A former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, has said that crushing Boko Haram must be holistic.
Dambazau, who stated this in an interview with BBC Hausa, stressed that security agencies must get to the roots by tracing sources of their arms as well as finances, which, according to him, is very important in crushing terrorism.
He also said military warfare strategy on confronting the Boko Haram insurgency was vital in confronting tactics being exhibited by the sect in the course of their attacks.
Dambazau, a Weatherhead fellow of International Affairs, Harvard University, said: “When you don’t know who you are fighting, you must know how to engage them. How many are they? Where are they getting arms? You will also need to know how to get accurate intelligence about them, and you must strive to achieve that. And you know there is what is called ‘winning heart and mind’, how to get close and achieve success.”
On whether or not Nigerian intelligence agencies were not doing well in intelligence gathering, he said, “I cannot say what the real state of their operation is, but it shows there is a challenge, which is usual.”
When asked to comment on the rivalry among security agencies, he said he had no knowledge of that, but that “it is possible when some people in service will want to prove that they know more than colleagues.”
