TWO months after the advent of Nigeria’s new administration, the Boko Haram terrorists seemed to be perfecting guerrilla war tactics to destabilize Nigeria’s conventional military warfare!
Deaths through suicide bombings have increased by leaps and bounds and statistics figure point to over 1.000 killed during this short period while the military high command appeared to be helpless on how to combat the incessant deadly menace which had ravaged the entire Northern geo-political zones like a wild fire!
In the interim, President Buhari had intensified diplomatic efforts through high-level talks with all neighbouring countries of the West African sub-region, the latest of which are the Republics of Cameroon and Benin, to solicit their unhindered co-operation and military assistance to end the Boko Haram terrorism which had also taken its toll on the citizens and economies of these States.
Earlier, the military co-operation of European Union (EU) Countries, the United States of America (USA), Niger, and Chad Republics had earlier been sought by the new President and with their unflinching support and divine favour we strongly believe that the six-year-old insurgency will be totally annihilated!
Recently, the President revealed that Nigeria and her neighbouring countries possessed increased military capacity to deal with Boko Haram and other terrorists groups during an audience with Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa through the combined formation of a stronger regional military coalition of the Multi National Joint Task Force, (MNJTF), which will swing into action in this new month of August.

He also disclosed that the re-location of the Command and Control Centre of the Nigerian military now in Maiduguri, Borno State, had served as morale booster to the troops in the front-line States.
The core mandates of the MNJTF include total elimination of the terrorists and the liberation of all territories held by insurgents, rescue of all kidnapped persons, including the Chibok School, girls and restoration of peace and normalcy to the North East and the sub-region as a whole.

It is true that all necessary security infrastructures, officers and men, military soft/hardware and logistics and a take-off fund of $21million US dollars (4.7billion naira) donated by Nigeria and all local, regional and the pledged foreign aids needed for the MNJTF take off were on ground but the military management team needed to brainstorm about how to counter the terrorist guerrilla warfare tactics of hit -and-run and re-grouping which had been up-scaled, upgraded and had taken the wicked dimension of deploying female suicide bombers to soft targets - of motor parks and markets spaces since they perceived that their defeat in this war of attrition against Nigeria and the neighbouring countries was imminent!

Boko Haram began its uprising as a small indigenous but fanatical and extremist Muslim sect that was completely different in message and ideology from orthodox Islamic groups which when challenged by the authorities took advantage of a sizable number of illiterate indigenes, brain-washed them with the Jihadist doctrine of Islamising Nigeria or that part of the North East where they were domiciled.
Six years of insurgency against Nigeria had not made them a large army but still the same small but heinous and very dangerous group which had perfected guerrilla warfare tactics that had destabilized the Nigerian Armed Forces continuously since the year 2009 unabated.

It was reported that Boko Haram’s major grouse against Nigerian Government was the extra-judicial killing of their former leader by the Police Mobile Force which they vow to avenge with all manner of unimaginable brutality. Their initial lack of numerical strength and weapons to fight against Nigeria’s regular army did not deter them since they had the support of their immediate communities of local inhabitants, who provided them with food, shelter and information about troop movements and among whom they hid whenever they carried out hit-and-run attacks on vulnerable targets like motor parks, market places, churches, mosques and strategic government installations. They gradually moved into remote areas of the Sambisa Forest which was not easily accessible due to unfriendly terrains of that dense jungle when the heat was turned on them but suddenly became sophisticated overnight through various forms of sabotage activities against Nigeria’s conventional army when they clandestinely acquired assistance in the forms of victuals, munitions, medical supplies and classified information from fifth columnists within the government’s regular army through their sponsors and apologists as confirmed recently by the retired Chief of Defence Staff!

We recall that It took the Joint Task Force [JTF], the first three years of Boko Haram insurgency, (2009-2012), to discover and bombard the notorious hideout of these enemies of State, but surprisingly, these dare-devils were able to survive the heavy onslaught and had converted the Forest into a ‘formidable stronghold’!
How did they quickly regroup in 2013 to fortify the forest which then became a ‘NO-GO-AREA ?
SAMBISA FOREST was initially a game reserve of the colonial period which occupied approximately 600 square kilometres – North East of Bornu, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi along the Darazo corridor, Jigawa, up to some parts of Kano State! The game reserve had wild animals, of the likes of leopards, hyenas, tigers, baboons etc. and decent huts, constructed for tourists’ relaxation, but which over the years, dilapidated and collapsed into disrepair for lack of further interest!
In 1991, the Bornu State Government incorporated the game reserve into the Chad Basin National Park [CBNP], and both ventures now occupy a total land area of 2,258 square kilometres, because CBNP, also included the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands in modern day Yobe State!
In spite of this move, the whole exercise turned out to be a ‘white elephant project’, because the power and water infrastructures collapsed, the animals either died or were poached and weeds took over the entire forest! Laudable as government’s intention seemed, what we have today in SAMBISA FOREST is a jungle, a large undeveloped landscape, carved out by the colonialists to portray an illusion instead of civilization!
Imagine if the whole of SAMBISA was architecturally designed and constructed into modern cities like DUBAI, MUMBAI, PARIS even LONDON, would there be a jungle for terrorists to hide? When there is no hiding place, insurgents find it very difficult to operate because they would be sandwiched within the populace and be caught!
This Evil Forest, where the over 200 Chibok School girls were believed to be incarcerated, spreads to Kano State where teenage girls were deployed by the Boko Haram insurgents as suicide bombers! In recent times, several of such girls had caused havoc in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States having destroyed lives and properties with testimonies of tears, sorrow, pain and anguish in their trail!
The imprisoned population of SAMBISA FOREST had decreased with recent incursions by the combined efforts of the Nigerian Army and the Air Force to rout these sworn enemies of Nigeria and put an end to the insurgency!

