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The anti terrorism drive in the North East has taken a fresh dimension with Senate resolution for a full and sustained military action against insurgents. In this report, News Editor Abubakar Ibrahim chronicles the actions trailing the abduction of female students of a Chibok secondary school including the local and international military options amidst effort to broker peace with Boko Haram insurgents. Additional reports from Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri & Umar Dankano, Yola.
At no time has a full-scale military operation been so urgent to the Federal Government of Nigeria than after over 200 female students of a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state were abducted April 14 triggering international outrage.
For that, France frantically assembled the frontline nations recently in the battle against the Boko Haram crisis apparently sensing the potential danger to her former colonies of Cameroun, Chad and Niger. For strategic reasons, all the neighbours of embattled Nigeria must be involved.
So, against all expectations, given their all too familiar difference with the Presidency over policy issues, the House of Representatives, has unanimously supported the extension of the State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States to provide legal framework for the war against terrorism.
Translating this to action, media reports yesterday quoted security sources and residents of nearby villages confirming fighter jets and army tanks have begun raids on camps set up by suspected Boko Haram militants in forests of Bauchi State.
Residents of Ganjuwa and Darazo local government areas said they had sighted military aircraft heading towards the forests and heard sounds of bombings in the early hours of Thursday
Suspected Boko Haram militants are reported to be operating in the two LGAs, as well in neighbouring Gwaram of Jigawa State.
A State of Emergency was declared in the three States in May 2013 and extended for a six month period which was expected to elapse four days ago.
To the Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, the decision to elongate the emergency is to consolidate on the successes recorded in recent past.
According to him, the legislative instrument granted will also assist all foreign countries that have indicated interest in helping Nigeria to find the abducted Chibok girls and to overcome other security challenges confronting the country.
``Our effort is not just geared towards safe return of our girls, but is also targeted at ending insurgency in the country as a whole,’’ he said.
Following in the footstep this week, the Senate on Thursday last week approved President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for extension of emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States for another six months term.
Like the Reps, the senate also endorsed the assistance of the international community to sweep out terrorism, urging President Jonathan to immediately approve intervention funds to the affected states for development.
The motion for approval of the extension moved by the Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba and seconded by the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. George Akume, urged the Federal Government to undertake sustained military operation and to conduct special recruitment of youth and screened members of the civilian JTF into the armed forces.
The senate however wants the Federal Government to liaise with the three affected states in fashioning out an Economic Marshall Plan to revive the economy of all disadvantaged parts of the country for holistic security.
In this regard, the senate urged the President to submit a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to meet the financial requirements of the combat.
In a remark after the approval, the Senate President, David Mark, noted that the insurgency in the North East was a national problem that must “be resolved as quickly as possible.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder behind our colleagues from all the States affected.
“We take this in the same vein that we are all equally affected and that this is a national issue and not a sectional issue in any form”, he said.
Foreign aid: The journey so far
Military experts have flown in so far from the UK, Canada, France, Spain, the United States and Israel in rapid reaction to help Nigeria in the search for the girls but, according to inside sources, the army critically needs airlift helicopters, armoured tanks, and protective gears to contain the insurgency, with foreign military presence not leading in that direction.
This is just as President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed during the just concluded World Economic Forum on Africa, in Abuja,that the administration had recently approved USD1 billion for the provision of military hardware.
PREMIUM TIMES reported gathering “from army sources in Maiduguri and Abuja that foreign military assistance has so far been greeted with some ambivalence or perhaps distractions”.
“Foreign military assistance you speak about has been largely in the media and for international public relations value that is almost certainly not likely to end up in boots on the ground or badly needed weaponry to assist us here,” one of the sources said.
One arm of the foreign assistance cell of the United States with about 30 men and the UK with 10 men have been largely based in Abuja holding “endless meetings” with local officers.
Local officers in Maiduguri say they “haven’t as much as seen even the slightest intelligence from our foreign friends.”
This claim belies the widely held views of military cooperation at the intelligence levels, since the US Air Force (USAF) Beechcraft MC-12W Liberty aircraft, based in Niamey in Niger, began flying over the north east region, according to reports from the Jane’s Defense magazine, quoting U.S. government sources.
Niamey is also base to the USAF General Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAVs but they have not been reported to be participating on the northeast mission against Boko Haram.
