A recent article in the New York Times accuses Nigeria of, among other things, failing to take advantage of "actionable intelligence" provided by United States drones into the whereabouts of the Chibok Schoolgirls of #BringBackOurGirls fame. The Nigerian military refutes these claims. I asked Abuja (capital city of Nigeria) resident, and Nigeria watcher Moses Ojo whether he believes the U.S. claims are true, whether Islamist group Boko Haram has operatives in the Nigerian Armed Forces, are the equal of the Nigerian military, and for his opinion on U.S. relations with the world's eighth most populous country.
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Firstly, Boko Haram is not more capable than the Nigerian Armed Forces (NAF). Boko Haram is an insurgency that relies on assorted weapons in the battlefield whereas NAF is a conventional force of a sovereign nation. The most sophisticated weapon ever seen with Boko Haram was a Buffalo Armoured Vehicle that was manufactured by the Soviet Union in the '60s, and it was seized by the NAF.
Admittedly, the NAF has been technically weakened over the years as a result of lack of funding for critical, modern-day sophisticated weapons and training, which was also a result of neglect by NAF and the pervasive corruption by the top brass of the military and in the entire system. Notwithstanding, Boko Haram cannot match the Nigerian Military strength-for-strength.
Certainly, the sect has moles and informants in the circle of the NAF and among the intelligence communities. Even Boko Haram has sympathisers among the legislators and in the cabinet. That can't be ruled out, and that is why the efforts of the NAF to stamped out the sect seems not to be fruitful at least in the short term. Moreover, lack of modern day assets by the intelligence agencies such as satellites to gather intelligence is also hampering the collective efforts of the NAF.
There has always been one reason or the other for our military to deal cautiously with the U.S. Military Forces, which I think is a result of geo-political rivalry as it concerns the continent of Africa (my view) and as a result of other reasons. I understood a long time ago that the intelligence reports that the U.S. was giving to NAF are mostly useless and in most cases, they are always about 36 to 48 hours belated. Again, Nigerian Armed Forces perceived that the U.S. being our ally is not doing enough to assist us in ending the insurgency in terms of selling much-needed weapons to us and in giving us up-to-date intelligence reports that they are gathering from their drones flying over the North-east on a daily basis and from their satellite imagery.
Well, I also want to believe that the U.S. seems not to be doing enough for us in tackling the insurgency and to bring back our girls. Though, it is our sole responsibility to confront our security challenge. Finally, the assertion in the article that the insurgency is controlling 20% of the country is far from the truth. The sect is only operating in three out of six states in the North-east and Nigerian has 37 states including the Federal Capital Territory. And they don't even control up to 10% in each of those three states. So, all in all the insurgency is not controlling up to 1% of the country.
In all these, I still have faith in the strength of our armed forces in this regard, they only need good leadership for strategy mapping and visioning.
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Firstly, Boko Haram is not more capable than the Nigerian Armed Forces (NAF). Boko Haram is an insurgency that relies on assorted weapons in the battlefield whereas NAF is a conventional force of a sovereign nation. The most sophisticated weapon ever seen with Boko Haram was a Buffalo Armoured Vehicle that was manufactured by the Soviet Union in the '60s, and it was seized by the NAF.
Admittedly, the NAF has been technically weakened over the years as a result of lack of funding for critical, modern-day sophisticated weapons and training, which was also a result of neglect by NAF and the pervasive corruption by the top brass of the military and in the entire system. Notwithstanding, Boko Haram cannot match the Nigerian Military strength-for-strength.
Certainly, the sect has moles and informants in the circle of the NAF and among the intelligence communities. Even Boko Haram has sympathisers among the legislators and in the cabinet. That can't be ruled out, and that is why the efforts of the NAF to stamped out the sect seems not to be fruitful at least in the short term. Moreover, lack of modern day assets by the intelligence agencies such as satellites to gather intelligence is also hampering the collective efforts of the NAF.
There has always been one reason or the other for our military to deal cautiously with the U.S. Military Forces, which I think is a result of geo-political rivalry as it concerns the continent of Africa (my view) and as a result of other reasons. I understood a long time ago that the intelligence reports that the U.S. was giving to NAF are mostly useless and in most cases, they are always about 36 to 48 hours belated. Again, Nigerian Armed Forces perceived that the U.S. being our ally is not doing enough to assist us in ending the insurgency in terms of selling much-needed weapons to us and in giving us up-to-date intelligence reports that they are gathering from their drones flying over the North-east on a daily basis and from their satellite imagery.
Well, I also want to believe that the U.S. seems not to be doing enough for us in tackling the insurgency and to bring back our girls. Though, it is our sole responsibility to confront our security challenge. Finally, the assertion in the article that the insurgency is controlling 20% of the country is far from the truth. The sect is only operating in three out of six states in the North-east and Nigerian has 37 states including the Federal Capital Territory. And they don't even control up to 10% in each of those three states. So, all in all the insurgency is not controlling up to 1% of the country.
In all these, I still have faith in the strength of our armed forces in this regard, they only need good leadership for strategy mapping and visioning.
