The fall of Sambisa forest

NOBODY could deny the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari the opportunity of jubilating after the country’s armed forces announced that they had successfully dislodged the Boko Haram insurgents from the dreaded Sambisa forest which had served as their haven for the many years that they had terrorised the country. The Sambisa forest was reputed to be impregnable and provided extensive cover for the Boko Haram insurgents in their deadly confrontation with the Nigerian armed forces, such that it was simply impossible to assess the extent and impact of the decapitation efforts of the armed forces on the insurgents without an inroad into the forest.

Even with international assistance, and to underline the limitations of the armed forces in confronting the deadly insurgents, it was revealed that there were portions of the forest that could not be mapped from the air or through satellite. It must have taken, therefore, quite some diligent efforts and sacrifices on the part of the members of the armed forces to overcome all the limitations and achieve the almost impossible task of getting the Boko Haram insurgents out of the extensive forest. The Federal Government also stands commended for supporting the armed forces and providing the logistics required to accomplish this task.  This is one more evidence that Nigerians are capable of attaining success as a collective if and when they set themselves rigorously and purposively at any task.

The success should also be seen as the culmination of all the efforts put in by all, including the past government, as it is always the case that humans build on past efforts to accomplish tasks. This kind of acknowledgement would help to give commendation where necessary and put in proper perspective what has been achieved, such that Nigerians are not led to continue to celebrate while the problem festers underneath and possibly grows. This is because whereas commendation is necessary for what has been achieved, especially because of what could be built on such achievement, it would be misleading to embark on any celebration given that what has been accomplished is not the defeat of Boko Haram.

Indeed, there is the possibility that the insurgents could become deadlier in the interim going forward because of the loss of the Sambisa forest sanctuary if the armed forces and Nigerians in general are not sensitive to the nature of the danger they represent and start to keep their eyes off the right focus. This would be in relation to suggesting, for instance, that the dislodgement of Boko Haram from Sambisa forest indicated the final defeat of the insurgent group and that Nigeria has been rid of its menace with that accomplishment.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Boko Haram is a terrorist group fuelled by manipulation of religious sentiments and teachings and the way to deal with this cannot be by routing members of the group from a supposed sanctuary in a forest. In any case, the group has carried out terrorist attacks, not at the Sambisa forest, but in very many villages and towns and cities in Nigeria, sometimes far away from the forest, to give the clear indication that they constitute a threat to the entire country. And by the logic of their structure and operation, terrorists do not have frontlines as they are engaged in warfare without borders, such that it is through vigilance in every part of the land that they could be confronted.

The capture of the Sambisa forest should not therefore dissuade the armed forces from the security consciousness of protecting other parts of the country from Boko Haram attacks. It is instructive in this regard that there have been bomb and other attacks by the Boko Haram group even after the claimed capture of the Sambisa forest, to show that the insurgents are capable of carrying out attacks even without the sanctuary of the forest. Indeed, it is now that there is no sanctuary that the Boko Haram cells would want to be dispersed throughout the land to cause havoc. There is therefore the need for heightened security vigilance even with the fall of the Sambisa forest in order not to turn the accomplishment into the platform for the greater resurgence of the Boko Haram group.

Nigerians expect the government and the armed forces to build on their current operation to ensure that any regrouping of the Boko Haram to create another sanctuary is prevented even as efforts are also intensified to neutralise all their intended attacks. This is the way to make further gains in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency on account of the fall of Sambisa forest, rather than through an extended celebration that would further show the weakness of the overall strategy to combat the group.