Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabunduh Badeh, the Chief of the Defence Staff, has come under severe attack lately and some Nigerians are calling for his head for his seeming inability to quell the Boko Haram insurgency sweeping the North East states. Such calls may not be borne out of disaffection for the defence chief but out of mere anxiety over the quantum terrorist violence which his critics believe is happening right at his doorsteps, under his nose.
They argue that as the highest military commander Badeh lacks the know-how to lead an onslaught against the Boko Haram terrorists, stressing that if he could not protect his hometown then the country at large is doomed in the hands of the masquerading Islamic invaders.
In fairness to Badeh, until the dummy of the ceasefire that was sold to the Presidency, the military was having upper hand on the terrorists especially with the demise of the second or third Shekau and this forced the terrorists to be surrendering in droves but the moment the ceasefire card was introduced, the military was ordered to suspend the war but by the time the Federal Government realized its follies, the terrorists had turned the table against the troops raiding, invading and renaming towns and villages in Borno and Adamawa states.
Adamawa State, where Badeh hails from was under a severe attacks few days ago before the troops were able to flush the terrorists out killing many and arrested a lot. Notably among the towns and villages ravaged included but not limited to Madagali, Michika, Maiha, Mubi, Ganye and where Badeh comes from Vimtim among others.
But in an encounter with Mr Yochuku Ofoka Yobolisa, a veteran journalist now a lecturer at the Enugu State University in Abuja recently, he faulted those putting the blame on the CDS and argued on how to tame the monster of terrorism.
Hear him: “The CDS Badeh and his military forces are only a small, infinitesimal component of the Federal government’s machinery that should counter or respond to terrorist threats. Because Badeh is not fighting a conventional war where his competences or lack of them are measured by the level of penetration into the enemy territory, the amount of the enemy arsenal destroyed, and the number of the enemy troops either killed or taken prisoner, condemning him over his seeming inability to stem terrorist incursion in the Northeast might be irrational and down-to-earth unfeeling.
“In civilized societies all over the world where terrorist violence rage jurisdiction over counterterrorism is not placed in the hands of the military commanders alone. And since terrorism, be it domestic, international, transitional or a permanent feature of society is faceless combating it oftentimes, involves a broad, multidimensional approach cutting across critical agencies of state security, service departments and even product factories which may have terrorist plants in their employ. In addition to precision-guided firepower campaigns of our nuclear forces, the day-to-day activities of the civil service agencies should include purging the system of its enemies coupled with an outsourcing of vital pieces of information about the diehard enemies of state.
“This information gleaned from homeland factories and agencies plus counterintelligence services abroad are what make counterterrorism efforts effective and worthwhile. The question is, how is our national government organized to address the overarching issues of terrorism, vandalism, armed insurrections and all forms of insurgent moves emanating from within the country or from without?”
Speaking further, he Yobolisa said, “I think all of us, and the government, are to blame for not being able to end or at least stem Boko Haram insurgencies in the Northeastern states. But before we crucify Badeh, who is even positively caught up in the red tape of officialdom, let us first of all, understand terrorism and the working substance of all terrorist eruptions. Terrorism, which involves a violent struggle, is a specific tool of persuasion in a wide variety of power relationship. I define it as an orchestrated state of fear for bringing about a desired change in society.
“By this definition I mean that terrorism, as we witness it today through the agency of Boko Haram, is an unobtrusively organized series of actions that evoke fear for purposes of obtaining a desired result. Hence, a disgruntled group in any given society, oftentimes, resorts to it to challenge the authority of government. In some cases, such disgruntled elements may come from outside the target group. For instance, the Zealots, a Jewish, anti-Roman sect, used it in ancient Israel against Roman occupation. The Assassins, a secret order of Muslim faithful in ancient Iran who obeyed their commanders even unto death used it against the Christian Crusaders in Syria. Since then aside religious sects, secular political organizations have used it more often to oppose the state pointedly heatedly to express their deep-rooted anger.”
The security observer then went down the memory lane to proof a point that terrorism is a global phenomenon.
According to him, Terrorism originating from France where it was called ‘terreur’, modern terrorism, though not specifically orchestrated to destabilize the state as it was used by the French in their revolution to change the French society from a monarchical regime to a democratic order. However, after the French, modern terrorism assumed an anti-government posture and thenceforward, clandestine organizations everywhere in the modern world such as the Russian Revolutionary Group, the Italian Red Brigade, the German Red Army and, the Irish Republican Army used it to describe their violent struggles against the state.
“Like the Israelite Zealots, Boko Haram has opposed the nascent democratic order in the country starting from the days of Umaru Yar’Adua with a sustained campaign of murder and destruction. Like the Persian Assassins they have terrorized the Northeast using a campaign of systematic murder and religious convolution. Like the Italian Red Brigade they have tried to weaken the fledgling democracy with intent to establish a theocracy. And like Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda they have continued to swell in number and technical pre-eminence”.
On the way out of the mess we have found ourselves, the author of a book, There’s Terror in the Street said, “Crushing terrorist violence in the Northeast should not be left to the military alone because it cannot do it alone. It is equally important to note that all terrorist caucuses have the backing of powerful nations and individuals who act subterranean to achieve their cantankerous politico-religious desires. Such powerful states or people, of course, using surrogate terrorists and stand-ins, have no qualms what they do to their target audiences so long as they communicate a message. More often than not such people label themselves freedom fighters who strive to free a supposedly oppressed society.
“While hiding underground, the covert terrorists fund their surrogates and turn them into formidable forces. If they are state-sponsored they even have the luxury of state facilities. The states of Libya and Sudan, our very close neighbours, for example, had been certified guilty of state-sponsorship of terrorism where racial extremists made use of their states’ embassies to unleash terror across the globe. Responsive governments of their target countries like the United States and Britain approached terrorist projections of Libya, the al-Qaeda organization and other terror countries from all fronts.
“They used the military, created specialized agencies to direct their governments’ efforts, consolidated into one agency dozens of agencies that share responsibility to respond and prevent terrorism, suspended temporarily democratic provisions of habeas corpus and the rule of law in all corners of their countries, permitted their security operatives to search the homes of certain citizens without warrants, enacted stringent laws designed to forestall terrorist moves. All these efforts, call them marshal rules if you like, are geared towards achieving effective counteroffensives to terrorist threats. But there was one thing they did not do: they did not leave the jurisdiction of counter-terrorism in the hands of their military commanders. But in our own case we seem to rely on the military alone”.
Speaking further, he said, “To win this fight against the terrorists calls for a well-coordinated counteroffensive involving not just Badeh and his military forces but all well-meaning Nigerians and critical segments of our society. It is interesting to note that the current terrorist campaign in the Northeast has been somewhat designed not in accordance with the universally-acknowledged terrorist motives where terrorist violence is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. But Boko Haram, in most part, uses violence simply as vengeance rather as a means to effect a politico-religious change in the polity. The Boko Haram sect can hardly qualify as an enemy within but a surrogate army of Nigeria’s external enemies who have scores to settle with the Nigerian state.
“This fact explains in parts why the vestibule of the Islamic sect is widening and their cavalry becoming more formidable by the day. Hence, this is no fight for the military forces and the police alone but one that should involve also the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Department of State Security (DSS), the National Assembly, the National Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigerian Custom Service, NAFDAC, NDLEA, the Nigerian Directorate of Employment (NDE), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Judicial Commission (NJI), the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Pilgrims Board, the hospitality industry, the show business and, in fact, the whole gamut of our intelligence services and the national consciousness”.