Is it true that the terrorist group, Boko Haram, and the bandits operating mostly in the north-western fringes of the country have in their employ propaganda experts who guide them as to the best time to strike to give the false impression that they are still strong and relevant, even when in reality they are weak? Is it also true that Boko Haram and its partner-in-evil, the Islamic State for West Africa Province (ISWAP), an offshoot of ISIS, have engaged thousands of young men and women who defend them in the mainstream media and also flood the social media with anti-Nigerian military propaganda, part of which is also propagating every act of evil carried out by the groups?

Answers to these questions, all of which are in the affirmative, are at the heart of the reasons President Muhammadu Buhari decided to trust his intuition and deep experience in war to align with the strategy being employed by the security chiefs in the administration’s efforts to totally extinguish terrorism from our shores, even if the strategy, like every human endeavor, may not be foolproof or perfect. Though the President directed the service chiefs, in his meeting with them yesterday, to up the ante and squarely deal with the security situation, the fact remains his confidence in their ability to deliver remains unflinching.

The following instance will also corroborate the masterful deployment of evil and propaganda, which the terrorists have been executing with so much precision that all the gains of the last three months, during which the Nigerian armed forces have given the bandits and terrorists a bloody nose, fell into virtual oblivion with just one strike in a village in Borno State, during which they killed tens of innocent citizens, and with bandits on virtual rampage, killing tens of innocent compatriots, in their push for economic control of the North.

Since the end of March, until the beginning of June, the Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Tukur Yusufu Buratai had relocated to the theatre of war, where he personally took command of the battle and led our armed forces to nooks and crannies of Sambisa Forest and the fringes of the Lake Chad, uprooting camp upon camp of the terrorists and killing over a thousand of them. In that operation also, several thousand Nigerians kidnapped by the terrorists were freed by the army, and to cap it all, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the terrorists, had lost all hope of surviving the war after seeing his top commanders killed one after the other by the army, that he released a video in which he was heard profusely crying and pleading for his worthless life.

The Nigerian armed forces succeeded in pushing very deep into the enclaves and fortresses of the terrorists, so much that those of them that managed to remain alive decided to use innocent civilians as human shields by taking shelter in different villages and towns. To avert collateral damage, which attack on these villages and towns will lead to, the Army Chief decided to take a little break, to restrategise as to how best to handle this difficult aspect of the war, and ensure that innocent citizens do not end up being killed.

Just when the army was being celebrated by Nigerians for the unprecedented achievements they have recorded, the terrorists decided to turn the tide in their favour with just that lone strike on a soft target, and with the bandits also attacking innocent citizens as a false show of strength.  The efforts of Boko Haram to take over an army base was met with such stiff resistance that virtually all who carried out the suicidal attack ended up being killed by our galant armed forces, with others captured or seriously wounded. And to give vent to the rumor that they have thousands of youths working for them in the social media, the momentum was snatched from the armed forces, who these propagandists now turned to as villains, with many Nigerians unknowingly painting them in very unpalatable colors.

Then the one issue that these propagandists, working with some innocent, concerned Nigerians who are genuinely bothered with the developments,  have succeeded in keeping on the front burner for some time, resurfaced, and that is the question of tenure of the four service chiefs manning the Nigerian military, with two of them southerners and Christians, and the other two Muslims and northerners. A lot of Nigerians have wondered why President Buhari has continued to keep these top officers on their posts, even when bandits and terrorists are still active killing several people on regular basis. This column has been able to establish some of the reasons, and they are enumerated as follows:

Firstly, imagine yourself as the president of a heterogenous society like Nigeria; a country where very educated people at times display ignorance that undermines the depth of their education, and everyday, you are regaled with requests to make a holistic change to a system, such as the security apparatus, that has the potential to make or mar your administration, but upon deep reflection and findings, you discover that most of such requests are being spearheaded or sponsored by the opposition that you personally believe do not mean well.

The scenario above explains what goes through the mind of President Buhari each time the issue of national security is broached to him. Every human being has his unique personality, and for President Muhammadu Buhari, he does not believe in being rushed, more so by the opposition, to change what he has deep conviction about.

Secondly, the President has on different occasions been approached by several personalities, who are  fronting for one military officer or the other, lobbying for their protégés to be appointed as the next service chiefs. So everyday President Buhari opens a newspaper and reads critical pieces against the military, he knows that the authors must belong to either of the following four groups: those who are genuinely concerned with the development and are afraid it could impinge on his legacies; those who have been assigned by ambitious military officers to go on the rampage in the media, because those officers want to be appointed the next set of service chiefs; those who are working as agents of terrorists and bandits, and lastly, though not the least, members of the opposition who see this as an opportunity to get at him and ensure mortal damage to the President’s legacy. And you know what? The President classifies each writeup or story and always knows which group to assign them to.

Whereas an ordinary citizen thinks it is just so easy to retire a top military officer, the President, as a former senior military officer and now Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces,  knows how cumbersome the process of training a military officer to the level he or she has reached is.  He also knows the humongous amount spent in the process. Added to that is the very deep experience that will be lost when such officers are no longer in service. So even though the military has its terms of engagement spelling methods of entry and exit, it is known globally that when a nation is at war, exceptions to such rules could be made. And this explains the extension the President has been granting not only to the service chiefs, but also many senior security officers whose knowledge and experience Nigeria direly needs in prosecuting the war against terror.

