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Day Buratai Made Boko Haram’s Shekau Cry
By Suleiman Uba Gaya
The global telenovela entitled The Rich Also Cry will forever remain in our memory because of the principal characters, in the same way the war against Boko Haram will forever remain in our memory because of its principal characters, namely Lt. General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, on one hand, and Imam Abubakar Shekau on the other.
The former, as we all know, is the Chief of Army Staff of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while the latter has been the leader of the Boko Haram terrorists since the killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the group’s founder and chief instigator, in 2009. Buratai has been known to be doing everything he could to rally the armed forces of Nigeria to extinguish terrorism from our national psyche. Shekau, on the other hand, has been engaged in serious efforts to undermine the Nigerian state with a view to converting it to a caliphate under his brutal rule. There was even a time in our national history when Shekau was controlling a territory of Nigeria, but that, gladly, has stopped since 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s President. Over the course of 11 years, however, Shekau has succeeded in building a terror group that America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once cited as the deadliest in the whole world.
For those interested in knowing how serious the government of the day has been in its avowed determination to finish off the remnants of Boko Haram and other terrorists fighting the Nigerian state for about 11 years now, you need to know or be informed that the last time the Chief of Army Staff, Buratai set his foot in Abuja was in March. This, therefore, makes it the third month he is in the battlefront, personally and gallantly leading the patriotic troops of the Nigerian Armed Forces in liberating the country from a needless war stoked and fuelled by reckless, desperate politicians.
Now, courtesy of the intervention of the Army Chief, the Boko Haram war is finally going to be over, much faster than the American forces have been able to extinguish the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban, a war that is still ongoing for over 20 years, in spite of deployment of the most sophisticated weaponry known to mankind.
I am in a celebratory mood because I am one Nigerian who does not see the armed forces as Buhari’s forces, as some compatriots mistakenly do. I believe the armed forces are for all Nigerians, and, as an institution that has been in existence for over 100 years, it will outlive all of us and continue to make Nigeria proud. Before Buhari, we had Jonathan as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. And after Buhari another Nigerian, probably from the cosmos of the opposition, is going to assume that position.
Now, courtesy of Buratai’s involvement, and because of the personal example of selflessness and sacrifice that he has shown, the armed forces of Nigeria are finally going for the kill. Shekau, the thoroughly-heartless and arrogant Boko Haram leader, is now scampering for safety and begging for mercy, one attribute he has never shown his unfortunate victims that he slaughtered and killed with glee. According to many credible NGOs operating in the North-East, Shekau is now desperately begging for his life, as he continues to witness his troops getting decimated by the day.
Earlier in the week, Nigerians woke up to the very pleasant sight of this same heartless Shekau in a video weeping profusely, in a submissive voice that knew the end, God willing, is very near. He was heard begging the remnants of his troops not to abandon him, pleading with them to hang on and fight for the irresponsible cause he indoctrinated them to accept. He also prayed to God, the same God whose creatures he raped and killed, to come to his aid against the superior firepower of the gallant troops of the Nigerian armed forces.
So effective and comprehensive is what the armed forces is doing that even Ahmed Salkida, my media colleague and friend seen as having the closest connection to Boko Haram leadership, and who is perceived by many as being sympathetic or even supportive of the terrorists, could not help writing that even the casualty figures released by the Defence Headquarters is seriously downplayed.
Writing in an online newspaper, titled humangle.ng, Salkida wrote on May 11 instant that “although the Nigerian military declared that the army killed 343 insurgents in recent combat operations, investigations have established that there were heavier casualties suffered by the insurgents between March 18 (when Buratai took over command of the war) and May 5.”
Continuing, Salkida wrote that “sources familiar with the war disclosed that the Boko Haram fighters fleeing the recent Chadian military offensive in April were only about settling down in choice locations in Alargo and the Marte flank when the Nigerian armed forces identified, targeted and bombarded scores of the fighters in air and ground operations.”
“Independent sources,” according to Salkida, “put the casualty figures that resulted from the raids above 500, an indication that the figure given by the military was clearly understated.”
And then the clincher, from the same Salkida: “analysts who follow the insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin tend to place the recent audio message released by Abubakar Shekau, which was exclusively reported by HumAngle in context and conclude that the message mirrors the bloody nose the insurgents are receiving currently in the war fronts. HumAngle sources have highlighted the loss of no fewer than 60 war commanders between March and May this year, an indication that our earlier reported elimination of 18 commanders across Boko Haram factions was lower than the actual numbers.
Now, those who are privy to the war, including Ahmed Salkida, are reporting that “sources within the camps of the insurgents said unlike the case previously, the Boko Haram fighters could no longer move in large groups in daylight. Ground troops have also intensified in artillery fire, and are combing the Alagarno and Sambisa forests. The military operations have also resulted in overrunning insurgents camps in Durfada, Allafha, Timbuktu, Bulajabi and Gonikurmi in and around Sambisa.
