Skeptics of Nigeria’s military campaign against the murderous Boko Haram gunmen in Nigeria’s northeast now have a smoking gun to prove that all is not well with the campaign.
Almost daily, Nigeria’s military authorities issue one bulletin after the other about their triumphs against the insurgents; the massive killings they have achieved, the bombing plots foiled, how they have flushed insurgents out of the major urban centres, how they have smoked out the insurgents out of Sambisa forest; how the ‘frightened’, hungry remnant, weakened forces of Abubakar Shekau have disappeared into the mountain fringes between Nigeria and Cameroon.
Each time we are entertained with such heroic stuffs, we are benumbed by how easy Boko Haram gunmen and bombers return to do even more horrifying damage, with impunity in the besieged Northeast.
The last time Governor Kashim Shettima raised the alarm that Nigeria’s forces are losing the war as the Boko Haram boys appeared better motivated and armed against Nigerian soldiers, he was taken to the cleaners, vilified and scolded like a primary school boy by military chiefs and even the commander-in-chief, Goodluck Jonathan. Subsequent events and rampant raids on military barracks, schools and Borno towns of Bama, Gamboru Ngala and Gwoza district and the capital city of Maiduguri have shown that Shettima’s assessment of the situation was correct.
The military authorities have certainly not been saying the whole truth. Something is surely wrong on the battlefront.
What better proof than the abduction of 129 teenage schoolgirls by Boko Haram gunmen Monday evening in the town of Chibok. Let’s look at the elements of the story: the school had invited the girls to come and take an examination; it requested for armed guards. But when the Boko Haram gunmen arrived Monday, the armed guards proved inadequate as they were overrun. The Boko Haram, without any resistance, carefully arranged their booty of war, young, nubile girls into trucks and took them into Sambisa Forest; the same place the military authorities claimed had been quarantined against Boko Haram.
To demonstrate that Nigerian soldiers were probably busy taking pepper soup in Mammy Barracks in Maiduguri when the abduction took place, there was no challenge offered these armed abductors, no aerial chase by air force or land chase by ground forces, until they disappeared into the labyrinth forest of Sambisa!
What interpretation can we ascribe to this incredible dare-devilry action by the enemy under emergency rule?
To me, it simply shows that the Nigerian forces have failed in their primary task of safeguarding Nigeria’s territorial integrity. They are certainly not in control of the Northeast and they have been feeding Jonathan and the nation lies about their efforts in this region.
Nigeria is seen is now viewed as a country whose military powers is weakened by a sect.
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