Number four: To the less-informed citizen, the Nigerian armed forces have all that they need, and that they lack nothing in terms of funding and equipment.  But the President knows that the military is waging war on several fronts in the face of heavy odds, including inadequate funding and obsolete equipment acquired by previous administrations. He knows that his efforts to acquire more sophisticated weaponry are receiving little or no support from leaders of countries producing these weapons, mostly because some Nigerians have written one petition or the other making, in most cases, spurious claims to do with fundamental human rights and other claims. This must have informed why the Nigerian Army has resorted to producing its own weapons, though not at the needed industrial scale.

Whereas Senator Ali Ndume, Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, is saying that not a dime has been released  to the Army in this year so far, trillions of dollars (not naira) are being spent by the American military in its war against the Taliban, which it has still not won. The entire annual budget of the three branches of the Nigerian military is also not up to one year budget of the New York Fire Service. So when allegations are being made about the military leadership, the President knows how hollow they are. Even Senate President Ahmed Lawan cautioned the nation at plenary last week, against rushing to judgement without caring to find out the level of funding and equipping of the armed forces.

Fifthly, the President receives security briefing and reports that enable him to know more than the rest of us, at least as far as the entire truth about our security situation is concerned. Whereas there is indeed a surge in insecurity in the country, the fact remains the administration has recorded huge gains that limited terrorists to only a few areas of the north-east, unlike before when they were operating virtually freely in other parts of the North, including Abuja.

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Number six: Those urging the President to take certain actions, such as removal of the service chiefs, will disappear the moment those actions turn negative.  After all, where are those who misled President Jonathan to ignore Chibok girls when they were abducted by Boko Haram? They have left the former President to continue to bear his cross alone.  At the end of the day history will not remember those nay sayers, but the President. More than everyone else, President Buhari wants the war to end, and if he knew the current security leaders cannot do the job, he definitely will have removed them. He also knows that the military leadership goes beyond the chiefs; that their key lieutenants, like the senior generals, are carried along in most if not all key decisions taken. Additionally, he knows that one of the biggest assets of war is patience. The military could end up making huge mistakes if they are rushed.

Number seven: Unlike those of us who feel the presence of the crop of security chiefs is causing stagnation in the rankings, the reality is that, in the military, there are only four service chiefs, led by the Chief of Defence Staff. Yet, there are hundreds of generals who are serving in the three branches of the military. There is no way all of them can be service chiefs. Only four persons can be so at any one time. There is no way the appointment or replacement of only four persons will cause the kind of turnaround that people are expecting.

More so there have been massive promotions, such as that of Lamidi Adeosun to the high rank of Lieutenant General, same as the Army Chief. In any case, at a time of war, such as now, what is more important is victory, even if it would come without some deserving personnel becoming service chiefs.

Number eight:  More than any of us Nigerian citizens, President Buhari knows that the war is about to be won, and that any change at this point in time will only end up derailing that victory.

Number nine:  This war has international dimensions, not only because of ISIS, which has largely defied even the West, but also owing to international politics or rivalry between anglophone and francophone countries. All the other three countries affected by the war: Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic  were colonies of France, and they will rather take instructions from that country than necessarily aligning with their anglophone neighbour, who some of them have, in any case, have been envious of.

President Buhari knows the role of one or two neighboring countries that have been harboring the terrorists and giving them sanctuary, thereby making it impossible for our military to access and totally annihilate them.

Number ten: The President also knows how difficult it is for our people to cooperate with the security services by passing critical information to them. Yet, even the best security services that we admire abroad are achieving so much largely because the citizens of these countries readily surrender information. In our case, as recent arrests and evidence have shown, some unscrupulous individuals have been aiding terrorists and bandits with information that lead to their kinsmen being killed. Let’s remember that bandits have been killing in the north-west with relative ease because even some traditional rulers are their partners and informants. At least we have seen how the Governor of Zamfara State has sacked some emirs and title holders for the same reason. It is also openly known that up to today, there are thousands of people in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, who still regard the terrorists as their own, and will therefore never expose them.

This column condoles with Nigeria for the loss of innocent lives owing to banditry and terrorism, and urge all compatriots to continue to support our armed forces to totally win the war, as they are doing. As Frank Clark, the renowned America. Lawyer has said, “if you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” Setbacks, very painful as they are, are normal in war. What matters is ultimate victory, and it is coming Nigerian way, sooner than later.

 

Pantami, Danbatta, Kashifu and the trillion dollar global digital economy

I call them the three musketeers. Collectively, they hold the fate of Nigeria in the ongoing global competition among smart countries of the world to grab a share of the estimated $11.5 trillion digital economy market. Dr.  Isa Ali Pantami is the Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy of Africa’s biggest economy.  Professor Umaru Danbatta is the Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the National Communications Commission (NCC), while Malam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi is the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). 

I was one of those who had cause to suspect that the Minister was picking a fight with Danbatta to ensure the NCC CEO does not get a second term of office. But I and all those who thought so were very wrong when the same Pantami wrote a letter strongly recommending for the renewal of Danbatta’s term of office for another five years, which President Buhari graciously granted. With that and other actions taken by Minister Pantami, Nigerians need no one to tell them that this is a man sacrificing everything else to ensure the very best for Nigeria.

The Communications Minister has, working closely in concert with Kashifu and Danbatta, been getting it right in his determination to get Nigeria extract maximum benefit from the digital economy by his strengthening of the nation’s digital infrastructure, unlocking investment, boosting skills and training for its youthful population, and implementing reforms to create jobs and reduce poverty.

The digital economy is developing at an exponential rate globally. It is the single most important driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth.  For a country like Nigeria with a huge population of small and medium-sized enterprises, this is an area that holds huge potential for entrepreneurs and economic transformation. It is key to President Buhari’s hope of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.  These three gentlemen will surely take Nigeria to the Promised Land.