Proffering Meaningful Solution to 16-Year-Old Boko Haram Crisis

Critical stakeholders including former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently posited that solution to the debilitating impact of the Boko Haram insurgency on the economy and existence of Nigeria would remain elusive until leaders are united on the root cause and true solution to the menace. Alex Enumah reports:

Last week,  the creme de la creme in the Nigerian society gathered in Abuja to unveil the book, “Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum” written by a former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Leo Irabor. In attendance were two past presidents, President Bola Tinubu represented, serving and past state governors, serving and past military officers, religious leaders, ministers and politicians from several political parties.

The book, according to the author, is meant as a 60th birthday gift to himself as well as a roadmap for leaders in search of an end to the 16 years crisis of the Boko Haram insurgency. “The account in this book is a painful truth as I see it”, Irabor stated, just as he expressed hope that the book will elicit a national conversation that would focus attention on credible solutions to not just the Boko Haram insurgency but insecurity challenges facing the nation.

Irabor also explained that the book was not an “indictment” but a national soul-searching presentation that would awaken reality “to either act dutifully for progress or do nothing and tend towards extinction”.

Arguably, Nigeria may be heading towards extinction since it has failed to nip in the bud the menace which started 16 years ago in the Northeast geo-political zone of the country. Today, the challenge of insecurity pervades the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, in form of banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling including farmers/ herders clashes, hence the need for urgent action.

For former President Olusegun Obasanjo, “we cannot continue this way, something has to be done”. In an enough is enough tone, Obasanjo regretted that the menace of Boko Haram has defied four successive administrations with no victory in sight, adding that even the civil war which nearly broke up the country was defeated within 30 months.

As part of solution, Obasanjo suggested an examination of the values of the country’s past in order to unravel what is there that is destructive to the present and future of Nigeria. While claiming that the insurgency has more to do with a quest for a better life rather than political or religious agitations, he called on people who have something to say to come forward and write books or speak up so that the country can find solution to the issue.

But, for former President Goodluck Jonathan, who battled the Boko Haram insurgency for five years, nobody seems to know or understand the demands of the insurgents. “One of the major scars on my government — and it will remain with me, as Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it — is the issue of the Chibok girls. It is a scar I will die with. But perhaps, later, more details may emerge — and that too relates to Boko Haram. What did they really want?”, Jonathan wondered.

According to him, if one conducts a research and interview people, he or she would only get part of the story of Boko Haram and not the full. Observing that Boko Haram started in 2009 when he was Vice President and President in 2010 Jonathan said he spent five years battling the insurgency until he left office, adding, “I thought that after I left, within a reasonable time, General Buhari would wipe them out. But even today, Boko Haram is still there”.

While stressing that the issue is far more complex than it is often presented, Jonathan expressed conviction that the agitators are not persons suffering from poverty and hunger going by the quality of weapons they possessed. He subsequently called on the present administration to employ a different approach from what he and his predecessor did in order to end the crisis which has displaced millions of persons, besides the millions of injured and deaths.

“The issue of the carrot and the stick may need to be adopted. Yes, there may be unmet needs, but if you look at the weapons they use—and assess their value—you will realise that these are not hungry people. Soldiers who sometimes recover these weapons can see for themselves”, Jonathan stated. Besides he claimed that the insurgents often have more sophisticated ammunition than Nigerian troops, suggesting the involvement of external hands.

 “I believe as a nation, we have to look at the concept of Boko Haram and approach it differently from the conventional approach. I believe one day we’ll get over it”, he submitted.

However, for a former National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd), although Nigeria’s security challenge has never been this bad, Nigeria, according to him, has had only four years of peace and progress – between 1975 and 1979 – when the then government made conscious efforts at re-engineering the country through agriculture and other developmental projects. According to Monguno, the country since independence have continued to grapple with the same issue but with different colouration.

“We had a small window of happiness between 1975-1979, when the then leadership made efforts to re-engineer the country”, he said, “subsequently the issues at hand became overwhelming…they kept coming back in different colouration… issues with national development, insecurity, political situation, defective governance”.

