Supposedly dead leader of Boko Haram Islamist sect, Abubakar Shekau, was for the umpteenth time featured on video last week. Garbed in his combat gear and surrounded by his tooth-clenching footsoldiers, Shekau sneered at a recent claim by the Federal Government that it had overrun Sambisa Forest, the somewhat impregnable fortress of Boko Haram.
Indeed, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, months ago, gleefully announced to an enraptured Nigerian public that it had recovered all communities in the NorthEast captured by the dreaded militant group, and that the group was already in disarray, having had many of its warriors either arrested or killed. This, government attributed to the firepower of the Nigerian military, which had been buoyed by fresh acquisitions in weaponry.
But the character-Shekau, widely believed to have been cloned in no fewer than four appearances on video, as he was considered dead, still found his voice in a renewed show of threat.
He averred in the latest video, that reports of the group being crushed by the Nigerian Army and the capture of Sambisa Forest were untrue. Shekau also claimed that the group was safe and far away from any location where the Nigerian military could capture its members or defeat it.
He also bellowed, as usual with a Shekau on video, that more bombings had been lined up and that the group would in no time reduce Abuja, the nation’s capital, to rubble.
But swiftly, the Nigeria army came out to debunk the authenticity of the acclaimed Shekau video show, saying that it was mere propaganda, as the military was on top of its brief.
Curiously, Shekau, in the video, did not speak on the recent swapping of five of his commanders in the Nigerian detention with 82 of the over 200 Chibok school girls held by Boko Haram, thus suggesting that the video was recorded before the landmark event. Or that the group had splintered, with a faction in favour of dialogue and rapprochement, while the Shekau band remained belligerent.
Head or tail, the fresh threat from Boko Haram should not be taken with levity, as all hands must be on deck to consolidate on the gains so far recorded in the quest to fully obliterate the blight of insurgency that has stalked most parts of the North, sorely desolating Borno, the ancient North-East state.
For instance, a sum-up of death toll variously compiled by reputable world humanitarian bodies such as the United Nations Humanitarian Agency, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Council of Foreign Relations, indicates that no fewer than 17,500 lives had been lost to Boko Haram since it began hostilities in July, 2009.
While the Boko Haram insurgency particularly gained notoriety during the regimes of Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan respectively, it is noteworthy that the group’s gale of atrocities has, under the Buhari administration, considerately subsided, possibly for reasons of rejigged military attacks and intelligence efforts.
President Buhari himself had undertaken a systemic approach to reining in the Boko Haram insurgency when he visited neighbouring West African countries like Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroun, shortly after he assumed power in 2015. There, he extracted promises of collaborative efforts from leaders of those countries, towards containing the implacable terrorist sect, especially in the Nigerian border areas.
However, unfolding events seem to suggest that the authorities are now carried away by the euphoria of victory, while remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents are still around, dissolving into, mostly, Borno communities, where they deploy human pawns as suicide bombers. Between January and May, this year, no fewer than 50 lives were lost, owing to various suicide bomb attacks. The latest being the attack at the University of Maiduguri in Borno State, where four persons were singed, when two suicide bombers struck.
The way out of the Boko Haram conundrum, under the prevailing respite, however, is certainly for government not to rest on its oars in intelligence gathering, military reinforcement and neighbourhood policing.
A recent statement by the Borno State Police Commissioner that security operatives had been keeping vigil in the 24 Borno communities reclaimed from Boko Haram is in tandem with this suggestion.
Besides, a constant patrol of Nigeria’s loose borders with its neighbours cannot be compromised any longer. Nigeria shares a 773km border-stretch with Benin Republic, 87km with Chad, 1,049km with Niger Republic, and 1,690km with Cameroon. The Nigeria Immigration Service at a time announced that there are about 1,487 illegal routes to Nigeria through these porous borders. If the insurgents are funneled out from their border hideouts, curtailing their inroads into the communities would not be as arduous as it now appears.
The way out of the Boko Haram conundrum …is certainly for government not to rest on its oars in intelligence gathering, military reinforcement and neighbourhood policing
The government, as well, needs to foster its relations with credible NGOs and foreign partners, like the United States of America, and Britain, to increase pressure on the remnants of the terrorists to surrender their arms and submit themselves for rehabilitation.
In addition, ensuring compulsory school enrolment for all northern children, and improving on the quality of education in that region, will, in the long run, pay off. Those steps will help minimize recurring incidence of youth restiveness, religious fanaticism and other criminal acts.
