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News of Boko Haram’s Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Remember Rann?
Remember the Government run refugee camp that was mistakenly bombed by the Nigerien Air-force? that was the Rann refugee camp.
The Rann refugee camp was attacked Thursday last week by Boko Haram. reports indicate Boko Haram stormed the camp in pickup trucks, killed 11 people including Three aid workers, four soldiers and four policemen. Following the attack the French charity Doctors Without Border announced it was pulling of out of the region leaving the refugees with no food, medicine or international help. This is not the first time Boko Haram has attacked aid agencies, on December 16 2017, Boko Haram also attacked a World Food Program convoy taking food to the North East Nigeria…
In Dapchi, Boko Haram is alleged to have abducted girls from a boarding school in Yobe
The simple question is this, what are international humanitarian agencies and girls doing in a war zone? without adequate protection? why did parents take their daughters to a boarding school in the middle of a war zone? The simple answer is that the Federal Government of Nigeria FGN told them the area was safe and Boko Haram has been completely defeated.
In December 2015, President Buhari said “So I think technically we have won the war because people are going back into their neighborhoods. Boko Haram as an organized fighting force, I assure you, that we have dealt with them.”
In December 2016, Buhari said An offensive led by the Nigerian army in recent weeks has dealt a “final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave in Sambisa Forest” in Northeast Borno state. That same period he received a captured Boko Haram flag.
Lai Mohammed, Nigeria Information Minister  told Nigerians in 2017 , “The truth is that there is no resurgence of Boko Haram”
In President Buhari New Year speech to Nigerians in January 2018 he again said, “we have since defeated Boko Haram”
in February 2018, the Nigerian Army said it has has “completely defeated the Boko Haram insurgents”.
I can go on but i am sure you get the point.
If a company offered a product it claims makes hair grow longer, then took out paid advertisements to promote this claim, and consumers bought that product and the products did not work as advertised, what will happen? well there will be laws suits and calls  by the buyers of this product for refunds. The Consumer Protection Bureau will ask questions, the company making this claim will be in trouble, big trouble. So who sues the Federal Government when they make false claims and those claims are relied upon by others, leading to loss, even loss of life?
The sad and painful truth is that Boko Haram has not been defeated….a defeated enemy cannot coordinate the intelligence to locate schools and camps, organise ” logistics” travel to these location, attack and abduct, then keep these abducted hostages out of sight for months. This is an enemy entrenched with safe houses and the capacity to Command, Coordinate and Control. The Federal Government knows Boko Haram is not defeated, that is why it requested $1b for operations against Boko Haram.
Not only did the FGN falsely claim Boko Haram was defeated, Lai Mohammed told Nigerians ….We must all unite against terrorism by denying Boko Haram our platforms to propagate its ideology'” in essence Boko  Haram was removed from the pages of newspapers, censored….There have been many attacks which have gone unreported, many Nigerians are unaware of the true position on ground, thus it is understandable that a typical Nigerian will believe the many assurances of his President, The military and Governors that Boko Haram has been ” COMPLETELY DEFEATED” and decide to send his daughter to a boarding school in a war zone.
The FGN misled Nigerians, it is that simple.
Buhari won the 2015 elections because he promised to defeat Boko Haram, and many believed him, he ruled out negotiating with Boko Haram and promised no amnesty. Today Nigeria and the Federal Government finds itself in a position where Boko Haram may hold the keys in any future negotiations. Girls in exchange for captured Boko Haram fighters and oil money, it has been done before.
It is time for the FGN to come clean and give Nigerians the true picture of the North East, we now know Boko Haram is tactically alive, we now know the North East is still a war zone and not safe, The number one objective for the APC was to have a 2019 without Boko Haram stories, they rushed to retake towns and forests to make headlines and declare victory, that was political and premature. The President promised to lead from the front, and take responsibility, so far has been absent, but he has one year to defeat Boko Haram.
We advise him to do so.

One Comment

  1. The only best solution to tackling Book Haram is to hire ruddless MERCINERIES soldiers from outside as Nigerian senior military commanders cannot 100% trusted any longer. As former president Jonathan has done it before and a great success was remarkably achieved against Bko Haram fighters within a short period. Mercenaries taugh soldiers of fortunes from Isearal, Ukerian, South Africa, Mexico, Cuba, Russia and Argentina

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