From: Muhd. Muhammad <meinagge@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 11:24 AM
Subject: {'Yan Arewa} BOKO HARAM: WHY FG IS LOSING THE BATTLE
To: YanArewa@yahoogroups.com, dandalinsiyasa@yahoogroups.com, "Naija Observer@yahoogroups.com" <NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com>, "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, talkhard@yahoogroups.com
BOKO HARAM: WHY FG IS LOSING THE BATTLE
The successful attack on military installations in Maiduguri by insurgents last week shows that the government is still far from winning the war on terror
By TAJUDEEN SULEIMAN
The Nigerian military was embarrassed last week after daring Boko Haram insurgents entered Maiduguri city in large numbers, attacking military installations and barracks without meeting much resistance. The insurgents stormed the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, base where they destroyed three military aircraft and two helicopters, and wounded some military personnel.
To further reduce the potency of the military, the terrorists also went after the 3rd Artillery Batallion of the Nigerian Army, destroying the barrack and military hardware. They even tried to escape in an armoured vehicle, but later abandoned it on the road. Chris Olukolade, brigadier-general and spokesman of the military, said in a statement last Monday that the military successfully repelled the insurgents, killing 24 of them while others escaped with gunshot wounds. He said only two air force personnel were wounded during exchange of gunfire with the insurgents.
The statement further said security forces were in pursuit of the insurgents who were believed to be hiding in Djemtillo area around Maiduguri/Benisheikh axis of the city. It was in Benisheikh that insurgents recently mounted roadblocks on the highway to Maiduguri and slaughtered over 160 travellers.
Kashim Shettima, the Borno State governor, who went round the state capital to assess the damage, was shocked at the audacity of the insurgents. He however told reporters that the people of the state would not allow Boko Haram to drive them out of their land. He said, almost in tears, that his people were prepared to drive terrorism out of the state or perish, because "this is our land."
Last week was not the first time the military would be attacked in recent time in Borno State. A military barrack in Baga had earlier been attacked by the insurgents, who killed a number of officers. On September 13, a military operation was abruptly terminated when Boko Haram ambushed the team around Gubio, killing the commanding officer and many of the soldiers on the operation.
But this latest attack was shocking because Nigerians believed the military's claim that it had successfully driven terrorists out of the city into the forests along the Cameroonian border. During his monthly press briefing last October, Ibrahim Attahiru, brigadier-general and director of Army Public Relations, said the military was winning the war and that only remnants of the terrorists were still in operation. He said the military had intensified patrol to ensure they are completely flushed out of the country. But the pre-dawn attack of last Monday has rubbished that claim and put big question marks on how the federal government has prosecuted the war on terror. How could terrorists in distance forests invade Maiduguri city unnoticed and carry out surprised attacks on military barracks? This is the question everyone is asking the military. The federal government has budgeted more than N1 trillion for security operations since 2012 and it is expected that by now insurgency would be limited to very remote areas of the North-east.
As expected, many Nigerians were scandalised by the scale of the attack. The All Progressives Congress, APC, the biggest opposition party in the country, called for a probe of the attack. In a statement signed by Lai Mohammed, the interim national publicity secretary, the party said the probe should unravel why security personnel in the city and at the military installations were apparently caught unawares by the attackers who reportedly came in large numbers.
The party said: "If military installations in a major city can be so easily overrun by a band of marauders, then no one and no facilities are safe. That's why the government and the military must work hand in hand to unravel why such a massive attack on military installations was possible in the first instance."
But Labaran Maku, minister of information and supervising minister of defence, said during a briefing last week that it was not unusual for such occasional attacks to take place as the country was dealing with an enemy that did not wear uniform. He said the military had hit the terrorists hard and they were fighting back. He commended the military for repelling the attack and killing the insurgents.
The military requested the declaration of state of emergency in the three north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, to enable it flush out insurgents. The government accepted and declared a six-month state of emergency in the three states in May 2012. After the initial six months expired in October, the government asked the National Assembly to approve an extension for another six months to consolidate the gains.
But while the military has been able to substantially reduce attacks on civilians in the cities, it has been almost helpless in stopping the occasional raids of insurgents on some targets, even in the cities. Last October, insurgents attacked the College of Agriculture in Gujba, Yobe State, killing nearly 60 students and a lecturer before disappearing into the forest. Since last month, insurgents have carried out attacks on different communities in Borno and Yobe, killing scores of people.
Many observers of the war on terror have suggested that it was high time the military reviewed its strategies for the war, as its current strategy was not giving the expected result. Kabir Mato, director, Institute for Anti-Corruption Studies, University of Abuja, said last week's attack has exposed the weakness of whatever strategy the military has pursued.
"It is clear that our military strategy against terrorists is not working, and we have to change the approach. How can dozens of terrorists just invade military barracks inside the city like that? It must be either that our strategy has failed or the military is part of the conspiracy," he told the magazine last Wednesday. The need for the military to look inwards is paramount, as this appears to lend credence to an earlier claim by the President that the insurgents had infiltrated the government and its agencies.
