When he came about a year ago to take over from his predecessor as the Theater Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri, Borno State, Major General Rochas Nicholas radiated confidence and air of assurance as he told the rank and file handed over to him, “Boys, it will soon be over.” OPL is the central command of all operations in the Northeast with regard to war on insurgency.
Maj-Gen. Rochas meant what he said as he was thereafter seen more in action as a true combatant. He affirmed his words as his boys went on the prowl, hunting down the terrorists and setting them on running spree. In no time, the General got the accolades from his boys. Not only that, the general public was impressed, and the state governor, Kashim Shettima, soon described Rochas as “a true nationalist”. No doubt, the spontaneous acceptability of the General stemmed from the fact that before his assumption as the Theater Commander, there was a lull in the insurgency war and the insurgents were having the upper hand. However, Rochas came and made the difference.
No doubt, the Theater Commander has every cause to be worried, as the successes recorded so far by the military in the on-going assault on the insurgency is being rudely interrupted and rubbished by the incessant onslaughts of the suicide bombers
Yet, in spite of his success so far in the terrorism war, Maj.-Gen. Rochas, like his boss, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, the Army Chief of Staff, is not a happy man. The reason being that the insurgents, through ceaseless bombing of various places, including worship centres, markets and other soft targets where several lives had been lost and property worth several billions of naira destroyed, had posed a bit too pesky for comfort.
So disturbed and worried recently was the General that he announced in Maiduguri, a military price or gift of five million naira to anyone who is able to give credible information on the location of a factory where the bombs (IED) are being manufactured. No doubt, the Theater Commander has every cause to be worried, as the successes recorded so far by the military in the on-going assault on the insurgency is being rudely interrupted and rubbished by the incessant onslaughts of the suicide bombers. The bombers have inflicted more destruction in human and material terms, compared to the military face-to-face confrontation with the terrorists.
According to the Amnesty International, latest reports indicate that 1,800 people were killed from January 2018 to date across 17 states, almost double the entire death toll of 2017 which stood at 894. Amnesty made this known in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Isa Sanusi, quoting its Nigerian Country Director, Osai Ojigho. The report blamed the Nigerian authorities for failing to tame the killings, noting that, the failure of the security agencies made attacks and reprisal frequent.
Ojigho said, “By failing to hold murderers to account, the Nigerian authorities are encouraging impunity that is fueling rising insecurity across the country.”
Without equivocation, one could conclude that the recent death toll arising from suicide bombing far exceeded the one recorded from military confrontation with the insurgents. Hence the worries of the military and many Nigerians.
However, it must be pointed out here that the location of the factory manufacturing bombs by the terrorists and the destruction of the same may after all, not be the solution to the on-going insurgency. It could be part of the solution.
So long as the sponsors, the accomplices and sympathisers of this monster remain elusive, so long will the end to insurgency become unpredictable. What we have been doing so far is chasing the shadows and not the substance.
At best, we have been curing some of the effects of the disease and not the cause of the disease itself. It is sad to note that after eight years of the insurgency, Nigerians are yet to know the authors of this dastardly act who are obviously not invisible.
Even, the military has pointed out on occasions, the dubious role played by some of the elite in the propagation of the insurgency. During the pulling-out-parade in Abuja, the Chief of Army staff, Lt General Kenneth Minimah, some years back, stated categorically that the civilians, especially the politicians, rather than co-operate with the military to flush out the insurgents, instead introduced politics and religions into the whole
show.
Similarly, the military had issued statements to the fact that some elite, especially the politicians from the Northeast in particular, are frustrating the efforts of the military to subjugate insurgency for selfish purposes. Even of recent, the Director General of the Directorate of State Security Service, Mallam Lawal Daura, disclosed that in the process of negotiating with the terrorists with regard to the release of the abducted Dapchi school girls, there were attempts by some officials in the government to frustrate the effort. Let us not forget that even President Goodluck Jonathan pointed out that there were Boko Haram members in his administration.
The question now is: what further evidence do we need to get the sponsors?
When the Al-Shaba sect attacked the Westgate Mall and the University of Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta, went straight for the jugular of the sponsors. In no time, over a hundred people, including state officials, businessmen and technocrats, were arrested. It was discovered that the son of a cabinet Minister in the administration was among those behind the attacks in which several lives were lost.
To end this war of terror, efforts must not be spared at getting at prevention and not necessarily on curing alone. To prevent is to be pro-active and to be pro-active is to get at the sponsors. Once this is done, the sources of the funding, the modus operandi, the fifth columnists at work, and all other things would be unveiled. And this signals the end to insurgency. To do otherwise is postponing the evil’s
day.
*Izekor is a journalist, public affairs analyst and Member, Board of Advisers, The Point.
