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
