David Onmeje
In appreciating the status of soldiers in a nation, the American Allen Boyd lauded sacrifices, laced in very strategic thoughts about the Army of his country. The visionary intellectual posited that: “America’s fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers who have paid the ultimate price for this cause, as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed.”
It is a passionate plea to humanity to stare beyond the veneer to discern the rare contributions of soldiers to the freedom of nations. Elsewhere, the celebrated French war veteran, Napoleon Bonaparte, gave credence to the place of the Army in the history of every country by asserting that “the Army is the true nobility of our country.” These great men of history have replayed reality in the most fascinatingly grandeur.
Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-In-Chief (C-in-C) of the Nigerian Armed Forces, is one unique retired Army General. In military uniform, he spared no personal treasure to ensure freedom for Nigerians and the protection of the nation’s sovereignty. And as democratic leader, President Buhari has replicated same posture in the face of Nigeria’s confounding insecurities, especially Boko Haram insurgency.
President Buhari, the Nigerian Army and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, all deserve a golden place in Nigeria’s history. They have dutifully deployed their ingenuity, perseverance and courage to exculpate Nigeria from the claws of a consuming siege by terrorists.
Prior to the Buhari presidency, Nigeria went through hell in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents who wielded so much power. Boko Haram registered its strong presence in Nigeria in 2009, under the leadership of its founder and first leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Its successive leaders such as Abubakar Shekau, Musab al Barnewi and numerous other splinter sects became more vicious in their bloody campaigns to conquer Nigeria. The exploits of insurgents prior to 2015 left trails of blood in multiple horrendous acts.
For years, Boko Haram insurgents committed countless atrocities against the people of Nigeria. It precipitated national agonies, pains, killings, wanton destruction, abductions, displacements and annexation of territories of Nigeria. These afflictions morphed into the synonymity with the name “Nigeria” and wailings became the national anthem in the country.
But President Buhari and the Nigerian Army under his watch have changed the tales of lamentations of Nigerians over terrorism. They have consoled the nation with very daring exploits against terrorists. The country has sighted final freedom from the torments and devilry of terrorists.
Before now, the phobia of Boko Haram was pervasive and deep in the psyche of Nigerians. Reminisces of the horrendous atrocities of Boko Haram invoke unforgettable gory images to date. What else could have plunged any nation into worse sorrow than the reality that, in just three days, July 26 to 29, 2009, Boko Haram’s signature uprising killed more than 1,000 people in four locations, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Potiskum and Wudil in Kano State. It jolted a sleepy nation into wakefulness.
Thereafter, the attacks became very daring, intensified and rampant. Boko Haram penetrated all parts of the North. They had completely overpowered the Nigerian military and other security agencies and overran the northern part of the country, visiting atrocities very recklessly.
When Boko Haram descended in its full weight on Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and hell was let loose, the United Nation’s (UN) country office, the Louis Edet House, headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force, Eagle Square, the nation’s public square, shopping malls, markets, bus stations, media houses and every conceivable spot in Abuja tasted the bitter pills of terrorists.
Bombs exploded frequently. Abuja’s nearby vicinities, especially in the neignbouring Niger State were not spared the havoc. Worship places, markets and villages bowed to the fury of Boko Haram. Plateau and Kogi states frequently smouldered with smoke from exploded terrorists’ bombs. Boko Haram militants broke into prisons in different parts of the country, Lagos, Kogi, Ondo and freed inmates, some of them, their foot soldiers held in captivity by Nigerian security forces.
In the North-East states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where the Boko Haram concentrated enormous energy on this conquest mission, virtually every part of these states was crippled. Markets, worship places, schools, government offices, hospitals, banks and communities came under the strong grip of Boko Haram terrorists.
Abduction of women and children as well as students, more boldly illustrated by the kidnapping of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls, the aged and the coercive recruitment and indoctrination of youths into the Boko Haram sect threw the nation into a stream of endless agonies and wailings.
