LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. “We Can And We Must Defeat Boko Haram” By Martin Onovo.
Patriotism is the devoted love, loyalty, support and service to one’scountry. Patriotism is a universal disposition of all human beings. Only dysfunctional persons can be disloyal to their own countries.
The Commander in Chief of the Nigerian armed forces recently accepted negotiations with Boko Haram as an option in our efforts to end terrorism and insurgency. The acceptance of this shameful option is very shocking to us as patriots.
We call on all perceptive patriots to loudly condemn and reject this shameful and insidious option. Negotiations with the rag-tag band of Boko Haram terrorist cowards will be tantamount to an act of ‘Surrender’ meaning that our great country, the giant of Africa was defeated by a small rag-tag band of terrorist cowards. That must not be!
We can and we must defeat Boko Haram.
The war against Boko Haram has been on for a few years. We had expected that our armed forces will easily defeat Boko Haram with the ‘State of Emergency’ that was proclaimed by the Federal Government.
But, our ineffective Federal Government delayed necessary actions till a few months before the 2015 general elections when a serious offensive against Boko Haram was conducted by our military forces. This serious offensive substantially degraded the combat capabilities of Boko Haram.
Given the size of the Nigerian armed forces, and the size of our economy and the record of performance of our military forces, our expectation that our military forces will easily Boko Haram was very logical. Boko Haram, a
rag tag band of less than five thousand deranged terrorist cowards stood no chance against the might of oil-rich Nigeria with a population of over two hundred million people with about a million trained and armed security
forces personnel. Paradoxically, Boko Haram grew stronger and claimed Nigerian territory while our capable military forces complained of inadequate weapons and poor welfare conditions.
The weaknesses in the Nigerian military caused by corruption have become very obvious to all. Boko Haram still controls about five local government areas in the North-East of Nigeria even today, three months after General
Buhari’s promise to stop the Boko Haram insurgency in two months.
Boko Haram could have been nipped in the bud when its members started organizing attacks on public institutions and banks if we had an effective political leadership that would have, united all Nigerians against Boko Haram; maintained an effective domestic intelligence agency [DSS] and formidable military forces. But it was not because of the illegitimate and ineffective political leadership! A stitch in time could have saved nine.
The appropriate response to the Boko Haram insurgency in the current circumstances is an effective military campaign, supported with improved intelligence results and other strategic actions with the popular support
of all Nigerian Muslims, Christians and Pagans. Since, General Buhari as Commander in Chief is unable to provide the political leadership required to organize this appropriate response, he has accepted the shameful and
inappropriate option of negotiating with Boko Haram to get our Chibok girls back. We loudly condemn this option.
We cannot be proud of a weak country that negotiates with a rag-tag band of terrorist cowards that have killed
so many innocent citizens, mostly women and children. It is a sign of weakness to negotiate with Boko Haram,
a rag-tag band of deranged terrorist cowards that can never qualify to negotiate with Nigeria (the regional power of West Africa).
We remember the innocent children of Federal Government College, Buni-yadi, set ablaze while they slept in their dormitories by Boko Haram cowards. We will not forget. We do not seek vengeance, we seek justice.
Since, the Commander in Chief has accepted to negotiate with Boko Haram, we must all try to convince him to reconsider this shameful and inappropriate option. If he does not change his position, then we must accept it as part of the price we must pay for allowing illegitimate, corrupt and shameless impostors to take over the political leadership of Nigeria.
The shameful and inappropriate negotiation option that has been accepted by the Commander in Chief, must be conducted with utmost care and tact if, we cannot convince the Commander in Chief to reject the negotiation
option.
The previous attempt to negotiate became a scandal after we discovered we had been fooled by fake representatives of Boko Haram. This time, we must be careful not to give any significant concessions to these terrorist cowards. We must get all our girls back from them before we can allow any trivial concessions we may make to them. Ultimately, with or without negotiations, our objective must be to defeat and disband Boko Haram.
It is inappropriate and shameful to negotiate with Boko Haram but since our illegitimate and ineffective rulers have been unable to provide the appropriate leadership to deal with Boko Haram and have also accepted
negotiation as an option, we must try to convince the political leadership to correct its errors. If the leadership does not reject the negotiation option, and goes ahead with any negotiations, it must then proceed with due extra-caution and utmost tact to mitigate the damage to our national image and security.
Again, we can and we must defeat and disband Boko Haram.
Martin Onovo, a public figure and eminent consulting engineer. He was the 2015 Presidential Candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP)
