other LGAs very close to border areas, insurgents are still making life unbearable for Nigerians resident there. Giving credence to this are reports that instead of decreasing, formal and informal IDP camps are registering more number of displaced persons, an indication that indigenes of even the liberated LGAs have probably not yet found their respective abodes safe and hospitable enough to return to or live in.
Reports six days ago also said about two weeks after schools resumed for studies nationwide after the Yuletide break, some primary and secondary school pupils in the North-East had been afraid to return to school for fear of attacks by insurgents, despite the fact that a lot of the LGAs taken by Boko Haram had been liberated. More worrisome is the fact that some of the schools have been under lock and key for about two years and still counting. There are still many roads not safe for commuters in the North East. The road linking Maiduguri to Bama through Gwoza and Madagali in Adamawa State, is said to be one of them; and anyone journeying to Yola town in Adamawa State from Maiduguri will have to travel through Potiskum, then Gombe, before Yola, one report says. These are still some of the challenges the military should confront. Notwithstanding the successes achieved so far, the military should intensify efforts to clear all hurdles contributing to the burgeoning number of internally displaced persons across the North East.