The heat was so massive and it reached a crescendo where survivors could no longer bury the dead. Corpses littered everywhere in the North-East region. Agriculturalists could no longer ply their trade. Farms were deserted, traditional and religious leaders were displaced from their thrones, while others were killed, like the assassination of the Emir of Gwoza, Idrissa Timta, during a Boko Haram ambush.
Boko Haram captured and occupied 17 local government areas in the North-East. They hoisted their jihadi flags and made Gwoza their administrative headquarters. They appointed their own emirs and established Jihadi courts, where captives were put on trial and extra-judicially executed. It was Boko Haram’s loudest statement of success in the actualisation of their mission of total conquest of Nigeria.
Having established this supremacy over Nigeria and her people, the insurgents came close to capturing Government House, Maiduguri. Nigerians lived with these torments and psychological traumas from Boko Haram for over seven years before the Buhari presidency.
The worse national challenge was the powerlessness of the military in countering the insurgents. The Nigerian military fell prostrate before the menacing swords of Boko Haram militants, as they freely consumed everybody and everything at sight.
In each of Boko Haram’s escapades, an attack on any targeted community or village they would massacre an amazing number of civilians and even troops in days of siege and co-ordinated attacks unmolested. This season in Nigeria also saw the disgraceful shirking of troops at the warfront in the heat of battle with terrorists for either lack of weapons to battle insurgents or in apparent dread of the superior firepower of invading Boko Haram militants.
However, and luckily for Nigerians, they consented to enthroning President Buhari as their democratic leader in 2015. And together, the trio of Buhari, Buratai and the Nigerian Army have wiped off the tears of Nigerians. They came for a rescue mission and have lived up to expectations.
The reign of Boko Haram and their additional variant, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists have ceased to bellow the chants of might or triumph against the Nigerian troops and Nigerian people.
With Gen. Buratai leading the counter-insurgency battles in the trenches, the formerly invincible insurgents have been reduced to effeminate beings, gasping for breath. Buratai has stoked the flames of national pride in blistering colours. They have made us proud and excited as citizens of a nation, as their marvelous conquests of terrorists has generously triggered nation-wide euphoria.
And in the last phase of the anti-terrorism operations, the Nigerian Army has asserted itself in the frontlines as an indomitable force. Through actions, they have challenged Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists to again display their supremacy, in the brazen manner which was the trademark of the sect members. But rather, the Boko Haram criminals are wailing, lamenting and boiling in their own stew pathetically.
The drama at the theatre of war in the North-East is captivating and at the same time dreary to insurgents. Its either voices from battlefield exposes Boko Haram factional leader, Abubakar Shekau, wailing and pleading for a truce or his top commanders who can no longer bear the heat of the battle have deserted their leader and surrendered to the Nigerian Army.
With the braggadocio Shekau and his foot soldiers flaunted and held Nigerians captive under the spell of terrorism, no Nigerian ever thought this moment would ever be possible.
But President Buhari, Gen. Buratai and the Nigerian Army have etched this history in the nation’s book of archives.
This feat has also astonished or disarmed Boko Haram sponsors, agents and veiled sympathizers everywhere. They are disarmed the more because the renewed onslaughts on terrorists in the Northeast does not leave them with any hope or chance of recovery. Pleasantly, insurgents are now kissing the dust in every encounter with Nigerian troops.
What else can be more frustrating to Boko Haram criminals than the hard reality that within the six weeks of Gen. Buratai’s invasion of the Northeast, over 1,000 insurgents have been killed in the exchange of fierce gunfire with Nigerian troops. It is a rare accomplishment any war commander has achieved anywhere in the world.
Needless to repeat the obvious that Nigerians are proud of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces; the COAS and the gallant and courageously determined Nigerian troops who have restored the lost pride of the nation. Nigerian troops have elevated the dignity of Nigeria in the international community.
President Buhari and Gen. Buratai have done what no one else has done for Nigeria since the return of democratic rule in 1999 with the multifarious insecurities that threatened the national coherence and unity. Like the America George S. Patton stated; “The soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country.”