Was it then not a surprise for Air Marshal Alex Badeh to disclose in his valedictory speech that the task of co-ordinating the military and other security agencies in the fight against the insurgents was perhaps the most complex and challenging assignment he had in his over 38 years in the service of the Nigerian Armed Forces, adding:
“For the first time, I was head of a military that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight an ENEMY THAT WAS INVISIBLE and embedded with the local populace… furthermore the activities of the fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to the terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult.”

Coming from the highest ranking military officer of his calibre and disposition, one is bound to believe the sordid revelations which had been in the public domain since the sudden upgraded status and fire-power of the terrorists in the entire five years of the previous administration but the solution would not lie in this disclosures but in the measures that should have been proffered by the retired general!
In all of his valedictory speech, he did not mention whether counter-guerrilla warfare tactics were deployed by the Nigerian Army to destabilise the persistent and rapid terrorists’ suicide bombings operations which took an unprecedented dimension and spread to the North West and North Central, in the last two months of Buhari’s Administration!

We recall very vividly that AM Badeh as Chief of Defence Staff told the World Press in May 2014 that the Chibok school girls had been recovered by the military only that statement turned out to be a fluke at that level of command!
Prior to that statement, AM Badeh on assumption of office on 4th February, 2014, said that he would flush out the terrorist from the North East and Nigeria’s territorial borders within four months of co-ordinated military operation!
* Were these stale revelations not at his disposal when he first got into the saddle office or of what use would the belated regrets serve now that he could no longer suggest or proffer any palliatives? During his tenure, he neither identified nor arrested those fifth columnists who nearly ran the world-renowned and diligent Officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces aground.
Officers and men who complained of lack of sophisticated weapons and disobeyed lawful orders were court-martialled while those who pursued the war “obediently” were ambushed by terrorists who mercilessly wasted their precious lives due to the incompetent and corruptive tendencies of some generals who had over-stayed their welcome in the midst of the gallant infantry forces!
Badeh also regretted that the activities of the unpatriotic moles of the military not only blunted the effectiveness of the fight against the insurgents but also led to the “needless deaths of numerous officers and men who unwittingly fell into ambushes prepared by terrorists who had advance warnings of the approach of such troops”!

It is a good thing that the confessions of this retired general was not obtained under duress by Amnesty International which most recent report is still demanding that some Nigerian generals be investigated for human rights abuses and crimes in the ongoing war against terror.
Before and throughout his tenure terrorists had a field day as they overran villages, hamlets and even Badeh’s hometown with superior fire power because the general “opened his mouth too wide” and they established Islamic Caliphates in most border towns of the North East States!

How did the developed and advanced countries of the world, the United States of America, France, Spain, Mexico, etc., solve cases of guerrilla warfare tactics against their regular armies to ensure peaceable and tranquil societies since at one time or the other, they all experienced such unpleasant situations before and after World War II?

The answer lies in the application of latest scientific methods of the detection of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) through hidden weapon detectors /Closed Circuit TV cameras mounted in public transportations and in densely populated shopping malls, market spaces and motor parks which are major targets of suicide bombers!
There should also be the deployment of increased security motorised patrols of such areas and citizens awareness of the behavioural patterns, characteristics, demeanour, and mannerisms of terrorists laden with IED’s and about to strike, through massive media awareness on radio, televisions tracts/leaflets and billboards!

All of the above technologies are being improvised and are working in all modern cosmopolitan societies of the world and with a righteous government now in place in Nigeria and the necessary political will put in place, guerrilla warfare and suicide bombings will be totally annihilated in the nation!

By Dr Tunde Olufon. ( dvdolufon@gmail.com) 08130669886,

Nice

Unsad:
Nice

so tell me what you understood in what you read if at all you did. just saying nice does not mean anything

boujaye:
so tell me what you understood in what you read if at all you did. just saying nice does not mean anything

Don't be stupeed, I meant this was a nice piece.

Unsad:

Don't be stupeed, I meant this was a nice piece.

unsad I can see you are sad