When Boko Haram attacked Baga and Bama a few months ago, the leadership of the National Assembly also called on the military to review its strategies so as to prevent such devastating attacks. In his reaction to attacks on the state, especially the attacks on schools in Yobe, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam also asked the military to change tactics. He said the military needed more of intelligence gathering and not the house-to-house raids that have become regular feature in states under emergency rule.
But beyond a review of strategy, the military is suffering from obsolete equipment and under-stocked armouries. Military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the magazine that the leadership of the military has been covering up some of the weaknesses from the public, but that it is responsible for many of the losses suffered by the military.
Government officials in Yobe and Borno also told the magazine during a recent visit to the states that the military are not working with any sophisticated weapons. They said soldiers on patrol in the states do not have scanners and metal detectors to check passenger vehicles. They only stop vehicles, look at the faces of passengers and ask them to go. Most of them carry only AK-47 rifles. The officials said lack of modern equipment was the reason the military has been unable to stop the insurgency despite the state of emergency.
All these go to confirm the lead story of Daily Trust, an Abuja-based newspaper, published on October 7, under the headline: War on Insurgency: Operation Blunders, Poor Supplies Causing Military Losses. The paper, quoting military sources, revealed that all the military units in the states under emergency rule have under-stocked armouries, adding that it had been several years ago when the military acquired large-scale weapons. Curiously last week, Sambo Dasuki, national security adviser, NSA, was quoted as saying that security agencies were experiencing inadequate funding as the NSA office is still being owed third and fourth quarter allocations by the finance ministry amounting to N7 billion. Dasuki who was represented by Bello Fadile, a director of Special Investigation Unit in the NSA's office, at a public hearing before a National Assembly ad hoc committee in Abuja, complained that while "there is always a need to tackle security issues urgently, the fourth quarter fund for the office of the NSA is yet to be released. Also, over N7 billion was not paid in 2012 to the office of NSA to do his functions." This could be responsible for the inability of the security agencies to equip their men with sophisticated gadgets needed to tackle insurgency.
On November 5, the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North led by Kabiru Turaki, minister of special duties, submitted its report to President Goodluck Jonathan. One of the key recommendations made was that security agencies in the country required urgent improvement in conditions of service, training and up-to-date equipment to be able to face the challenge confronting the country.
Military authorities have continued to deny that the terrorists are better armed than the soldiers, but they have not been able to defend attacks on the military and other targets especially in Borno and Yobe. Attahiru said the army is continually "re-strategising to overcome the challenges. He said this was with the massive support of the federal government."
Government's support has also reflected in the number of persons being recruited in the military. Azubuike Ihejirika, the chief of army staff, said last October in Ibadan that recruitment into the army had increased from 3,000 men yearly to 9,000. He said army personnel were also being trained and re-trained as part of effort to confront the nation's security challenges.
But some critics have alleged that that monies voted for security under this administration have been going into some private pockets while the country bleeds from insurgency. Shehu Sani, president, Civil Rights Congress, said elements in the military were benefiting from the war against terror, and since the money continues to come to them, "they are having a field day, and they don't want it to end."
Abubakar Tsav, a former commissioner of police in Lagos, echoed Sani's views. He told the magazine last Wednesday that the attack was a shame to the military, and that it had reinforced speculations that those behindBoko Haram were probably in the military. "How is it possible for insurgents to penetrate the air force base and military barracks inside Maiduguri? This has made me believe that there are sponsors of Boko Haram in the military. There are people benefiting from security money and they don't want it to end," he maintained. He advised government to recruit retired officers to advise it on what is going on if the country was to win the war against terror.
But government seemed to have another view of the insurgency. Mohammed Adoke, attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, told a United Nations audience recently that Boko Haram was being sponsored from outside the country. It may be an admission of widespread speculations that the insurgents had operated with more sophisticated weapons than the Nigerian military.
Last month, the United States's Department of State designated Boko Haram and the Ansaruas Foreign Terrorist Organisations. Boko Haram is believed to have links with Al-Qaedain the Islamic Maghreb. It is responsible for thousands of deaths in the North-east and Central Nigeria, including Abuja.
The military has always claimed successes against the insurgents whenever it goes on attacks. But the successes have been at great cost to the military in terms of personnel and equipment. Sometimes the military admitted it suffered some casualties, as it was the case last September 12, when troops from the 7 Division attacked insurgents at Kafiya forest along the borders. The army headquarters in Abuja said it killed 150 insurgents, but lost 16 soldiers while nine others were missing. But in many cases, the true casualty figures were not disclosed, obviously to protect the integrity of the military.
Many believe that if Nigeria wants to win the war against terrorism, it must place premium on intelligence gathering, instead of the "aggressive patrols" the military has constantly embarked on. This is the view of security experts and the three governors of the states under emergency rule.
Governors Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Shettima of Borno and Gaidam of Yobe, have all advised the military to change tactics and invest in quality intelligence gathering. Gaidam even called the current operation strategy of the military as "manual approach," referring to the way heavily armed soldiers raid homes and patrol the streets. But so far it is doubtful whether anyone is listening to the advice.
Muhammad
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