Jane’s magazine also reported that the USAF base in Niamey will soon be joined by the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying from US Naval Air Station Sigonella on Sicily.
If the foreign forces triggers into active mission, the French, which deployed two General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles to Ndjamena in January, and which keeps a large detachment of Dassault Rafale and Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters as well as Boeing KC-135FR tankers, will be the most influential on account of their proximity to the location sites of the abducted girls near the Chad borders.
Last Saturday, May 18, the UK deployed the A Raytheon Sentinel R.1 Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) aircraft from its base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire to Accra.
The overall air operation by the United States, United Kingdom, and France concentrating on building the information picture of the crisis zone and coordinating airborne ISTAR, satellite imagery, and signals intelligence assets to best effect, is being co-coordinated by AFRICOM’s air coordination station at Ramstein Airbase in Germany.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Special Forces from the Army’s 7th Division have claimed to have sighted the locations of more than 250 abducted Chibok schoolgirls and are narrowing the search to three camps operated by the Boko Haram sect north of Kukawa at the western corridors of the Lake Chad, senior military and administration officials said.
“It has been a most difficult but heroic breakthrough,” one senior military official said in Abuja.
Another senior commander from the Army’s 7th Division, the military formation created to deal with the insurgency in the Northeast, supported that claim. The 7th Division is headquartered in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Nigerian military officials coordinating the search and other officials in Abuja said Boko Haram insurgents have split the girls into batches and held them at camps in Madayi, Dogon Chuku and Meri, all around the Sector 3 operational division of the Nigerian military detachment confronting the group.
Another source said there is a fourth camp at Kangarwa, also in Borno State, a claim not be independently verified.
“Our team first sighted the girls on April 26 and we have been following their movement with the terrorists ever since,” one of our sources said.
“That’s why we just shake our heads when people insinuate that the military is lethargic in the search for the girls.”
The location of the abducted girls – north east of Kukawa – opens a new insight into the logistic orientation of Boko Haram, in a five-year long insurgencywhich President Goodluck Jonathan said has killed at least 12,000 people so far excluding the hundreds killed in a car bomb on Tuesday in Jos and about 10 blown up on Sunday in Kano in a suicide bombing.
But the details established by the military shows that while the world’s attention is focused on the Sambisa forest reserves, about 330 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the terrorists mapped a complex mission that began at Chibok, and veered north east of Sambisa, before heading to west of Bama and east of Konduga.
With the sighting, officials fear that Boko Haram militants may be seeking to create new options of escape all the way to Lo-gone-Et Chari in Cameroon to its Southeast, Lake Chad to its east and Diffa in Niger Republic to its north, providing a multiple escape options in the event of hostile ground operations against it.
But with growing local and international pressure, a likely option may be for the authorities to enter into talks with the group, whose leader, Abubakar Shekau, on May 12, called for dialogue and “prisoner” swap with the government.
The government has ruled out that option in the open but knowledgeable sources in Abuja hinted at a possible “twin track” approach that includes open rejection and a closet engagement.
“That option is not as bitter as you think in the face of the alternatives confronting us,” the source who has deep insight on the thinking of the administration, said.
“Government is working hard to free the girls in less than one week, possibly before end of this week,” the source said.
Defence spokesperson, Major General Chris Olukolade would not comment on the ongoing rescue operation.
“You don’t expect me to tell you that the girls have been sighted or have not been sighted,” Olukolade said, adding that “I will only say our team are working hard and taking note of every information provided to ensure that our girls are rescued without delay.”
Shehu Sani, Gen Obene speak
However, Civic rights leader Shehu Sani has written the Sultan of Sokoto and leader of Nigeria’s Muslim, urging him to summon all the influential Islamic clerics with credibility in the north and use them to reach out to the insurgents to release the girls.
“As far as I know this has not been done and to expect the committee [headed by former army intelligence chief, Major General Sani Bako] now working to determine the situation of the Chibok abduction to help on this will be a waste of time,” Mr. Sani said.
A former Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Brig.-Gen. Williams Obene (retd.), on Wednesday also advised Nigerians to prepare for war, saying the Boko Haram insurgency would likely last another 10 years, despite foreign intervention.
Obene, who pioneered the Nigerian Army Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency Centre, said the recent bomb attacks in Kano and Jos were signs of asymmetrical warfare such as insurgency.