He suggested that for Nigeria to regain her pride of place among the comity of nations, there is need to interrogate certain issues underpinning the foundation of the country. According to him, the struggle for power and authority, resource allocation and fear of domination by ethnic nationalities are some of the issues Nigeria must address if she must move forward.

While stating that solutions cannot be handled by government alone, he said the people must be fully involved in all stages.

“You can never address insecurity in as much as there is impaired national cohesion”, the ex-NSA said, adding that, today Nigerians do not just detest and hate one another but have “become very embittered as a people, unforgiven in our nasty attitude towards one another”.

He, however, expressed hope that Nigeria can overcome the present challenge since countries like Rwanda and Singapore did.

The book reviewer and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Reverend Matthew Kukah, in his remarks, claimed that Nigeria is not working today simply because of the 1966 military coup. “Nigeria has refused to return to the crime scene and when they do, they are always hesitant”, he pointed out while commending Irabor for the courage in writing the book, and for also identifying factors such as national reconciliation, political orientation, patriotism, judicial reforms, social reforms and good governance as panacea to the Boko Haram insurgency.

The fiery Bishop submitted that the issue of Boko Haram insurgency did not require conventional warfare in the first place because it’s an ideological war, adding that all the military operations with various code name is yet to bring an end to the Boko Haram war.

“But one of the things that we take away from this book, and I try to just make three or four; one of the things we take away from this book is the urgency of what is called soft power”, he said.

The clergyman accordingly called on the military to “create a sense of urgency about returning to the barracks, so that their integrity and professionalism can be guaranteed”. According to him, the presence of the military in the 36 states of the federation makes the notion of democracy an oxymoron. “We cannot be in a democracy and be surrounded by soldiers”, he said, adding that people now see the military as an army of occupation.

The cleric while noting that national security is about the day the guns will die, pointed to the need for good governance in addressing many of the challenges being faced by the citizens such as flooding, hunger, poverty, among others.

Meanwhile, the Bishop faulted politicians especially in the North who use religion as a political tool.

“Islamism, that is, what is called Political Theology in Christianity, it could be the same thing but Political Theology, that is, the instrumentalization and the skewed usage and manipulation of religion as a tool for governance. Nigeria is in a democracy, and there is a way that good Muslims can participate in democracy and good Christians can participate in democracy, but the idea that we want to use religion to enforce power is what Islamism is. It has become destructive to the religion itself”, Kukah stated.

Why claiming that the Boko Haram insurgency started that way after its leader fell out with politicians, he urged Muslims to resist Islamism just like Egypt and Algeria.

“The point I am making here is that we religious leaders and the political actors must also come to terms with the fact that there are boundaries, and if these boundaries are not respected, you can pay the Imam, you can pay the Bishop, you can pay whatever money you want, good governance is not about how much we are dispensing”, he added.

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Saad Abubakar, in his remarks, explained that, “Islam is after good governance”, and that the “religion abhors extremism”. Clarifying on the use and abuse of “Jihad”, the Sultan noted that Jihad is not about the killings of non-moslems by moslems but “striving” towards what is good and freedom.

He therefore urged Nigerians to learn to love one another and pledged support for government at all levels as well as the military in their pursuit of peace and unity.

President Bola Tinubu who was the Special Guest of Honour at the book launch, however, told the gathering that, “we will not rest until we defeat insecurity”. Represented by the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, the president was quick to pint out that it would require a collective effort to root insecurity from the country.

He commended Irabor for the quality of the book which he said is not only historical but serves as a guide in tackling the issue of insecurity both now and in the future.

“A scar tells a story. It reminds us of pain, but it also proves that survival is possible. Therefore, the scars we carry as a nation are evidence of our resilience,” he said.

Besides, the president stated that the book reminds of the sacrifices of past heroes, thereby challenging leaders to learn from these experiences in order to build a safer and stable country.

It is, however, hoped that beyond rhetorics, concrete actions would be put in place to reduce to the barest minimum if not to completely eradicate the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.