One good turn deserves another is a well-worn cliche. Nigeria as a nation has done many good turns in different parts of the globe. But it appears as though it is undeserving of one. Nigerian security personnel have been called upon to restore peace and stability within the African continent and beyond. Nigerian soldiers fought during the Burma and Congo Wars. Nigerian troops were in Lebanon, Somalia and, lately, in Mali to put down crises… all at the invitation of the United Nations.
Coming nearer home, Nigerian soldiers spearheaded the ECOMOG operations to save the Liberians from themselves. The Nigerian military was not physically present in the struggle to rescue South Africa from the lethal jaws of the obnoxious apartheid system, ditto Namibia and Angola. But its leaderships at various times fought the oppressors of those countries to submission. Today, those countries for which Nigeria put the lives of its troops at risk are enjoying peace, stability and prosperity.
So, the fundamental questions are: Why has the world abandoned Nigeria to its own devices at this critical time of its history? Why can’t Nigeria reap bountifully where it has sowed so generously? Why is the rest of the world watching us in our helpless and hopeless state? Is this a prelude to the prediction that Nigeria would break up in 2015? From the look of things, the prediction is gradually coming to pass. The year 2015 is just six or so weeks away and a sizable portion of the nation’s territory along the north-eastern borderline has already been dragged under a caliphate, freely administered by the Boko Haram insurgents. And how do you describe the frightening development? Is the country not already at a breaking point?
Encouraged by the string of successes recorded in recent months, the insurgents are dreaming of taking over Maiduguri, the seat of government of Borno state. Nobody should dismiss their ambition as a reverie. A couple of months ago, the insurgents made some daring attempts to overrun the ancient city, but their mission was halted at Konduga where the leader of the renegades, Imam Shekau, was believed to have been killed a second time. Their main target is the Maiduguri International Airport. Once they have the airport under their control, the insurgents would have their operations fully internationalised. No one should dismiss the fact that these criminals can acquire helicopter gunships and launch airstrikes on any targets that catch their fancy, including Abuja, from Maiduguri. If they could possess Armoured Personnel Carriers to execute their madness without any let or hindrance, then we should not dismiss the possibility of a threat from the air once Maiduguri falls. Long before now, there were stories of a helicopter occasionally ferrying weapons and other needs to the insurgents in their Sambisa Forest stronghold. So, it is in the best interest of all of us that Maiduguri should be secured from those criminals at all costs.
A friend wondered aloud on Monday evening upon hearing that close to 50 students of Government Comprehensive Science Secondary School, Potiskum in Yobe state were killed and 79 others seriously injured by a suicide bomber who masqueraded as a student of the institution. It was coming on the heels of a similar tragedy which occurred when a suicide bomber melted into the procession of Shi’ite Muslims marking the Ashiru Day in Potiskum on Monday, November 3, 2014 and blew himself and his hapless targets to smithereens. Earlier, there were the gruesome killings in Gombe and Azare, Bauchi state.
As I was saying at the beginning, which is a repetition of what I have been parroting in this column for a long time, the federal government should yell out for external help and stop making empty vows to end the festering madness. The situation is spiraling out of control as the insurgents have conquered as many as 16 local government areas across the North-east axis. What is so difficult in the United Nations coming to help us? Why can’t we bring back the ECOMOG? What is the relevance of the African Union? These international bodies have a responsibility towards Nigeria in its hour of need.
Prevention, it is said, is better than cure. It should be less costly to stop the insurgents from taking more territories which our President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, swore to defend than reclaiming them afterwards. We should stop deceiving the international community that we have the capacity to contain the insurgency like we handled Ebola. Boko Haram is worse than the Ebola virus. It took us less than three months to rout the virus. But the Boko Haram epidemic has been raging in the North-east and beyond for the past five years, killing close to 20,000 people, maiming tens of thousands and rendering hundreds of thousands refugees within and outside the country.
Interestingly, the insurgents have come into the open to confront our troops. They are no longer ghost fighters with their hit-and-run tactics. Now they hit and occupy as our troops beat a fast retreat in virtually every front. Something keeps telling me that unless we yell out for external support to beef up our troops that are perpetually on tactical manoeuvre, most of the $1bn worth of armaments on order might fall into the hands of the insurgents. I hope the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, is reading me: all is not well with Nigeria. The multinational forces drawn from Niger and Chad operating at the fringes of the beleaguered axis seem to be making little or no impact. If the UN is unwilling to help us after the razzmatazz that followed the mass abduction of the Chibok girls last April, then it becomes part of the problem.