According to him, Boko Haram insurgency cannot end within the next six months earmarked for the extended state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
He said, “The attacks on Kano and Jos did not come to me as a surprise. In asymmetrical warfare, such as we are faced with, these things are to be expected. Nigerians need to come to terms with the fact that we are at war and it is not a conventional war, where the enemy can be identified.
“Let’s not delude ourselves to think that we are going to use the military to stop the insurgency in six months.
“The Senators have said they would monitor the state of emergency in the North-East on a monthly basis, and would call it off if they don’t see improvement. My question is: what is the alternative to the state of emergency? In fact, we should declare total war. Nigerians should prepare for war.”
He urged Nigerians, irrespective of what part of the country they reside, to be vigilant while “politicians should stop deceiving Nigerians that this insurgency can stop in six months…it took some other countries several years to deal with insurgency.
“Ours might last up to 10 years, or even more because of the involvement of politicians,” he said.
Mixed reactions trail full scale military action in Borno
Residents of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital have expressed different views over the Federal Government’s alliance with some western powers to launch full scale war against members of the dread Boko Haram militants.
While some of the residents interviewed by our correspondent supported the idea, others argued that intelligence gathering is the best strategy to defeat Boko Haram.
According to them, full scale war has never solved the problem of insurgency in any part of the world and called on the Federal Government to be cautious in order to curb collateral damage from the side of innocent communities living along the insurgents’camp.
A public affairs analysts, Dr. Shettima Lawan noted that total war against Boko Haram is not the immediate solution for now, rather government should adopt other peaceful mechanism in order to end the endless bloodshed.
Dr. Lawan cautioned President Goodluck Jonathan not to be deceived by the so called military support given by US and Britain, saying America has never defeated terrorist organisations like Taliban and Alqaeda despite the huge investment in military action.
“I think President Jonathan should consider dialogue approach with the insurgents and not be misled by the so called mighty military powers of America, he should rather realise that even with its drones, experienced troops, sophisticated weapons and other military hardwares, it failed in winning the war against terror after over 10 years of military action.
When US realised that it can’t defeat the terror groups, especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan, coupled with billions of dollars wasted in the war, it quickly devised tactics and resolved to dialogue with these organisations. So, I wonder why the President could not adopt such measure. People can say that some dialogue committees were instituted like ones headed by Ambassador Gaji Galtimari and the Minister for Special Duties, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, all these committees failed yielding desired results because they were unable to establish contacts with key leaders of the Boko Haram sect”, he said.
He adviced the president to select credible personalities to form another dialogue committee who will get in touch with leaders of the group.
Also commenting over the issue, Dr. Francis Micheal of the University of Maiduguri observed that though military action remained the best approach in tackling the violent campaigns being waged by Boko Haram, there is the need for serious caution so that innocent people living close to the hideouts of the terrorists are not affected.
He stressed the need for extensive surveillance and intelligence to identify the actual locations of the militants and their movement so that innocent civilians are not targetted.
“I’m not opposed to any military action against Boko Haram, in fact it is long overdue. But the concerned authorities should be extra-careful in carrying out the operations specially that the exercise involves foreign intervention. This becomes imperative to avert civilian casualties like what happened in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, among others.
“I think the Federal Government should partner with all other countries offering military assistance in intelligence such as identifying the militants source of funds and weapons, their local and foreign collaborators, key hide-outs across the country and informants. Unless this is done, no amount of military action can defeat Boko Haram because if those in Borno are dislodged, others that are now scattered in some northern states can still get more funds and weapons to continue wreaking havoc on the citizens”.
However on their part, the youth volunteers, popularly known as civilian JTF, threw their weight behind international military action against Boko Haram with out any condition.
Spokesman of the group Abdu Damatta said: “We are really delighted over this step which we have been agitating for a long time. I think the senseless killiñgs by Boko Haram is too muçh and require international intervention”.
Dambatta said the group is ever ready to accompany the military to all operational sites “to sacrifice our lives for the restoration of peace”.
Concern over emergency rule in Adamawa
The recent extension of the state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan, rectified by the national assembly has elicited mixed reaction from the high and the lordly on the society.
