The menace of banditry in the Northwest and Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast is worsening by the day.
I really sympathize with President Muhammadu Buhari who has done everything under the sun to rid the country of the menace by releasing billions of Naira to the military, the police and other security agencies towards the defeat of the terrorist groups without achieving the desired result.
In recent times, Nigerians have taken to all forms of medium to express their anger on the worsening security situation, with majority calling for the sack of the service chiefs – an action adjudged as long overdue.
There is no doubt that the current military leaders have contributed their quota in especially the fight against Boko Haram which until 2015 had occupied large territories in the North-Eastern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa.
In less than two years of this administration’s first tenure, a better equipped Nigerian military with high morale and motivation won the conventional war to the delight and hailing of all citizens.
All occupied territories were recaptured and remnants of the terrorists fled to the inaccessible parts of Sambisa and the Mandara hills on the border of Nigeria and Cameroon, while others fled to Chad and Niger.
Within a short time however, the Boko Haram reemerged in guerilla form, hitting at soft targets and running back to their enclave in the Sambisa forest and on the Mandara hills, a development that has been going on since the middle of 2017.
Sadly, that was about the time that bandits in the Northwest had also started their operation and slowly escalated to the alarming level that it has reached today.
On Christmas eve, the Boko Haram struck in Garkida town of Adamawa state, killing about 6 people and abducting three, while another group invaded Chibok, Borno state, and meted similar havoc.
You wonder what is preventing the military from going after the bandits inside the Sambisa forest.
With all the available heat-seeking technology, night goggles and satellite imaging that could accurately pinpoint the position of the enemy, why does the military stagnate in wrapping up the Boko Haram operation?
Could it be, as has been alleged in many quarters, not happening due to corruption, sabotage or running out of ideas?
While there are credible reasons to believe that sabotage is at play, we shall also have to admit that the military chiefs have reached their wit’s end and have nothing more or new to offer in terms of strategy.
It is time to thank them and give younger officers with fresh brains the chance to wrap up this war. It is time to let them go, Mr President.
Iyawa is Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Mexico
