By Linus Aleke
“Terrorism takes us back to ages we thought were long gone if we allow it a free hand to corrupt democratic societies and destroy the basic rules of international life”.

The above quote from French politician, former Mayor of Paris, Prime Minister, and President of France, Mr. Jacques Chirac, aptly captured the confusing condition the Nigerian state founds itself in the past decade.

Terrorism has not only succeeded in corrupting democratic society and destroying the basic rules of life in Nigeria but has planted fear, horror, death, and terror in the hearts and minds of every Nigerian citizen, young or old, educated or illiterate, male or female, military or civilian, as well as the governors and the governed.

The bitter truth is that Nigeria is no longer safe for human habitation, as stories of daily killings of innocent and armless civilians, terrorists, soldiers, and other security agents are alarming.

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Just recently, a ban of terrorists operating within Kaduna, its presumed headquarters in North-West and borders of the Federal Capital Territory and Niger states, viciously attacked a train heading to Kaduna from Abuja, killing many and abducting several others, whose, faith is still hanging in the balance.

Before, the train attack, the terrorists attacked the Kaduna airport. They have since taken over the roads linking Abuja and Kaduna, Niger, and other adjourning states of Zamfara, Katsina, and Kano, and travelling on them is near death sentence. The reason is many prefer to travel by train or air. Train rides suddenly became a status symbol, as the elite class hijacked the tickets of the train by booking ahead, thereby making it difficult for the downtrodden to get a ticket for the train ride to Kaduna.

The train which was considered the safest and cheapest before the terror attack had also been demystified by the same terrorists, thereby painting a near hopeless situation.

Though, the terrorists do not have airpower capabilities but have the capacities to whittle down the airpower capability of the Nigerian Air Force. The only advantage the Nigerian military has against the terrorists is as they have anti-aircraft guns in their armoury which, they had deployed dutifully to lessen the advantage airpower confers on its user.

A few weeks ago, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), announced to the world that it has captured the most vicious and notorious enclave of the terrorist organizations in Nigeria – the Sambisa forest, in Borno State.

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This announcement raised hopes of many Nigerians that at last, the war is gradually grounding to a halt. These Nigerians include the parents of the Chibok and Dapchi girls whose children are still languishing in captivity, close to one decade after their abduction by the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists.

With the invasion and overrunning of Sambisa forest, security experts also think that there is no end in sight in the intractable fight against terrorism and insurgency in the country.

In a statement, the Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Benard Onyeuko gave insight into the coordinated military operations that led to the taking over of Sambisa forest by troops of Operation Hadin Kai.

The swift Operation, he said was codenamed “Operation Desert Sanity”.

Onyeuko said: “On or about 0900hrs on 24 March 2022 the gallant troops of Operation Hadin Kai in a Special Operation codenamed ‘Operation Desert Sanity’ captured the terrorist stronghold of Ukuba/Camp Zairo in Sambisa Forest. In what could be described as a blitzkrieg, the troops routed the terrorists and captured their enclave. The terrorists fled the camp leaving behind their heavy weapon arsenal.

“After a thorough cordon and search of the captured camp, the gallant troops recovered various equipment including 1x Main Battle Tank, 1x 155mm Bofors Gun, 1xTrailer,1x122mm Gun, 2x105mm Gun, 1x Mines Resistance Ambush Protected (MRAP) fighting vehicle, 1x MOWAG Armoured Personnel Carrier, 1x Mack Trailer as well as a large cache of arms and ammunition left behind by the terrorists. Further exploitation is ongoing. The capture of the terrorists’ stronghold of Camp Zairo is a major setback to the terrorist criminals”.

The military High Command commends the ever conquering troops of Operation Hadin Kai for this immense success.

The Military Spokesperson enjoined the troops not to rest on their oars but use this as a springboard to finally defeat the insurgents and also keep up the fighting spirit.

It is, however, regrettable, that a few days after announcing these milestone achievements which also led to the discovery of the NAF fighter jet that went missing with two crew members on board last year at the heart of Sambisa forest, the terrorist groups swiftly activated their terror machines in their North West enclaves and unleashed coordinated mayhem of unequal proportion on Nigerians and the military.

The Abuja-Kaduna train terror attack, the Kaduna State Airport attack, the terrorist invasion of communities around Birni Gwari, and of course the overrunning of a military base in Kaduna State readily come to mind and trigger the question of who is winning the war, terrorists or the Nigerian state?

It is now clear that the terrorist leaders have tactically abandoned their North-East enclave and relocated its operational headquarters to North-West, from where they are now launching vicious attacks.

Some tiny voices are of the view that the terrorists have outwitted the military in the northeast as they surrender freely to the state forces to facilitate their reintegration into the society, which will, in turn, midwife their free and easy migration to North-West, which is their new operational headquarters.

It is on the premise of the aforesaid tiny voices, and the joy that trailed the overrunning of Sambisa forest that the former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (retd.) observed that the end of the war, means a return of peace in the land.

He further averred, “Overrunning the Sambisa forest is a major achievement by the Nigerian military, which, of course, is worthy of commendation. But it will not necessarily mean an end in sight to the war. This is so because a lot of work needs to be done. There are so many other aspects, because of the nature of the war. Terrorist enclaves are usually not domiciled in one location but what the Army had done is a great achievement that must be commended by all Nigerians”.

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It was the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate and Pakistani victim of terror attacks, Malala Yousafzai who said that “With guns, you can kill terrorists, with the education you can kill terrorism”.

Time is, however, ripped for the Nigerian state to not only learn from the solid wisdom inherent in what is today known as “Einstein Insanity,” which, posits that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” but also consider the Malala option of education, which in her words is an antidote to terrorism.

Meanwhile, the way forward from the lens of security experts is going back to the drawing board intending to address the root cause of the problem.

The Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Consulting Ltd, Dr Kabir Adamu said: “In my opinion, it is because we have not addressed the root causes of the problem and the significant effort by government is tilted towards the military and other security agencies, thereby neglecting the significant requirements to address the root cause.

“You know that we have a policy document called the countering violence extremism framework, it was introduced in 2014 under the then President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

“The world endorsed this policy framework and even assisted us with funding to enable its implementation but unfortunately, we have not implemented that framework as adequately as we should.

“There are three major components in that framework, one of which is to address the socio-economic basis for the insurgency, social economic and political grievances, as well as the disaffection and reality of marginalization, across the federation, especially in the northeast. Another example is that the Southeast is not happy that it has not produced a president.

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Also, if you go to Benue, the Idoma and other minority tribes in the state are not happy that they cannot produce the governor of their state. If you go to Kogi, the same thing, the Ebiras are complaining. So, there is a need to address all these to engender inclusiveness and reduce tension in the polity”.

Others, he said are to address poverty, and unemployment, tackle the issue around drug addition, weapon proliferation, and the inability to adapt to climate change, etc.

“All of these are captured in that policy document but unfortunately, we are not implementing it. In addition to all these, we have the counter de-radicalisation programme, under which the government created Operation Safe Corridor.

“We also have a diplomatic partnership with our neighbouring countries, under which we have the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) headquartered in N’Djamena Chad. Though all of these were captured in the policy document, unfortunately, it has not been fully implemented, rather what we have is the over-concentration of effort on the military approach.

“Military or kinetic action alone is not the solution to terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria. I am not in any way saying that the role of the military is not important but there has to be balanced,” he concluded.