So serious is General Buratai in his avowed determination to finally see to the end of this war that not even the death of his mother last week, or the month-long Ramadan fasting period during which Muslims are barred from eating or drinking from 5am to about 7pm daily have stopped the momentum he has built. He has been in the trenches with the troops, leading by example and reminding the soldiers that they all signed up to defend the territorial integrity of the Nigerian state and that every act of terrorism or incursion must be repelled.
This is a General who came to office fully-ready to rid Nigeria of terrorism and banditry Many Nigerians have forgotten that a few months after being appointed as the Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai convened a leadership programme where officers were charged to handle ethno-religious upheavals and terrorism resolutely. The 2016 series, dubbed “Nigeria Army Leadership Development Seminar 2016, had as its theme “building smart strategists and creative thinkers in the military. I recall at that time interviewing the then Ag Chief of Accounts and Budget, Brigadier-General (now Major-General) JE Jakko, and he told me the event was the Army Chief’s strategy for lieutenant-colonels and above to improve their leadership qualities and be fully ready and better equipped to confront the myriad of challenges facing the country. This has since been followed-up by many innovative programmes that have since made our officers and men some of the best in this part of the globe.
A media colleague, incidentally one of those who has never been impressed with all the sacrifice of the armed forces in the war against terror, is on record to have attributed the current victories of our military to the heavy casualty inflicted on Boko Haram by troops of the Republic of Chad. He even claimed that what the Chadian forces did accounted for more than 80 percent of the war, and that what remained for the Nigerian armed forces to execute was a mere 20 percent or even less. But nothing is further from the truth.
While the stride by the Chadian forces is definitely commendable, the reality is that, all along, Nigeria was finding it impossible to finish off the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists because its forces always run to the shores of Chad whenever they were pursued by Nigerian troops. There have for years been allegations that the government of that country was giving them sanctuary, until the terrorists made the mistake of killing about 100 troops of the Chadian forces.
It was simply a case of striking at a guest you are harboring in your house. You know the bedroom or other corners of the house where he is staying, and you could easily target him with precision. That informed why the Chadian forces found it rather easy to kill about a thousand Boko Haram terrorists. Strangely, many Nigerians believe the figure released by the government of Chad, but only few ever believe figures released by the armed forces of our own country, who are fighting and staking their own lives not for their own sake, but in the interest of every human being living in Nigeria.
To the credit of the Chadian forces, Boko Haram members now no longer have Chad to run back to whenever they were pursued from Nigeria. But at an estimated fighting force of several thousand terrorists, one thousand terrorists reportedly killed by Chad only represents a percentage of the population of the terrorists and their sympathizers.
With the massive victory being attained by our gallant armed forces, it is up to the civil authorities to block all angles that make it easy for the terrorists to replenish their fighting forces whenever they suffered such heavy casualty. The Buhari Administration, which has done a lot in supporting the armed forces, must work seriously hard in reducing widespread poverty by deploying the anti-corruption agencies to ensure the reduction of unprecedented corruption at state governments levels.
It is saddening that Nigerians will always complain about corruption at the federal level, forgetting that states and local governments collectively collect a bigger percentage of our national wealth, the statutory allocation they receive monthly, with most times little or nothing to show for it.
A weighty report released by the Premium Times newspaper last year showed how state governments in Nigeria have pocketed N15.5 trillion local governments allocations in 12 years. Inspite of some measures employed by the Federal Government, such as in making the Financial Intelligence Unit to monitor local governments funds, many governors have since devised different corrupt means of collecting back, often in hard currency and in cash, those monies remitted to the accounts of local governments under their domain.
That alone has helped in buoying poverty and hopelessness in many young Nigerians, who, hitherto, would one way or the other make some gain out of those funds because of the easier access that they have to chairmen of their respective local governments.
Also, the Buhari Administration has to, as a matter of serious urgency, induce serious transparency and accountability to the Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) it has introduced to curtail poverty and hopelessness across the country. The harsh reality is that right now, the programme is far from being accountable, meaning it will hardly achieve the noble aims and objectives for which it was created. As a journalist, I have searched far and wide and still do not know or hear of even one person that has been benefitting from the Conditional Cash Transfer to the so-called poor of the poorest, a project that has so far engulfed several billions of naira. Of course the fact that I do not know does not mean the programme is not alive. But none of the several Nigerians I have asked is aware of who the beneficiaries are.
I am very certain that if the government ensures transparency and accountability in the SIPs, and compel state governments to allow local governments run their statutory allocations without any state interference, the deep level of poverty ravaging the land, which makes it easy for Boko Haram and other criminal gangs to recruit soldiers, would significantly reduce or be a thing of the past. It is the only way we could sustain the gains recorded and ensure Boko Haram or some other terrorist group does not resurface next year or any time in the future.
Gaya – Vice President (North) – Nigerian Guild of Editors .