Have we seen the back of Boko Haram?

I was preparing to get my teeth into this piece when news filtered into the social media that the Borno State Government had put off the public holiday which would have been observed on Friday 22nd to mark the capture of Sambisa Forest from the Boko Haram insurgents. It would have been the first anniversary to be celebrated and would have been a remembrance day for the victims of Boko Haram terrorism, as well as the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and members of other security agencies and volunteers who lost their lives in the fight against the insurgents. 

However as the date fell on a Friday which according to Mohammed Bulama, the Borno State Commissioner for Home affairs, Information and Culture ‘coincidentally dovetails into a four-day work-free period occasioned by the Christmas festivities, a declaration of the day as a public holiday will invariably deny Nigerian workers resident in Borno State, especially those who will observe Christmas, the opportunity to withdraw their December salaries from the banks’.

It was all neat and proper to cancel and postpone the celebrations. The reasons advanced by the state government were plausible enough but at closer scrutiny, they all add up to the fact we had celebrated too early last year when our gallant forces were reported to have captured ground zero in the dreaded Sambisa Forest. We all thought that the war was over and we could go back to running our lives as it were. It was not to be as the terrorists transformed themselves into insurgents and retreated into the wide terrain of the Borno landscape to appear surreptitiously, at times brazenly, bombing, killing and rampaging at will. 

The nation celebrated when our gallant armed forces dislodged all the Boko Haram elements from all the local governments they had occupied in the north-east region. In Yobe and Adamawa many of these local government areas have gone back to normal lives. However Borno the epicentre of the crisis is still bedevilled by the consequences of the terrorists’ rampage. Many of the local governments that were occupied by the terrorists and liberated by the armed forces can still not be reached by their teeming citizens that had fled the fight into IDP camps in Maiduguri and environs.

Main population centres such as Bama, Gwoza and Gamboru-Ngala are perennially threatened by the insurgents making it impossible for the citizens to return to their homes.  The highway from Maiduguri to Bama to Gwoza, and to Gamboru-Ngala as well as to Damboa and to Biu cannot be traversed normally without heavily armed escorts. Even as it were, the convoys led by the armed escorts are periodically attacked with loss of lives.

Probably the only highway into Maiduguri that could be used with some degree of safety is the link from Jos and Kano through Damaturu. Recently even this safe link was breached when the insurgents attacked Mainok which is on the highway and only 40 kms from Maiduguri. The attack as reported was carried out in a defiant manner, engaging our troops for many hours and holding traffic on both sides for long.  

This war on Boko Haram needs to be brought to some quick closure. Social and economic lives are completely grounded in those areas that have been liberated but are still unsafe. Consequently, Maiduguri is choked up with IDPs. Citizens who would otherwise be on their own and even be contributors to the national economy are forced to be dependent on handouts from government and multi-national aid givers. Bama (leading to Banki) and Gamboru-Ngala, are major international trading outposts and they sit on major arteries in the trading chain between major cities in Nigeria, Lagos, Kano, Onitsha, Port Harcourt with the Central and North Africa. Today the activities of the insurgents have rendered the two outlets comatose and have effectively closed those lucrative trading routes.

There is need to avoid a long drawn out insurgency to avoid what we are witnessing in Somalia, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan where the terrorists have dug in and refused to be defeated. A prolonged insurgency would only mean a permanent incapacitation of a whole region. And when things got out of control as it did before – God forbid! – the whole nation got engulfed. The nation must not forget that just two years ago more than half of the country was living in fear of bombs. It is only the sheer focus and tenacity of this administration that had got us the prevailing peace the country is enjoying. 

But the job is not finished. There seem to be a collective amnesia that Borno is still besieged. The terrorists are still out there. Their notorious leaders Shekau and Abu al-Barnawi are still at large. Some of their captured trophies such as the remaining Chibok girls and the University of Maiduguri lecturers are still in their clutches. Commerce, industry and farming activities are at a stand-still. Probably half of the schools in the state have been closed for some years now. Major Federal Government investment such as Chad Basin Development Authority has been grounded also for years now. The Boko Haram terrorists need to be finally routed. 

A NEW BOOK ON DIKWA

Dikwa emirate is today one of the areas in Borno mostly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. A recent book published by Mohammed Adam was recently sent to me. I read the book and wish to share its unique features with readers. The book, ‘Major Landmarks in the Political History of Dikwa Emirate since 1900’ tells an unusual story. Firstly you need to know that we are talking of a vast landmass – a number of Nigerian states can be tucked in neatly within the area covered by Dikwa. Secondly it is one those places in Nigeria that had a turbulent history at the turn of the last century having been a playing ground of the Germans, French and British, the three colonial powers that jostled for power in West Africa in that period. The area passed through their hands in quick succession until it finally rested with the British and became an integral part of Nigeria. 

Thirdly, since Rabeh who conquered Kanem-Borno, just before the arrival of the colonial powers and decided to move the capital from Kukawa to Dikwa, he unwittingly sowed the seeds of stiff competition between the princes of the Elkanemi House. The capital settled in Maiduguri in 1907 and Shehu Garbai (the grandfather of the present Shehu) moved his palace there while the rump of Borno was left in the hands of the Germans with the capital at Dikwa. Since then, with many events after, Dikwa never really settled into obscurity. It is now back into reckoning when it became a new Emirate in 2010 with Shehu Muhammad ibn Masta 11 as its ruler. An added bonus in the book is the details on Gwoza District which would not be found anywhere else. Gwoza was part of Dikwa before it was excised and made a chiefdom and is now a first-class emirate.

The author has turned out a remarkable book that will continue to be of use for researchers, students and policy analysts. He had diligently researched the subject matter over a considerable period of time and had brought out a rich collection complete with rare pictures. Mohammed Adam is uniquely placed to do this kind of thing. After all he had spent over 50 years in public service most of the period involved in the pursuit of educational matters in the state. He started from humble beginnings as a primary school headmaster and rose to be Commissioner of Education many times over.