Nigeriaworld Feature Article - 2014: The year Nigeria would not forget in a hurry (13) (PICTORAL)

FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima Ubochi

Thursday, December 4, 2014

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Bonn, Germany

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2014: THE YEAR NIGERIA WOULD NOT FORGET IN A HURRY (13) (PICTORAL)

Continued from Part 12

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps (Confucius)
Struggle: to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
How could an organization with political mission kill Muslim worshippers in mosques and churches? What for? If the group is fighting the government, does the government has a mosque that the group now targeted? How then could a group that wants to establish an Islamic state kill worshippers in mosques, churches and market places? We cannot be fooled! (Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky)

he President said, some days ago, that the Federal Government, the Armed Forces and security agencies are working very hard to ensure that the ability of Boko Haram to capture and hold any Nigerian territory is ended very soon. But, as Bolaji Tunji wrote "For most discerning Nigerians, the war against Boko Haram has not really started, though the Nigerian leadership would say otherwise. And I am not sure the war would really start notwithstanding what the military authority would want us to believe. It is not that soldiers are not in the theatre of war. But what has been the result of the military effort. On a daily basis, we are assaulted with pictures and reports of people moving from their communities to areas they consider safe. As at today, there are some communities still under Boko Haram. And let us not forget that we still have over 200 Chibok girls in the custody of the sect. So going by the result posted so far, the military has not distinguished itself in this war. Most Nigerians are finding it difficult to accept that the military can deal decisively with the menace. Thus it was not really a surprise when the news broke that Mubi which had been captured by the sect was retaken by local hunters, a feat that was impossible for the 'professional' Nigerian Army to accomplish. Though it was said the task was achieved with the help of the Nigerian Army, but the role played by the army was not stated. The military has not equally come out to state the role it played in the battle. What kind of support did they give? Who led the attack? Was the attack led by one of the hunters or an army officer? One was thus left wondering how this feat was achieved. We have seen pictures and video recordings of the Boko Haram fighters surrounded by death-dealing arsenals which have enabled them to put our soldiers on the run, with some of them taking refuge or as the military would call it, tactically withdrawing into neighboring countries of Cameroun and Chad".

Prominent northerners have given up on the Nigerian military's ability to rout the insurgents, and are now advising the citizens in the north to defend themselves against the terrorists. That the Nigerian military has so far done a slipshod work in its war against insurgency is disheartening. As the photo below shows, Boko Haram fighters freely parade Nigerian north-eastern region, whenever and however they like, undisturbed.

Sean John Combs (1969), alias P. Diddy, raised a pertinent question below: "Where's The Nigerian Army", when the insurgents kidnapped the Chibok Girls on April 14 this year? Where's the Nigerian Army, as the kidnapped girls are yet to be found or rescued? It's unimaginable the trauma these innocent girls are passing through in the bushes. The military should tell us if we don't have satellite images to spot the girls? Don't we have fighter jets? Don't we have enough troops to cordon the whole of Southern Borno and save this young girls? On Monday, May 26, 2014, The Chief of defense Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, lied when he told demonstrators that Nigeria's military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by the Islamic extremists but fears using force to try to free them as that could get them killed. In his words: "we can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back." What has he done since then to safely rescue them? The truth is that he saw no girls and does not have the wherewithal to rescue them, assuming he knows where they are. Where's the pusillanimous Nigerian military when the ragtag terrorists are taking over towns and villages in the north-eastern part of Nigeria?

Ogbuefi Ndigbo, who posted the above photo, noted that a calculation by the Boko Haram is to make human lives and properties vulnerable to their attacks, an avenue for them to kill, kidnap, rape, forcefully convert non-Muslims, marry them off to their fighters, blackmail Islam, seize big cities, convert innocent people to be their fighters, collect ransom, destroy churches and commit more evil to divide Nigerians. Please, as Boko Haram captures more cities in north east Nigeria and operates with reckless abandon, Nigerians are bound to ask, where are the Nigerian military forces?

In the preceding part of this article, it was noted that the President claimed that the military had started winning the war against the Boko Haram sect, and that for about a week now; there have been no further reports of the sect seizing more territory. But since then, the insurgents have proved him wrong, as they have been rampaging all over the north-eastern part of Nigeria unperturbed. They leave only pandemonium and chaos on their spoor. Boko Haram has turned itself into a bugbear, as it seems to be changing its killing patterns. Its latest being the unleashing of female suicide bombers to wreck maximum havoc in the northern of Nigeria. This shows that many of the insurgents are not Nigerians, because, as some of the happiest people on earth, Nigerians are not prone to the taking of their lives and that of others. Something is wrong here! Although this writer disagrees with Prof. Soyinka on a certain point here, but, the erudite Professor noted the alien angle of Boko Haram when he wrote, few days ago, that "insecurity would have been curbed if Nigeria had learned from what happened to Mali wherein al-Qeda militants brought the nation to its knees. The lesson of Mali was completely lost on complacent leadership, however, leaving time and space for alien invaders to make common cause with the internal, unleashing destruction at will and dancing around a nation whose armed forces have acquitted themselves creditably on foreign missions". Generally speaking, one is forced to ask: Where was the Nigerian military when: The insurgents have sacked so many towns and villages; killed thousands; displaced thousands (800,000 so far); destroyed property; businesses and relationships; took over military barracks and military weapons; burned down police stations; shot down airforce jets; raped and maimed thousands; sent out suicide bombers with the mandate to kill as many people as possible etc? For instance: