During a media executive session held at Army headquarters, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Yusufu Buratai informed the media executives that the Nigerian Army has has established a Directorate of Cyber Warfare Command, and that the command is headed by a senior officer.
Prior to its operationalisation, the Nigerian Army Cyber Command discovered Boko Haram’s online recruitment platforms and frustrated the terrorists efforts in achieving their aim.
To Open Source Intelligent analysts this shows clear readiness and responsiveness of the Nigerian Army leadership towards counterinsurgency operations in Nigeria.
One then wonders the whereabout of the Abubakar shekau faction of Boko Haram whose ideology and doctrine has been countered severely by the Nigerian Government.
Shekau’s Ideology considers everyone residing outside the “Daulah” being the zone of territory under his controls as “infidels”, and therefore justifiable for indiscriminate murder.
It was partly because of this that Boko Haram split to two faction August 2016, with a division marked by fierce internecine fighting and the assassination of senior commanders on both sides.
Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi faction publicly criticised Shakau modus operandi of using underage girls for suicide attacks.
In some of the Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi publications he maintains the stand of targeting only security men (Soldiers) who are preventing the Islamic State from “doing the work of Allah” as claimed.
This position won the faction the endorsement of IS, thereby dropping Shekau who previously pledged allegiance to the IS as head naming al-Barnawi as the new “wali”, or governor, of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Shekau’s horrific tactics of using minors for suicide bombings of mosques and markets was seen as being too extreme even for IS agenda, not only having dubious scriptural legitimacy, but also seen as being strategically counterproductive; driving support away from jihadist cause.
ISWAP emphasised this on it book titled Cutting out the Tumour from the Khawarij (rebellion) of Shekau by the Allegiance Pledge of the People of Nobility allegedly written by alBarnawi and his younger brother who is also one of his commander.
The book was shared on telegram which happens to be more secured than other social media platform widely used in West Africa.
ISWAP invest heavily in proselytism, using Telegram and other secure apps to spread its propaganda.
In some government-run IDP camps—videos of their sermons are secretly shared, to lure people to the jihadist cause.
The ISWAP new public profile is quite counterproductive to the ongoing counter insurgency operation in the North East.
This was successfully achieved in the kidnapping and return of 110 Dapchi Schoolgirls in Yobe State.
The host community in particular and Nigerians in general were shocked when the children were returned within two weeks (with the exception of Leah Sharibu the only Christian girl, and the five other girls killed during the raid) the statement was clear.
The celebration that greeted the ISWAP fighters that returned the abducted girls is a hypothetical test to where the host community pledges it’s allegiance to—the footage went viral on telegram before hitting other social media platforms.
As a result of this, the host community are seemingly no longer afraid of ISWAP.
No doubt that some civilians spy troops’ location with the intent of providing useful information to the advantage of the ISWAP in return for food, cash and Kind.
Matching this account with pockets of perceived fifth columnist within the Army explains why recent attacks on troops’ location and call for the Nigerian Army to invest more Open Source Intelligence gathering and Cyber Security.
Persons in the rural areas in Nigeria especially, the North Eastern parts are more of conformist people.
Thus the jihadist propaganda that the Nigerian government presides over a corrupt, immoral, and unjust system—and that shariah Islamic law is the antidote—is not an alien perception.
This, I am sure the COAS is very much aware, thus he has commenced campaigns for community stabilization as a way of reassuring the host community that “the Nigerian Army is their Only Army constitutionally mandated to protect their lives and property”, and will not rest on its oars until the security of their economy and social wellbeing is guaranteed.
In this regards, no religion that acknowledges God Almighty as its Supreme Being supports the killing of its own soldier.
To effectively achieve this promising objective and counter this evil narrative, the Federal Government, NGOs and Religious Bodies need to support the Nigerian Army in the areas of Civil military activities like Road construction, provision of potable water other social amenities that will activate the winning of hearts and minds of the people.
Unlike the ragtag, unskilled and malnourished sect headed by the Shekau faction, they are intelligence of ISWAP using Geographic Information System (GIS) and counter Psychological Operational measures to augment their fire power.
This is a call for a change in military tactics and counter insurgency measures towards retraining of personnel and enlistment of IT professionals into the military.
In furtherance of the new efforts of the Military echelons concerning cyber warfare, its worthy to note that the armed forces is now armed with conventional IT capacity and resources, capable of discrediting the propaganda mechanism of the insurgency.
Fredrick is New Media Strategist and Member Nigerian Army Resource Centre.