18th May, 2015
After what seemed like a respite following the onslaught on Boko Haram by Nigerian security forces and their counterparts from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, Nigerians were taken aback last week when the terrorists attempted to overrun Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. In another audacious move, the terrorists also retook a border town with Cameroon in the Northeastern flank last week and carried out some daring bombings that left scores of people dead.
It is sad that Boko Haram fighters are staging a successful comeback after they were flushed out of vast territories they had occupied in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. What really went wrong? Or did the security forces forget to apply the universal dictum that says eternal vigilance is the price of liberty?
With these renewed bombings by Boko Haram, the coast is not really clear for internally displaced people to return to their homes as being suggested in some quarters. It is really too early to ask them to return home when adequate measures have not been put in place to safeguard and to rehabilitate them.
No one could have imagined that Boko Haram could stage such a daring comeback so soon after they were routed a few weeks ago. With this development, a whole lot needs to be done to keep the terrorists at bay. One of the options is to settle for is troops surge in the affected areas. If more troops are deployed to the towns that have been liberated, it would be difficult for the terrorists to have an easy ride to towns to carry out bombings.
All over the country, especially in the southeast, south south and north central zones, thousands of soldiers who were deployed to quell communal uprising over a decade ago are still in such locations long after they have completed their assignment. They could be deployed to the northeast rather than left to mount road blocks on the nation’s highways or allowed to carry out the traditional role of the police as is the case today across the country.
The gains made by the armed forces should not be frittered away by allowing the terrorists return. We hope the incoming administration will effectively tame the Boko Haram incubus once and for all so that the thousands of internally displaced persons can return to their homes and after the extensive damage the war did to their homes and economic wellbeing is restored. We must the war and the battle also.