The general feeling is that six months of further extension would exacerbate the sufferings for the period, in terms of socio-economic challenges the last extension had caused. But the proponents of the extension would lessen the rate of insurgency in the three states in the North-East zone.
The exponents of the extension argued that, few days ago, the rate of insurgency in the three states has continued to increase with the abduction of over 200 Chibok school girls who were preparing for the examination.
They also cited the slaughter of studentss at Buni yadi federal government college, in Borno state during the second emergency and several bomb blasts in some parts of Borno state which also claimed a lot of lives. In Yobe state, a number of people were killed in some villages, said the exponents and so, the recent extension would not yield fruitful result.
In a nutshell, the insurgency has hampered socioeconomic growth of the region; both at the macro and at the micro levels. Governmental activities have been paralyzed, shunning capital projects which should have impacted on the lives of the people of the by the insurgency.
Governments in the region have found it difficult to complete ongoing projects in their respective states nor initiate new ones.
At the micro level, petty traders, market women, shoe shiners, food vendors and a host of others in this category, have been hampered by the insurgency. In the same vein, the inter-state trade within the states in the North-East region, including the three have been hampered by the insurgency.
One Mallam Aliyu Modibbo in Yola told our correspondent that his business has been scuttledd as he can no longer buy tubers of yam from Ganye in Adamawa state and sell in Maiduguri for fear of the insurgency.
In the same vein, one Madam Blessing Kyauta said Maiduguri – Yola has been her regular route as she sell prenatal and postnatal native medicine for women but she no longer does that because of the insurgency. She is a symbol of others that have found themselves in this development.
The Igbos whose businesses were mostly affected by the activities of the insurgents, have regained some measure of confidence on the government’s policy. Some of those who spoke to our correspondent noted that though, peace has returned to Adamawa state, there is need for more pro-active measures to be taken to avoid systemic collapse. For many of them, the fresh extension by the President Jonathan may not be necessary for Adamawa except for the abduction of Chibok school girls, whose dimension is yet to be seen. Otherwise, the Adamawa state is really peaceful.
Rev. Phineas Padio, the state Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Congress (APC) said the request is unnecessary for Adamawa because some measure of peace has been restored.
“Adamawa is okay and even the Chief of Defense staff not long ago said the military had succeeded in clearing Boko Haram from Adamawa. Why do they want to extend it if not for political reasons?” Padio asked.
Supporting him, Mohammed Aliyu and Benjamin Johnson, both civil servants, kicked against the extension, saying it was totally uncalled for with the level of security now being enjoyed in the state.
“The problem is not that serious in Adamawa to warrant a state of emergency. If you talk of the recent kidnap in chibok that has no link to Adamawa”.
However, Mallam Abdullahi Damare, the North East Coordinator of Interfaith International, in his response described the extension as a welcome development.
Damare said the issue of security is something serious and any measure taken to tackle it such as the extension of state of emergency should be welcome by the public.
“We have an international community that has agreed to assist us. USA, Britain, France and Israel are here to help us so there is need to give them the enabling environment to operate.” Damare said.
Meanwhile, Residents of Mubi and Michika in Adamawa have called for the review of 7pm to 5am curfew enforced on the towns by the military two months ago following insurgent attacks in Northern part of the state.
Some of the residents who spoke to Peoples Daily said the area had been peaceful since the attack hence the need to review the curfew.
“Mubi has been peaceful for several months now, the attack in Michika two months ago has nothing to do with Mubi yet the curfew was extended to Mubi.
“ What we want now is that since the Army took that action to protect Michika and Mubi which is not too far from Michika, there is need to review the curfew as things have since normalize”, said Idris Buba , a resident of Mubi said.
Maman Talatu, a food vendor pleaded for review of the curfew as it was affecting businesses such as theirs.
“I make brisk business in the mornings and evenings but because of this 7 pm curfew me and most of my colleagues are losing the evening market.
“Let them adjust the time to 10 or 11 pm as was the case in Yola”, she said.
Ibrahim, a businessman pointed out that being a commercial town with international cattle market, there was need to review the curfew for business to fully normalize.
Moses Kwaji and Musa Joseph, residents of Michika also called for the review of the curfew in the town pointing out that since the attack on Michika two months ago things have normalized.
“We want the army to do something about this curfew. Even in Maiduguri the curfew starts from 9pm “, Joseph said.
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