Arewa Forum Blast Goodluck Over Handling Of Boko Haram Issues

The Pan Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), yesterday fired a broadside at the Federal Government, querying its sincerity in the fight against the Islamist sect, Boko Haram.

It said that the troops deployed to confront the insurgents in the Northeast appear not to be combat ready, given the ease with which Boko Haram is succeeding in killing innocent Nigerians.

The ACF position is shared by retired Major General Adamu Ibrahim, a former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, who said that the tactics being used by the soldiers are unworkable.

The ACF , in a statement by its Chairman and former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, said the fact that the Army division established by government to fight the insurgents does not have a full combat-ready battalion to engage Boko Haram is a clear indication of lack of seriousness on the part of government to end the insurgency.

It wondered, for instance, how a convoy of 30 to 60 vehicles full of weapons and materials would travel for five to ten kilometres, conduct an operation, killing people and destroying property and return to base unchallenged.

”There is certainly more than meets the eye. Or else how come a convoy of 30 to 60 vehicles full of arsenal men and material travel five to ten kilometres conduct an operation, killing people and destroying property and return to base unchallenged?” the organisation said.

Denouncing what it called gradual attempt at annihilating Northerners the ACF said that “governments at federal and state levels go about their normal business as if all is well with us. This insensitivity on the part of government is highly condemnable. Northerners are full of despair and can only turn to our governors who are constitutionally charged with the responsibility of our security and welfare.”

Northerners, it added, want to see their Governors at the forefront of employing every means at their disposal to bring to an end the massacre of their people, pointing out that the claim that the solution to the problem lies with the Federal Government alone is no longer acceptable.

He said that while Northerners generally believe that the complacency of their elected leaders has contributed to prolonging the unfortunate situation troops deployed by the Federal Government are thinly deployed and “most inadequately equipped and motivated.”

The ACF said:“ Baring insincerity why was the Governor of Borno State so castigated when he told the truth about the situation?

“Continuous spate of massacre taking place on daily basis and claiming many innocent souls in villages of Borno,Yobe and Adamawa is a clear pointer to the failure of leadership and insensitivity of governance.

“The Federal Government, Northern State Governors and the entire political elite including the technocrats and the bureaucrats and all leaders of thoughts need the people to be alive in order to rule them.”

And to the Northern governors, it said: “ACF is now constrained to draw attention of our Governors to our collective responsibility as leaders and protectors of security of lives and properties of the entire North. The effort so far made by our governors towards the resolution of this crisis need to be re-doubled.

“No matter how meagre the resources available to our governors, compared with their southern counterparts, we believe that you can do better, individually and collectively.”

And speaking to The Nation in Jalingo, retired Major-General Adamu Ibrahim said that “the troops deployed to fight Boko Haram are only trained for conventional wars, not the urban guerrilla war where the enemies hit and run.”

He added: “The tactics of fighting a conventional war are different from those used in urban guerrillas. In a conventional war, you know the enemies and their location, so you can direct heavy artillery like tanks or amours as well as air force to shed or crush them before getting there to capture them by hands.

“But here, our troops don’t know the enemies’ sanctuaries; air surveillance jets cannot locate them; if you feel they are there and you attempt to bomb them you end up killing innocent people.

“So, the whole thing boils down to necessary training. The soldiers may have the necessary equipment bought with huge money by the government. But they (soldiers) don’t have the skills to handle the equipment. That goes without the saying that it is not necessarily the equipment that makes you win a war, but the man behind the equipment.

“In other words, you can spend a fortune buying sophisticated weapons, but if those behind the weapons are not well trained, they cannot maximize the handling of such weapons to get the required result.”

Gen.Ibrahim stressed the need for intelligence in dealing with the enemy.

“When your intelligence is low the enemies have the choice of coming after you,” he said.

The general said that with the conventional approach having failed, the state of emergency approach proving abortive “and the enemies laughing” government should adopt flexibility of war plan.

This, according to him, “allows you to change your method.”

He advised President Goodluck Jonathan to “engage in productive dialogue using the right kind of people –he (Jonathan) doesn’t need to publicise them. But because those close to Jonathan are making huge money from the Boko Haram violence, they don’t want to advise the President to use the right people who have contact with the insurgents. Jonathan can use them under cover –he shouldn’t expose them because they too need protection.

Instead of accusing the political elites from the North of being responsible for the Boko Haram crisis, the President should invite them (northern elites) for a round table discussion.”