These Boko Haram attacks

IN yet another orgy of violence and bloodshed, Boko Haram terrorists on Tuesday attacked two communities located six kilometres from Chibok in Borno State, where they had abducted over 200 schoolgirls in April 2014. The terrorists reportedly attacked Kwarangulum and Ntsiha villages, burning houses and other properties. They had previously attacked Kwarangulum on December 5 last year, abducting five persons. On January 20, the electric company serving Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, indicated that attacks on transmission lines and infrastructure by Boko Haram had cut the supply of electricity to the city on January 17, removing it from the national grid.

Only on Tuesday, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) asserted that 547 teachers had so far been killed in the Boko Haram terrorism in the North-East geopolitical zone. President of the union, Nasir Idris, stated this in Abuja during the 2020 edition of the union’s Solemn Assembly. Two weeks ago, the terrorists’ massacre of at least 30 innocent persons at Auno village, about 16 miles from Maiduguri, by an obviously emboldened Boko Haram drew widespread outrage. As a matter of fact, this week, an obviously exasperated Borno State governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, canvassed the recruitment of about 100,000 more soldiers to win the war against Boko Haram. He even suggested, rather strangely, that at least 50,000 of the recruits should come from Borno, whether or not they had Western education.

Given the recent dastardly activities of the sect, it is clear that the Federal Government’s claim that it has been “technically defeated” is a ruse. Boko Haram continues to shed blood at will, robing its activities in lethal criminality and barbarity, and without the slightest regard for the Nigerian state and its “technical” victory over terror. It is, to say the least, both saddening and tragic that since 2009, the radical Islamist group has stood toe to toe with the Nigerian military establishment,  wreaking untold  havoc on the Nigerian state. It has continued to strike with deadly force despite the Federal Government’s commencement of an amnesty programme for repentant Boko Haram terrorists in 2018.

Appalled by the security situation in the country, particularly the naked acts of terror perpetrated by Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and lately bandits, members of the two chambers of the National Assembly recently called for the sacking of the service chiefs and mandated the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to convey the resolution to the president forthwith. However, the National Assembly leaders’ meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari failed to yield the expected outcome, and the Presidency has further issued demonstrably hollow statements rationalising the rather unprecedented retention of the service chiefs long after they should have proceeded on retirement. In addition, while the executive and the service chiefs appeared overwhelmed by the enormity of the security challenges currently ravaging the country, the House of Representatives resolved to tinker with the extant laws with a view to creating regional and state police formations, while the Senate opted to examine and implement the resolutions of the 2014 National Conference. Indeed, a bill, for the establishment of an agency saddled with the de-radicalisation of repentant Boko Haram terrorists passed first reading at the Senate on Thursday. The bill christened ‘National Agency for the Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalization and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2020’, was sponsored by former Yobe State governor, senator Ibrahim Geidam, representing Yobe East senatorial district.

As we noted in a previous editorial, the manner in which the Boko Haram terrorism has been handled is representative of the Buhari administration’s slapdash approach to its constitutional duty of providing for the security of life and property of every Nigerian. We reiterate that Nigerians are tired of hearing platitudes regarding the armed forces’ receipt of more hardware and intelligence with a view to ultimately crushing Boko Haram.   We call on President Buhari to shelve his unhelpful stance regarding state policing and support efforts to make the country’s security architecture truly federal. The dire security situation in the country recommends no less.