What does Boko Haram’s ‘defeat’ mean?

 

The news that the terrorist group, Boko Haram, has been “effectively” defeated was as satisfying as watching a convoluted drama resolved with a deux ex machina turn in the plot. The inchoate resolution evokes past cases of similar premature announcements of Boko Haram’s defeat. If the Nigerian authorities’ history on Boko Haram is anything to go by, this announcement is a mere cliff-hanger; more episodes are coming.

In the past weeks, the Army has suffered major losses in the Boko Haram war. This year alone, there have been reports of missing troops and deaths of gallant soldiers at battlefronts. Some of the reports were aggressively denied by relevant authorities and further discussions about them deflected. Add to their credibility issues the humiliation the Army suffered when a video made rounds on social media purportedly showing fighting soldiers begging for food and water. Then, suddenly, the war is over? This calls for circumspection. Even more bizarre is the avalanche of congratulatory messages being showered on President Muhammadu Buhari by various backslappers.

As a Nigerian who has grieved over the 15,000 plus deaths, two million IDPs and other instances of pain Boko Haram has caused, I should be rejoicing that the end has come for the manic marauders. However, as also a Nigerian who has witnessed how the war on Boko Haram has unconscionably transformed into a self-sustaining military-political industrial complex and propaganda spinner, I am rather restrained from celebrating what may turn out to be another George Bush’s “mission accomplished” pyrrhic victory. Nigeria has travelled this road many times and the macabre outcome has been more acts of violence wreaked on defenceless citizens who were rushed to their supposedly secure community to meet the schedule drawn up for defeating Boko Haram. This time round, politicians cannot seem to reiterate enough that Buhari p romised to end Boko Haram by end of 2016 and he delivered on his promise. I am not sure the necessity of the haste for “end of year present” as lives lost cannot be replaced. Hopefully, this is not another All Progressives Congress propaganda.

Just a year ago, that the same government announced that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated.” Buhari had boasted that they would defeat Boko Haram by end of 2015 and with the calendar about to prove them wrong, they declared Boko Haram defeated. Within 48 hours, the group responded with a deadly attack in Adamawa and Borno states that claimed at least 50 lives. A shamed Lai Muhammed, Minister of Information and Culture, quickly announced that despite the fresh attacks the group had in fact atrophied, that they had been deprived of their territory, and they lacked any wherewithal to carry out their agenda of establishing an Islamic state. The worst they could do, he said, was attack “soft targets,” a phrasing that minimises the reality of the suffering of those being decimated by terrorist activities.

The Boko Haram defeat announcement feels like déjà vu except that the language has been changed from “technically defeated” to “effectively defeated.” For a war that has taken seven years, is this how it all ends? Why not address the nation properly instead of pushing a terse press release and later sending an aide to “clarify” the details? For instance, what does this land reclamation truly mean in the battle against Boko Haram? Shortly before Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s government was voted out, the Army also conducted operations that retrieved territories from Boko Haram but the war has raged on. That means a loss of spatial territory by the terrorists does not automatically translate into a loss of ideological grounds as well. We also know that Boko Haram has extended its operational tentacles into neighbouring countries like Chad and Niger Republic from where they crisscross into Nigeria to unleash deadly violence. What does this victory mean for the border crossers?

We should also know how the Operation Lafiya Dole that ended in the Army occupation of Boko Haram was conducted. What exactly happened? The stories being bandied around in the media are full of “dem say, dem say” reports revealed by faceless figures, why is the Army not giving a reliable account of what went down in Sambisa forest? “They” said they arrested terrorists. How many of them and who were they? There was another report of a “white” man found in Sambisa forest but up till now, there has been no name or picture of him released. Who is he? I acknowledge that the Army cannot release every piece of information yet but they cannot also be merely sketchy and expect us to accept their words as verity.

For years, it has been insinuated that Abubakar Shekau- whose ancestry remains a mystery – lives in Sambisa. Now that the terrorists’ Camp Zero has fallen, where are he and his lieutenants? How many of them were arrested? What is Nigeria’s plan for justice for them?

After Osama bin Laden had been killed, we were at least allowed to see his abode and also learnt how he had managed to hide from the United States’ panoptical lens for years. So, what of Shekau’s abode and what can the items retrieved from the camp tell us about the way he lived? No, I am not merely asking these simply because I am a voyeur, I think the public deserves to know considering that we have been deceived about his death at least twice. If Shekau truly died this time, how did they verify his final death? Do they have his DNA stored to crossmatch with whomever they killed? The Nigerian Army has credibility issues where Boko Haram victories are concerned and merely issuing press release is not going to fly. The Nigerian Army – for too long, a coup-making propaganda machine – has not been straightforward.

We were told that a Boko Haram terrorist was arrested in Ikorodu, Lagos, and that Nigerians should watch out for more of them trying to mingle with civilian population. Did he escape from Sambisa Forest and somehow ended up in Lagos within 48 hours of Camp Zero being breached? Lai Mohammed, the information minister, said if Nigerians “see something” they should “say something.” The problem with his vague charge is that he is more or less asking Nigerians to chase phantoms on his behalf. How do we know who Boko Haram members are when they have not provided identifying information that can help our sense of vigilance? Who and what are we to look out for? We see something every day but how are we supposed to know when to say something?

Nigerians will also like to know what the recapture of Sambisa Forest means going forward? Aside from the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, and his future plans of despoiling the nature reserve, there should be other discussions of how Boko Haram defeat will impact the humungous sums earmarked for militancy and insurgency in the 2017 budget. What does the Nigerian Army’s “effective victory” mean to the IDPs who have lost their homes and are now being raped in almost every imaginable way by members of the present administration?

With similar predators in high places, will the IDPs go home or their predicament remains a money-making source for “Ogas at the top”? These are a few of the questions that are on my mind for now as regards the Sambisa re-occupation. I am curious to know how they can claim to have won such a major battle, an entire terrorist enclave pillaged, and we are required to just believe without proof even though the same government has been lying to us for two years? They owe us more than celebratory press releases; we need both explanations and projections into what a post-Boko Haram Nigeria would look like.