No good luck here
Something was bound to give. It did. A state governor does not declare war; but when he laments publicly that the country from his perspective is in a state of war, it means something has given; a war has been declared.
“Nigeria is in a state of war and the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram seems to be winning the war because they are well motivated and better armed than the Nigerian military.” This was the desperate open submission of Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima on Monday at State House Abuja. Insurgents at the weekend unleashed terror on poor innocent civilian folk. Reports revealed that the terrorists raided Izghe and several villages in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno state, killing no fewer than 150 people and injuring several.
A distraught Governor Shettima told pressmen, “I made it emphatically clear to Mr. President that the Boko Haram are better armed and better motivated. Anybody who is following events in this country can attest to the fact that they have a very smooth sail overrunning communities, killing people. Have we ever succeeded in thwarting any of their plans? They went to Konduga and did what they wanted to do: they held sway for over five hours before leaving. They were in Kauri, Izghe.”
Then as if checking himself, Shettima apologised for the military saying “I don’t blame the Nigerian military honestly, we the leaders should be held responsible for our failure in leadership.“
“The sooner we stop playing the ostrich and rise up to the challenges of the day, and marshal all resources towards visualising the antics of Boko Haram, the better for all of us. But the bottom line is that we need more resources, more ‘votes’ on ground. “According to Shetima, “...honestly Boko Haram members are better armed and are better motivated than our own troops.“
The global picture of the war on the insurgency in Nigeria does not look good. While the insurgents raid villages, kill and go scot-free in Nigeria, they get caged in Cameroun, Niger, and Chad. As you read of the killings in Gwoza and Konduga in Borno State of Nigeria, you read instead that in neighbouring Niger, insurgents were arrested as they planned attacks. Certainly we do not hear reports of insurgency in Burkina Faso or Togo. The nature of the security challenge is very Nigerian and one is left with many whys? Why is it that Nigeria alone and neither Ghana, Guinea nor even Sierra Leone or Liberia that have emerged from wars, goes through this frustrating security failure?
Sadly, not being an expert, one can only ask such “silly” questions and lament like Governor Shettima has done. Prosecuting a war against insurgents is a special pursuit for the Security establishments in the country and one does not have the expertise to offer an informed opinion on the issue. Yet certain facts are clear. You do not win a war against insurgents if the various arms of the security forces do not cooperate with one another, worse if there is competition and petty jealousy between the agencies. The Army can wage the war to the best of its ability but if the Police concern themselves with begging for alms at checkpoints, traffic in illegal weapons will thrive and thwart the military efforts. The same can be said of Customs checking smuggling, of Immigration checking alien influx and movements. There must be use made of intelligence gathered for a holistic approach. That this is not the case was underlined first by new Chief of Defence State Air Marshall Bade in that misstated charge to the Armed Forces by which he claimed that if they cooperated, the insurgents could be routed by April. Then President Goodluck Jonathan himself in Yola explained that he fired Service Chief because they were undermining one another. Yet there is no preventing laymen from venturing opinion. The security challenge has taken the professionals too long to overcome. Even the definition of the challenge has mutated. It is more apt to point at insurgents and not call them Boko Haram.
A political economy such as Nigeria’s can only breed insurgency, having once bred war. Shetima singled out leadership, but it does not scare anyone any more to analyse the national predicament and conclude that it is part of our systemic failure, with suspicion that vested interests fester the crisis however callous and inhuman. Deeply thought out, one can see how the security challenge offers extra budgetary funding to security albeit taking defence spending away from the defence budget without its reflecting as core sector expenditure. This is the type of situation that creates a “vulture” mentality among security agencies and tempts you to wonder whether we are losing the war on purpose. Bade has choice, to confront this head on and decisively or fail like his predecessors.
Put it crudely. In Nigeria, political office gives access to public funds and makes politicians wealthy in competition with a military that has tasted power and must now be regimented. Such military has to have a reason for looking the other way while politicians pillage the land. While this did not start Boko Haram, it appears to have taken over to the benefit of defence spending. A security situation in any state is addressed by “donations” from the State Governments to the security outfits in extra budgetary support from the State, not given to being accounted for. A Nigerian military that has tasted power and relinquished it must be from heaven if it does not compromise itself to lucre and a seemingly professional means of acquiring it.
Shettima’s cry of despair sounded like an advertisement pay-off urging “more votes” to the war on terror, justifiable only if we were winning the war, but definitely a tickling in the ears of military and defence merchants, the beneficiaries of blood expenditure. The insurgents are winning says Shetima. President Goodluck must be at wits end. After an over a trillion Naira allocation to National Security in the 2013 budget, not to talk of the military “black budget” income from Boko Haram State coffers, we are where we are?
In the 2014 President Goodluck Jonathan has appropriated N52 billion to 30,000 Niger Delta militants in the amnesty programme, while the Ministry of Defence got N34 billion. Incidental, the North East Development Initiative got a paltry N2 billion. What is this saying?
After all is said, the military does deserve to be commended. It has chased insurgents out of big cities to the soft targets of poor rural folk already faced with stark poverty, hunger and deprivation. That we are losing to the insurgents like Governor Shettima noted is the fault of the leadership which must resolve all the systemic defects that thwart the war effort, failing which the military will continue to be subjected to disgrace, and innocent common folk, annihilated. Yes Shettima. We are in a state of war. But it is no longer against Boko Haram, but insurgents; and you wish you had good luck on your side.