Rev Chris Okotie took to his Facebook page to address
the Boko Haram horrific advance in some parts of
Northern Nigeria, asking President Jonathan to pay
more attention to the menace and advised him to sack
all his generals and advisers. Find his incisive piece
below...
"No God condones this terror. No grievance
justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning
– no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The
only language understood by killers like this is
the language of force” – President Obama on ISIS
terrorist group.
The FG’s widely publicized ceasefire agreement
with the Boko Haram insurgents was met with
more violent attacks, and the capture of more
territories by the Islamists.
Their leaders even went ahead to disavow any
negotiations with our government, with a firm promise
never to make peace.
Of course, Boko Haram has made good its threat. The
bombings have continued unabated; and as you read
this, the North Eastern towns of Gwoza, Mubi, Michika,
Gulak, Madagali, and several obscure villages are still
occupied by the insurgents. During the week, Gombe
and Potiskum were attacked, with a lot of casualties.
Same familiar story!
Atrocities being committed by Boko Haram in these
captured territories include rape, forced marriages and
conversions to their bizarre brand of Islam;
beheadings, random executions and looting. As far the
insurgents are concerned, we are all infidels.
The Chibok Girls remain in captivity, with no hope
they’d be freed soon; we have reportedly lost some of
these hapless girls to snake bites and sickness. This
current level of pessimism is informed by the
hopelessness of the war effort and the government’s
apparent lack of an effective strategy to defeat the
insurgents. Clearly, our military is now in disarray, with
soldiers fleeing the front as the insurgents advance,
almost unchallenged.
So sad, the Cameroonians, supposedly our partners in
this terror war, gleefully advertise stories of deserting
Nigerian troops who seek refuge from advancing Boko
Haram fighters in their territory. Obviously, for a
country like Nigeria which prides itself as the largest,
most powerful black nation in the world, with the
biggest economy in Africa to boot, our management of
this war does no justice to our image.
Indeed, it merely exposes the false optimism which our
outlandishly great power image confers. How is it
possible for a middle – sized regional power, which
defected Ebola with adroit, efficient execution, that
even the world powers envy, seem powerless against
about 10,000 bandits and terrorist?
Defeated Ebola and a successful war on terror are all
about logistics, efficient management of crisis and
coordination. Why we can’t replicate the Ebola winning
strategy in this terror war is confounding. Ebola is as
lethal as Boko Haram, with potential to decimate
populations much faster than terrorists. Yet, we acted
swiftly and contained it, to the admiration of the world.
In Ebola’s case, we adopted an effective bi-partisan
approach, not often seen in our strife-ridden polity.
What has aggravated this terror war and made it so
difficult to manage is, chiefly the failure of a divided,
acrimonious and antagonistic political class, to unite
against the common enemy of the nation. There are
Boko Haram sympathizers in the political parties, in
the military, Intelligence Services and the Jonathan
Administration. Therein lays our failure to win this war.
It was easy for Gen. Yakubu Gowon to lead federal
forces to overcome Biafra in just 30 months, because
he had behind him a cohesive administration and
competent, efficient war machine. And he acted swiftly
to replace even his most popular commanders when
they performed below expectations. President
Jonathan, who has neither a strong war machine, nor
a loyal, cohesive administration behind him, may need
to look at Gowon’s template in his execution of this
terror war.
You don’t keep a failed group of war commanders
when your troops are being routed on every front, and
territories lost randomly, almost on a daily basis. I
made this point in my latest syndicated article coming
out shortly. Even, football coaches replace under-
performing star players when the team seems to be
headed for defeat. President Jonathan should have
wasted no time in sacking his entire war team and
replace them with more proactive generals and
advisers, in view of the vanquishing of our forces by a
rag-tag, but well armed Boko Haram fighters.
He should not wait until the insurgents march towards
Abuja before he does something drastic to save the
situation, which is becoming fiercely urgent. More
urgent, in fact, than his re-election bid, which
obviously dominates his agenda at the moment.
Nigeria’s survival comes first before anything else,
including a Presidential election.
The ruling PDP tends to give greater priority to
perpetuating itself in power than destroying the
insurgents who pose such a potent threat to our
sovereignty. That’s not realpolitik, its bad logic. Like I
wrote elsewhere, this war should be at heart of the
President’s agenda; without it, he cannot transform
Nigeria, no matter how effective his Transformational
programme is.
Boko Haram, like all Islamists everywhere, espouse a
virulent brand of austere, absolutist Islam, driven by
atavistic impulses. It takes more than mere
grandstanding to destroy this barbaric group of
deranged individuals
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