Boko Haram to be routed in 6 weeks: Sambo Dasuki

A senior Nigerian official says an underway multilateral offensive against Boko Haram will root out the Takfiri terrorist group within six weeks. Nigeria’s National Security Advisor Sambo Dasuki said on Monday, “All known Boko Haram camps will be taken out. They won’t be there. They will be dismantled.” The official was answering to a question about what gains could be made against the militants before March 28, the new date for the general elections in Nigeria. On Saturday, Nigeria’s electoral commission announced the postponement of the February 14 presidential and legislative elections until March 28 because security forces fighting Boko Haram could not ensure safety of the voters. Dasuki said he believes the military cooperation, agreed two weeks ago between Nigeria and its neighbors Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, will prove decisive against Boko Haram.

The countries, together with Benin, another of Nigeria’s neighbors, have pledged to create an 8,700-strong force to fight the militancy, which has been spilling over beyond the country’s borders. A major offensive with warplanes and ground forces from Chad and Nigeria has already forced the militants out from a dozen Nigerian towns and cities. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a group of US intelligence officials said on February 6 that the terrorist group has about 4,000-6,000 “hardcore” members. As the war against Boko Haram intensifies, the perception that it is wedged by disaffected and jobless youths who oppose and hate Western Education is becoming pedestrian. The sophistication of the command and operational structures of Boko Haram leaves no one in doubt about this reality.    The weapons deployed to commit the ongoing pogrom appear to have been acquired and brought to the war zones through a complicated network. It is hard to believe that a conflict of this magnitude can occur without a complex network of individuals and organizations supporting Boko Haram’s criminal war effort. It may be reasonably suggested that it is a political establishment serving distinct interests in Nigeria and Cameroon. In Nigeria, it has never sought ransom for the many victims it has abducted. In Cameroon although officially classified as a nebulous or illusive enemy, it has turned abduction for ransom into a lucrative business. 

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.