In the over two years of this present administration, it never failed to shout to high heavens its accomplishments in the fight against corruption and the Boko Haram insurgency. As much as it flaunt these, so also is the counter argument that the administration’s anti-graft war is selective and vindictive, and that Boko Haram is not decimated or weakened as purported.
The position that Boko Haram’s strength has withered to a large extent is a fact but the terrorist sect has not be decimated. In fact, we are far from doing that. Boko Haram seems to be enjoying a rejuvenation and reinvigoration which coincides with the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari. The Nigerian military have lost its braggadocio in the fight against the insurgency in recent months even though it will vow otherwise. The resurgence of the sect must have inspired the video released few days ago by its leader, Abubakar Shekau taunting President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Goodluck Jonathan, and the Chief of Army Staff, Yusuf Buratai.
This affront came few days after the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo gave a matching order to Tukur Buratai, chief of Army staff, and Sadique Abubakar, chief of Air staff, to relocate to Maiduguri due to the suddenly increase in the number of attacks by the terrorist sect. The sect suicide bombers killed about 30 people in Adamawa yesterday. In 2 months, Boko Haram has been responsible for about 100 deaths in the northeast.
The insurgents in the same time frame also abducted four persons contracted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and lecturers at the University of Maiduguri. The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed who never stopped spinning lyrics on the achievements of the administration in its fight against the insurgence once said the war against the sect had been “largely won”, has suddenly developed sore throat in the face of recent developments.
The President cannot be in London marshalling the fight against Boko Haram. This is a negation of the promise he made to Nigerians in 2015 that he will tackle headlong with all available arsenal to fight the insurgency and end it. The much touted normalcy and instruction by the government for the internally displaced persons to return to their homes have been ignored because Boko Haram is still very much a clear and present danger.
A recent US report has also pinpoint corruption as hampering the military campaign against Boko Haram.“Despite a Nigerian military budget of $5.8 billion, the U.S. State Department and Department of Defence report that the funding is ‘skimmed off the top’ and there is low troop morale in the JTF. Soldiers are poorly trained and equipped, and at times are reported to run away or not engage a better armed and trained Boko Haram,” it said.
The Armed Forces in a bid to ameliorate its losses to Boko Haram and save face with Nigerians is now accusing the fifth columnists in its rank of aiding and providing information to the terrorists. If such is the case, how many such saboteurs within its ranked have been arrested. Government at all levels in Nigeria have the penchant to boost or enumerate accomplishments in the press against the reality on the ground. We are a nation given to articulating results on paper in total contrast to what is visible and actually measurable.
Boko Haram have returned to killing and plundering of communities in the northeast. The failure of the military in Nigeria is equally evident in Cameroon and Niger where attacks by Boko Haram are also on the increase. The impact of the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Region in the war against Boko Haram terrorists to all discernible minds has been inconsequential.
While London has suddenly become a Mecca where our political elites, government officials and jobbers throng to on a daily basis to pay obeisance to ‘Baba’, the country is crumbling economically, poverty’s tentacles widen, hate speeches rent the air, the nation is in darkness, kidnapping is striving, Boko Haram is getting more emboldened and sure-footed, and the Acting President is merely ‘acting’.
