THE NIGERIAN STATE VS BOKO HARAM: A WAR OF ATTRITION The dawn attack yesterday by the terrorist network Jammatu Ahlis Sunnati Ludawati Wahl Jihad better known as Boko Haram has again brought to the fore the unending war of attrition being perpetuated in the North East of Nigeria. Once again the intelligence failings of the Nigerian State have been horrifically exposed; for how can an advanced vanguard of five hundred insurgents invade a major city in the most militarised zone in the country and attack the Airport, Air force base and escape with such aplomb. No one wishes to demoralise the Nigerian troops at the war front who are engaged in a lethal war of attrition against a well motivated and heavily equipped enemy but alas a total rethink of the strategy of the military must be instituted by independent assessors. The Military high command has been given enough funds and leeway in this battle to avert such embarrassing setbacks. Thus this assault by Boko Haram should be a cause for serious soul searching. 1. The deactivation of the GSM networks in the North East has done more harm than good. The military claim by deactivating cell towers the ability of the terrorists to remotely detonate improvised explosive devices has been severely hampered. But alas the drawback is that the terrorists have shifted to VHF walkie talkies to coordinate their advance vanguard while the public can’t relay time sensitive information to the military authorities due to the deactivation of the network. The eyes and ears of tens of thousands of residents will always tromp those of the military. No security apparatus can thrive without tips and hot lines. 2. The Directorate of Military Intelligence must be revamped. This is the security apparatus that should take the lead and generate daily threat assessments to keep troops alert and knowledgeable of the movements of terrorists in their locale. The fact that a similar coordinated attack took place just 4 weeks ago in Damaturu the Yobe State capital, yet the military were caught pants down once again in Maidugari, says to even the uncanny that the Nation’s intelligence apparatus is totally in shambles. 3. It is not wise to sack the service chiefs for that will harm troop morale at this crucial period, instead a total overhaul of military doctrine and rules of engagement needs to be instituted. Obviously the regime of stationary ineffective checkpoints must be expunged. The Insurgents have intelligence and reconnaissance units who have mapped out the locations of these check points thus have fed this information back to their high command who plot alternative routes to skirt by these check points, hence out flanking Nigerian troops at will with their surprise offensives. Roving patrols, seek and destroy units along with electronic counter surveillance units must be deployed immediately. Roving patrols will confuse the enemies reconnaissance units, seek and destroy units will investigate and locate terrorist command and control operational bases and neutralise them with extreme prejudice. While electronic counter surveillance units will intercept and jam enemy communications and relay enemy chatter to the Directorate of Military Intelligence’s threat assessment team. Indeed the war against Boko Haram is fought in secrecy with a lot of dishonesty used to conceal ineptitude and incompetence under the shroud of National security. 24 hours after a major terrorist attack, casualty figures are unknown. All the targets attacked and the ordinance used is unknown. The equipment used by the enemy remains unknown. The direction the terrorists fled following the attack remains unknown. Pictures of sites destroyed remain unseen. Nigerians need the Military to brief us on who is responsible for this national embarrassment and total intelligence failure along with what needs to be done to check the tide of major insurgent attacks. Billions of dollars that could have been used to improve healthcare, revamp education and uplift the socioeconomic status of millions of Nigerians is being spent on a prodigal military campaign that has failed to contain talk less of destroy the deadly despicable terrorists. The time for grand standing and chest thumping over minimal military gains needs to come to an end. It is time for serious soul searching and reflection lest the terrorists totally over run the North East.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 06:14:40 +0000
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