News that Nigerian forces are recapturing some towns and villages from Boko Haram insurgents is only mildly reassuring. Until now, Nigeria’s military onslaught against Boko Haram’s indiscriminate horror has been largely defensive. However, nothing but the restoration of full sovereignty over the country’s territory, part of which, to everyone’s embarrassment, is currently being controlled by the terrorists, will minimise these appalling atrocities. While the government should continue to explore multinational approach in stepping up pressure on the terror group, our military should consolidate on the gains of the present offensive.
Before now, our best war efforts had been frequent announcements from Defence Headquarters of troops repelling massed attacks by terrorists on major cities and towns in the North-East region. At the last count, Boko Haram had made three attempts to capture Maiduguri, capital of Borno State. Several similar attacks had been repelled in Konduga, a town that is a mere 35 kilometres from Maiduguri. Michika, in neighbouring Adamawa State, had also changed hands between Nigerian forces and the insurgents. Mubi, the commercial hub of that state, once captured by insurgents, has also witnessed repeated attempts to overrun it. And on three occasions, rebel fighters have made incursions into Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, including attempts to reach the Government House.
On Friday, agency reports indicated that, under pressure from multinational forces – Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon – Boko Haram was massing for another attack on Maiduguri, probably viewing Nigeria as the line of least resistance. Latest claims by DHQ of Baga, Monguno and Marte being recovered are more like it.
The overriding objective of the military planners should be to flush out Boko Haram from the 130 towns and villages it reportedly controls, ruthlessly hunt its members down, capture the remnants and bring them to justice. You cannot do that by merely defending or repelling attacks. News of new offensives conducted with troops from Mali, Chad and Niger Republic is refreshing and should be aggressively pursued.
The danger and futility in permanent defence are evident. While the first reported attack on Maiduguri came from one direction, the second and third attacks reportedly came from two and four directions respectively. The military should prioritise hot pursuit and degradation of the ranks of the insurgents. Had this been done after repulsed attacks on Konduga, the enemy would have found it nigh impossible to mount the four-pronged simultaneous attacks on Maiduguri, a city of two million that is not only the major metropolis in the North-East, but which also currently hosts thousands of refugees that have fled captured territories. Its fall, according to the International Crisis Group, would be demoralising to Nigeria, while greatly enhancing Boko Haram’s capacity to launch itself further into Nigeria and threaten the entire West African sub-region.
The Nigerian Armed Forces should learn useful lessons from others that are confronted with insurgencies. Sri Lanka’s army launched ferocious attacks on the brutal Tamil Tiger insurgents, isolated them in a remote territory and ruthlessly finished them off. Embattled Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, despite the formidable local and international forces ranged against him, launched his military against the strongholds of the rebels, taking the war to them and gradually degrading their capacity to mount set-piece attacks on government-held cities. In Iraq, Kurdish Pershmerga forces, unlike the cowardly Iraqi national army, did not stop at repelling Islamic State attacks on Erbil. Kirkuk, Kobani and other cities and towns, but is taking the battle to the enemy and aims to flush the savage Salafist fighters out of every territory they have occupied.
Our military have no reason to continue to defend towns only or allow Boko Haram to control even one centimetre square of Nigerian territory. That insurgents still rule over Gwoza, many months after sacking our forces there; Bama, a town that is just 80 kilometres from Maiduguri; and others is embarrassing. Our military should be as ashamed as Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora over this national disgrace.
There is no alternative to hot pursuit. Military around the world do not adopt a permanent defensive posture against irregular fighters in their own territory. Like the AirLandBattle doctrine of the United States military that mobilises all military assets – army, navy, air force, marine, national guards and Coast guard – for operations; the Israeli doctrine of deterrence that utilises pre-emptive destruction of the enemy and the old German doctrine of total war that carried it to victories in the early stages of World War II, Nigeria must adopt a new doctrine to fight this asymmetric war.
But no one should be under the illusion that this evil group will suddenly lose its capacity for horrific attacks in the name of religion. Boko Haram is now drawing inspiration from the notorious ISIS for its raw savagery. Countries like Jordan and Egypt that are being surreptitiously dragged into war with ISIS are already hitting hard at the terrorists. In the kind of war we have on our hands, we need a commander-in-chief that will adopt a hands-on approach and battlefield commanders that will motivate their troops, recover territory and destroy the fighting power of the savages claiming to be fighting a holy war.
