The
Global Terrorism Index 2017 published by the Institute for Economics and Peace
is one report that has excited Nigerians, home and abroad, and for good
reasons too. The report indicated that terrorism-related deaths fell by more
than 80% for the year 2016. There are other positive things about
Nigeria in the 120-page report.
An immediate plus is the renewed
consciousness that it is possible for the mentions of Nigeria, need not be all
bad. Nigeria’s commitment to tackling Boko Haram head-on contributed to the
plummeting of terrorism-related deaths as reported. This confirms that in spite
of the limited international support – what the country gets sometimes is
sabotage – the Nigerian military, notably the army, has delivered on a core
mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari, with results to show for it.
While the elation around the report is
understandable, the pointers it gave about moving forward must not be lost in
the euphoria about the plunge in the number of people that Boko Haram’s attacks
killed. Only a genuine appreciation of these indicators would firmly place
Nigeria on the path of preventing the deaths that the terror group is still
able to cause. This appreciation must be matched with corresponding actions for
them to be meaningful.
First, the Army, cannot and must not
be left alone to deal with terrorism. If military action alone brought about an
80% reduction in deaths then a 99% fall in the number of terrorism linked
deaths would have been possible if other stakeholders pitched in. We should at
this point be asking why the police has not done more in massing to take over
the protection of areas fully cleared by the army or why the intelligence
agencies are not doing more to track would be suicide bombers or even why they
have not been able to block the flow of new recruits to Boko Haram. We must
also address why the military is left alone to deal with the menace of Boko
Haram with only wits and brute force without the legislative support to
specifically make new laws or upgrade existing ones to align with the realities
of terrorism as many nations have done.
Secondly, the report has exposed how
the military has been maligned by a certain syndicate of miscreants and war
merchants over time as not doing much to counter the terror group. The few
instances where Boko Haram is able to strike soft targets is usually celebrated
by some international interests and their domestics proxies, which is usually a
boost to the terrorists that go on to use such tacit support as propaganda to
recruit new fighters. In retrospect, the period covered by the Global Terrorism
Index 2017 turned out to be one during which the army was criticized for not
preventing Boko Haram attacks; since fact and figures do not lie, it is now
clear that the military did have the upper hand over the terrorists.
Also, the aspect of the report that
touched on “Financing Terror” is one that should get us all thinking and
acting. According to the report, “Boko Haram has also been financed by
donations from group members, corrupt politicians and government officials as
well as supporters or organisations based in other countries.” These are areas
that the military had raised alarm about in the past and people dismissed such
as trying to cow the opposition or accused of mounting propaganda. Now that we
have read it from a neutral source perhaps we will now begin to take the issue
of terrorism financing seriously and even review our transactions as
individuals to ascertain we are not unwittingly funding terrorists. This
development is also an eye-opener about the activities of “organisations based
in other countries”, which some Nigerians feel obliged to kowtow to because
they always package themselves as one thing while in reality they are something
else – the activities of groups like Amnesty International and its affiliates
must be reassessed against the background of this information.
Fourthly, there is the lesson that the
terror group should continue to be treated as one cancerous case irrespective
of how many factions it splinters into. The report had noted that “Following
military defeats, Boko Haram split in August 2016 into three separate factions
including a violent faction, one that aligns itself with ISIL and a third
faction affiliated with al-Qa’ida.” The military must not stop its pursuit of
terrorists even when the factions they supposedly belong to are reported to be
less than barbaric than the other.
Furthermore, as the military
increasingly get drafted to address other threats to national security – like
the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that has also been designated a terror
group or the outlawed Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) – it is imperative to
address the nexus between other disturbances and terrorism as established in
the report. The army under General Buratai must be commended for dealing with
these other problems before they snowballed into the kind of horror show Boko
Haram has evolved into. If one is not asking for too much, the insults poured
on the military for proactively dealing with these problems should be revisited
and it’s role in keeping the country secure in line with President Buhari’s
promise acknowledged for a mention.
Much as Nigerians are keen on
celebrating the Global Terrorism Index 2017, we must immediately address the
issues raised above. This becomes imperative when one realizes that the next
report would be using the current 20% death as the benchmark for assessing the
following year, which could potentially translate into higher deaths by
percentages even when the actual figures have fallen well below the previous
year.
Stakeholders must, therefore, address
the obstacles that the military had faced even at the time it achieved the feat
of dampening terrorism-related deaths. This includes ensuring that operation
against terrorism does not lack funding, equipment, legislation and government
support. The Federal Government must also find a lasting solution to the
harassment of the country’s military institutions by so-called international
organizations that may well be the “organisations based in other countries”
referred to in the report of the Institute for Economics and Peace. In fact,
their activities should henceforth be appraised in a different light to ensure
they are not sabotaging the military to ensure they can continue to chalk up
civilian deaths to suit other agenda.
While congratulating President Buhari,
General Buratai and the Nigerian Army on the import of the report, one must
mention that the progress indicates by the report is a call to do even more to
end Boko Haram’s days of terror. The report in the section on “How Terrorist
Groups End” posited that 35% of terrorist groups succumb to military/police
defeat, 30% Internal splintering and 35% relenting after they have achieved
their goals or entered politics. Boko Haram will never achieve its goal neither
will it find a welcoming embrace in the political arena with its history of
bloodletting. The military must, therefore, unleash more defeats that would
further splinter the terrorists so that they will not have the space to take
even 2 percent lives before the next report is due.
Murphy is a security expert
based in Calabar, Cross River state
Culled from The Cable
No comments: