“Therefore we must understand the strengths and limitations of each party of securities and know how to use these capabilities to achieve success. Let us all put our hands on deck to face this challenge squarely so that government can concentrate on national transformation. I look forward to working seriously with my colleagues and other stakeholders so the security situation in the North-east can be brought to a halt.” – Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh
Clearly, it is unattractive and unenviable to superintend over Nigeria’s security apparatchik at this critical juncture of the nation’s epochal fatalism brought about by the Boko Haram insurgency. This is why many people including his adversaries are not envious of Badeh, even though he had his job cut out for him from the outset of his appointment as defence chief by President Goodluck Jonathan on January 16, 2014. His job definition was unambiguous and uncluttered – end the Boko Haram mayhem in no time. Badeh himself knew that although he had a clear-cut assignment, it was more complicated, intricate and delicate than anyone could imagine. Even President Jonathan acceded to the fact that the nature and complexities of terrorism, which has been bedeviling some countries and only debuting in Nigeria in the twilight of late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration, make the menace virtually impossible to wipe out.
It was with this mindset that Badeh adopted the principle of cautious optimism in the discharge of his mandate to rout Boko Haram and end the rising wave of insecurity in the country, particularly in the North-east. Badeh had been provided all the logistics and financial muscles by the president, to win the war on terror. Badeh’s empowerment for the successful prosecution of the anti-terror war included a declaration of state of emergency in the war-torn zone of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states as well as a huge budgetary and extra-budgetary allocation of trillions of dollars. Unfortunately, instead of coasting home to victory the insurgents seem to get bolder and more daring by the day while the Nigerian military gets crest fallen with cases of mutiny that put some of the supposedly ‘gallant’ soldiers on the hangman’s noose.
Within a space of three months, between April and June this year, Boko Haram had recorded major ‘breakthroughs’ in the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno state and blown up a bus station in Nyanya, Abuja twice on the heels of one another as well as detonating a bomb at Emab Plaza in Wuse, Abuja. Over 300 people were reportedly killed and billions of naira worth of property were destroyed in the three spontaneous Abuja bomb blasts, for which the Boko Haram insurgents claimed responsibility. Within this period also, the dare-devil Boko Haram invaded the headquarters of the Department of State Security (DSS) located within the precinct of the three arms zone in Abuja in an attempt to free some of their detained members, but the terrorists were stoutly repelled by the superior fire power of security operatives.
These onslaughts by Boko Haram, including their proclamation of Damboa in Borno state as an Islamic Caliphate and occupation of Gwoza, Gamboru Ngala, Gulak and Michika, in Adamawa state and Badeh’s hometown, among others, tend to give the lie of the failure of Badeh and by extension the Nigerian military. However, those who make this insinuation seem to be oblivious of the fact that a combination of factors have conspired to frustrate the anti-terror war including the propaganda stunt of the Boko Haram sect, who have till date remained amorphous and incongruous, not having any credible identity or definable cause. Thus, some crooks have exploited the de-link created by this amorphous relationship to rip off the Nigerian government and endanger the well-being of the denizens.
For the second time (the first being in July 2013) in the life of the Boko Haram insurgency which started in 2009, the federal government on Friday announced a new ceasefire deal with the deadly sect, which was expected to lead to the liberation of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the militants on April 15. Badeh, who made the revelation at the end of the coordinating conference on Nigeria–Cameroon Trans-Border Military Operations, in Abuja, said; “Without any prejudice to the outcome of our three days interactions and the conclusions of this forum, I wish to inform this audience that a ceasefire agreement has been reached between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Jama’atul ahlul Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad. I have accordingly directed, the service chiefs to ensure immediate compliance with the development in the field.”
The truce, which was greeted with skepticism by most Nigerians, however, turned out to be a sham. In less than 24 hours of the announcement of the ceasefire, the terrorists intensified their deadly campaign against humanity in Borno and Adamawa states, killing scores of people including a former local government vice chairman. Government troops, however, responded by killing over 25 Boko Haram members. The implication of the truce collapse is that the federal government had been ambushed by a bogus Boko Haram. This sad development raises the question as to why the federal government has shut the window of negotiation with the terrorists offered by Ahmad Salkida, a journalist internationally acclaimed to have links with Boko Haram.
