Boko Haram: Time for a new direction

However of more significance is its clarion import of dictating caution and discretion in present and future actions, in order to avoid a repeat performance of the unwanted past. Trust African names to offer much more that the letters with which they are crafted.
In Nigeria’s contemporary socio-political terrain there are conditions, events and situations that make us happy as a people when they come and others when they are absent. The latter present a typical ‘Ozoemena’ scenario.
Several factors have today laid a siege on the nation’s territorial integrity, and by implication are progressively redefining its sovereignty and nationness. Ordinarily, the Boko Haram insurgency may not be the only security challenge facing the country, inspite of its near monopoly of media attention. Indeed the challenges of nation building go beyond this insurgency even as its viciousness has imposed on the country, horrendous costs in human lives and limbs as well as material damage, which have attained apocalyptic dimensions. Hardly a day passes without painful stories of yet another group of unsuspecting innocent Nigerians losing their lives through beheading, gunfire, or the now common-place use of bombs; both improvised and conventional.This is just as members of the gallant armed forces and other security agencies are daily paying the ultimate price in order to keep the insurgents at bay and the nation in one piece.
Needless to state that even without overrunning the entire country, Boko Haram has achieved the ignoble feat of earning for itself an unenviable spot at the top of the nuisance index of the country. In every part of this country the name Boko Haram has overtaken whatever local ascriptions to the devil itself, as the symbol of evil. Even crying children are quietened by the mention of the words Boko Haram.
It is not for nothing that President Muhamadu Buhari has deployed all the arsenal at his disposal to start-up his tenure with a ‘shuttle diplomacy’ (courtesy – Henry Kissinger), which saw him crisscrossing various parts of the world in order to place a handle on the BH dilemma. Of note is his recent trip to the United States of America where his status as an alumnus of the prestigious and exclusive US War College, served a most auspicious end by availing Nigeria a rare positive rating, in the inner recesses of the US military high command, where his former classmates still hold sway. Indeed it is difficult to identify any other period in Nigeria’s history when the country would enjoy a closer relation with the US military command than under President Buhari.
This is just as his touching base with the Multinational Joint Task Force to tackle the insurgency is a step in the right direction. His initiative to foster close marking for Boko Haram through promoting a consolidation of the regional powers that matter such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger will definitely prove useful.
Yet these efforts may not guarantee a total and decisive victory against the crisis without adequate provision for winning the minds and hearts of the men and women who are presently under the sway of the sect and are willingly accepting to fight to death if only to keep their flag flying. These are the numerous rampaging gunmen, suicide bombers as well as other agents of death and destruction that have become the nemesis of the country. Whatever conviction that turned these otherwise normal souls into the demons they have become today did not come down with them from their creator. Such was acquired here on earth through a long process of misguided indoctrination and acculturation. This is just as the same situation can also be reversible under the proper conditions.
This scenario justifies the resort to propaganda, and opens up a wide scope of opportunities for dealing decisively with the Boko Haram issue, even if it is limited to whittling down the political and ideological support base of the insurgency. And so far that option is yet to enjoy optimal deployment.  
Otherwise, in a situation which the country is presently facing with the insurgency, a complement of well-articulated propaganda sorties would have led the way while the military option serves as the back-up for the win-the-war effort. The insurgency has been on for over six years, yet not every Nigerian can readily present a standard narrative of the key issues involved. At every stage and in various settings different meanings are imputed to the crisis. While some see it as purely a northern problem, others see it as a religious issue. Some even contend that the BH insurgency is a subterfuge for diverting attention from the vast reserves of crude oil in the Lake Chad Basin for the eventual exclusive exploitation of the Northern elite in the country.
Valid or otherwise as any of these brainwaves may be, they pale into insignificance in the face of the unrelenting and escalating toll on the country with the daily massacre of innocent Nigerians; civilians and security personnel alike. In a situation where the loss of any single soul diminishes us as a people it can be imagined how much we have been collectively degraded as a nation. And in that context, any killing by Boko Haram  in any part of the country, no matter how inconsequential, constitutes a success for them. Our losses are in effect their gains.
That is why there has to be a new thinking about the country’s approach to the war. Incidentally President Buhari has indicated his readiness to do everything possible to contain the insurgency. This consideration hopefully should not exclude the option of negotiation with the insurgents. Even if their central command may be unwilling, there must be elements and factions who can be malleable enough to be penetrated.
The reasons for a change in tactics are defined even by the very nature of the crisis. Its asymmetric nature makes it difficult for even the military and security officers to properly identify the enemy, who easily camouflages with the local population to wreak havoc, and can attack soft targets at will. How long can we fight an enemy whose most significant distinction is the invisible frame of mind, and is only manifest when he strikes with devastating consequences?
Besides, the group has changed form and operational tactics with its alignment with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) a development that opens yet new threats to our country. In any case negotiation, as is trite knowledge does not always equate to capitulation. Rather negotiation often serves as superior show of power and basic discretion in humanity. And in the present circumstances the onus lies on Nigeria to initiate the process, no matter how it may be achieved.
The death or misfortune of any Nigerian anywhere should elicit due restorative action. This is just as no Nigerian anywhere should be used as sacrificial lamb for any political end, as the Boko Haram sect is presently doing with its Nigerian victims. In that context therefore, all that matters now is that there should be in sight, an end to the current spate of hostilities, in the North East of the country – the epicenter of the Boko Haram outrage.
The reason had been advanced severally that the BH leadership has been reluctant to negotiate. That alone betrays the ultimate vulnerability of the group’s high command as being unsure of the loyalty it commands down the ladder. It then means that the time has come to win them over – person to person and unit by unit.