We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”
― Winston S. Churchill
I just watched the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai on CHANNELS TV after he visited troops in Geidam Community of Yobe State, as a result of Wednesday’s attack by Boko Haram militants who over-ran the military, killed 3 soldiers, carted away many weapons and ammunition abandoned by the military on the run and looted mostly food and petroleum products from the popular Wednesday market. I was particularly touched by the honesty of General Buratai who was obviously angry with the troops who had run away from Geidam town. In his words, the COAS said “How can you allow these criminals over-run you? How can you run away from this rag-tag and untrained criminals? You allowed them to operate here for 12hours unchallenged. You refused to come back until they withdrew.”
On the surface, the words of COAS Buratai are very hurtful to the image of the Nigerian Army but this is the painful reality today. The Nigerian Army seems to be overwhelmed and demoralized. The image of the Nigerian Army has suffered so much damage in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community mainly because of the way they have handled the war against Boko Haram in the past 3years. Boko Haram has repeatedly for over 2years embarked upon massive propaganda using social media to demonize the Nigerian Army. They have through so many of its online propaganda campaigns portrayed our army as a weak and a cowardly army that cannot stand to fight. Many online media and personalities helped the insurgents to achieve their propaganda campaigns either intentionally or otherwise. All wars are fought both on ground, air, sea, land and in the minds of all parties involved in the war and most importantly in the psyche of the citizens. To win this war against Boko Haram, we must conquer the minds of Boko Haram with fear, win over our allies and friends by convincing them our army is capable and reliable and also boost the confidence of our troops through citizenry support since the morale of our troops are boosted when they know the citizens of their country are solidly behind them.
The Nigerian Army and our other security agencies are our last line of defense against these barbarians since we cannot defend ourselves against their satanic attacks. If not for the efforts of the Nigerian Military and our other security agencies, these barbarians would have taken over the entire nation, enforced their barbaric and misguided religious tenets on all of us, restricted us to their false Sambisa sharia law system, forced our sisters into sex slavery like they have done to the Chibok Girls and make us live in perpetual fear of terror. If not for the Nigerian Army and other security agencies, many Muslims and Christians across our country would not be able to go to the mosque on Fridays or the church on Sundays.
Boko Haram seeks to destroy Christianity and Islam and do not wish any of us well, Nigerians, irrespective of religious consideration, party affiliation and tribal affinity, must realize that Boko Haram are our common enemies and not just he Nigerian Army’s. The Army means well and are doing their very best to protect us all despite the overwhelming odds, they need our support at all times.
This was what the opposition party in the days of President Goodluck Jonathan was admonished with but they refused to listen. They politicized everything. They politicized the attempt by the former president to list Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO); they politicized the procurement of arms to prosecute the war; they politicized appointments of service chiefs; they politicized State of Emergency in the North East; they politicized Chibok and turned it into a campaign tool against Jonathan, the PDP-led Federal Government and the Nigerian Army which for inexplicable reasons, they chose to see as an appendage of the PDP rather than the federal government. Elrufai and many leading APC chieftains then referred to the Nigerian army as Jonathan’s army. They politicized everything as regards the fight against the deadly sect. At some point in time, their presidential candidate now president Muhammadu Buhari called an attack against Boko haram an attack against Northern Nigeria.
If the political class and all Nigerians had supported the then Federal Government and our security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram, may be we would have long won the war. The politicization of the war against Boko Haram caused more damage than good on the whole nation. Those who saw the war against Boko Haram as an avenue for them to keep scoring needless and cheap political points in the North sabotaged the efforts of our security agencies. They got the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to be issuing press releases kicking against the ban on Boko Haram and the plan of the then FG to list Boko Haram as an FTO which was needed to get arms from our allies to effectively prosecute the war.
And finally, when Boko Haram was listed as an FTO, they began another campaign against the army saying former Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Ihejirika was also a sponsor of Boko Haram and was the one supplying arms to Boko Haram on the orders of former president Jonathan. Their allegations were so scary and consistent that our allies became skeptical of supplying us with arms, and the United States and Israel refused selling arms to us to fight the deadly sect. We had to turn to Russia for help. As if that was not enough, the former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako even did the unbelievable, accusing the Federal Government of genocide against Northern Nigeria and suggested that federal troops were the ones dropping arms for Boko Haram with helicopters.
Furthermore, it was Mallam Nasir El-Rufai now governor of Kaduna State that built a propaganda foundation which suggested former President Goodluck Jonathan was the one sponsoring Boko Haram against the North. He also tried to bring in the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ex-Niger Delta Militants and others as possible sponsors of the terrorist group. El-rufai ensured he poisoned the minds of young people from the North and many of his followers on social media against the then president Jonathan by maintaining this lie. He further justified this lie when he spoke at Chatham House by presenting this table to justify his propaganda theory.
The questions all Nigerians must now begin to ask those who refused to support the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan and our security agencies in their fight against Boko Haram then and who are suddenly supporting the Federal Government and the army now is, what has changed? Is Goodluck Jonathan still the one sponsoring Boko Haram with the help of his Niger Delta ex-militants? Is CAN still the one sponsoring Boko Haram? Explanations were offered to APC on why they should see the battle against the terrorists as a national issue rather than treated as a political one just for parochial and mundane reasons, that where national security is concerned, we must not play politics with it but they did not listen. They threw caution to the wind and were playing loudly to the gallery. Now see where that has gotten us to, in just 120 days of president Buhari taking over, the deadly group has killed more than 1,300 Nigerians and bombed Abuja twice.
The message here is this, the enemy is Boko Haram, not the Federal Government, not president Buhari, and definitely not our ever caring Nigerian Army and the security agencies who daily spend their days in the heat and their nights in the cold while the rest of us spend times with families in the comfort of our homes. The military deserves our respect and support as they remain in the forefront in the fight against these barbarians.
Deji Adeyanju is a Member of the PDP and writes from Abuja. He can be contacted on Twitter @adeyanjudeji or via [email protected]