... Says ‘No question about military’s sincerity’

Borno Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has said that comparing the fighting power of Nigeria’s military under the Buhari administration with that the Boko Haram would amount to mischief because modern warfare is largely “about high impact air strikes using the airspace which the military controls while Boko Haram does not and will insha’Allah, never possess”. Professor Zulum stated this while speaking with a group of journalists in Maiduguri at the weekend. “I have seen recent instances in which mischievous comparisons are made between the military and the Boko Haram in terms of fighting equipment. Modern warfare is mostly about high impact air strikes using the airspace with both manned and unmanned fighting equipment combined with ground operations, which the Nigerian Army and Air Force control, while the Boko Haram does not and insha’ Allah, will never possess. As the chief of Army once revealed which I also said last week, the only airspace device boko haram utilizes are drones but even then their drones are civil drones which anyone can acquire from electronic stores for photography and videos. The insurgents use them for surveillance. They do not have jet-styled military drones which have the capacity for air strikes and longer range surveillance” Zulum said.

The Governor explained that despite the Military’s far superiority in weaponry, one factor that eases success for insurgents “is that insurgents are fundamentally interested in destruction of communities by concealing themselves. Insurgents do not have rules, they are not interested in securing anyone in communities unless people run away. The military finds it difficult to attack insurgents in communities where innocent citizens are used as shields. The goal of the military is to build peace while the goal of Boko Haram is to destroy peace and in doing that they have no rules, they only attack anywhere and for them, attack on unarmed population of civilians is success while to the military, success is when they are able to hit at the insurgents to prevent them from accessing communities. This, essentially, makes the fight complex for the military. The military for instance cannot bombard an entire area with air strikes in order to secure civilians, some of whom are used as shields by the insurgents. This is why everyday you hear that military has freed this and that number of civilians from captivity. They first have to secure civilians before air strikes and the insurgents know this hence they make it difficult”.