Boko Haram: Beyond Recruiting Soldiers

Days after the last media chat in which President Goodluck Jonathan told Nigerians that he had ordered a massive recruitment exercise into the Nigerian security agencies so as to be able to match insurgency that has taken its toll on the country, the Nigerian Army announced a commencement of the exercise. To show its seriousness concerning the exercise, the Army, on 28 June, published the list of candidates shortlisted for the 71 regular recruit intake pre-screening examination and asked those who applied to check for their names on the Nigeria Army e-recruitment portal.

Apart from the reason given for this recruitment exercise, we also think it is a good effort to reduce the rising unemployment rate in the country. However, we express pessimism that recruiting more Nigerians into security agencies alone cannot curb terrorism which is worsening by the day across the country. Even if the Federal Government recruits half of Nigerians without the required equipment and necessary training of the security personnel, the country would only be scratching the surface while insurgency would continue to fester.

The Nigerian security forces need to be equipped with superior fire power to defeat Boko Haram whose fighters carry highly sophisticated weapons. That is why the insurgents are wreaking heavy casualties all over the place.

Many Nigerian soldiers, police officers as well as other security agencies have ended up becoming victims of these enemies whose mission is mainly to destroy the country. For example, a recent attack against soldiers by the Boko Haram sect led to the death of 16 officers and the abduction of an unknown number of security personnel. The incident happened on 24 June and the soldiers, according to one of the survivors, were at a military post at Bulabulin Ngaura in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State in the northeastern part of the country when the sect members struck. Apart from the fact that the insurgents stormed the military post in a convoy of over 30 vehicles, they also had mounted anti-aircraft guns while the soldiers were only armed with AK47 rifles. There is the urgent need to match the insurgents force with force.

Last Sunday, the Boko Haram sect invaded some communities around Chibok, where over 200 female students were abducted nearly three months ago in Borno State. They carried out their atrocity for hours unhindered even though the Nigerian security agencies were aware of an impending attack following a report made to the police by some of the communities nearly two weeks before the attack.

We therefore wonder that in spite of Federal Government’s position that the battle against the Boko Haram is synonymous with war, there is no concrete effort by the government to give the Nigerian military the confidence to believe in their ability to stem this war, apart from the usual rhetoric. The patriotic fighters’ morale has to be boosted with better welfare and needed equipment.

It is now very pertinent that our Nigerian security officials should not be used as canon fodder for the insurgents. This becomes the case when they are poorly equipped to go and fight the insugents. They are human beings with family members like every other citizen of the country and as such they should not be wasted. If the government truly wants an end to insurgency, it must properly equip the security forces  to do the job, not just increasing its numerical strength.