Chibok, Sambisa and the Struggle for Liberation

On one front at least, the year 2016 is ending on a positive
note. One week ago, camp zero in Sambisa forest, the veritable
world headquarters of the Islamic State in West Africa was taken by
the gallant armed forces of Nigeria. 1,240 Boko Haram fighters were
taken prisoners over the period and reports indicate that the flag
of Abubakar Shekau was recovered after he had apparently fled the
area. The war against Boko Haram, which was announced to have
technically ended in December 2015, is finally ending. The cost has
been very high. At least 15 million people have been directly
affected by the insurgency. So many officers and men of Nigeria’s
armed forces and over 20,000 civilians have lost their lives.
Millions of people in the North East have been displaced within and
outside the country. Today, at least 100,000 people in the zone are
facing severe malnutrition and even starvation and in Borno State,
at least half of the homes have been destroyed.

It was for these reasons that the Nigerian State had to destroy
the Boko Haram movement and it’s pleasing to end the year on the
note that it’s actually happening. Its clear Boko Haram is being
defeated and it has had to change its tactics to essentially
sending innocent girls as unwitting vehicles delivering bombs that
are killing other innocent civilians. Their leader Abubakar Shekau
remains an enigma by releasing videos every time he is declared
dead or defeated. It appears that this time, if he is not dead, he
is in hiding and his capacity for military action is clearly
degraded. The emerging victory must be consolidated and extended to
other spheres of conflict in the country.

The common wisdom in Nigeria is that Boko Haram should never
have developed the military capacity to carry out the mayhem and
atrocities it has carried out against the Nigerian people. It
should have been destroyed and mopped up when it was still a rag
tag group of insurgents. Through the non-challant attitude of the
previous administration and massive corruption that made it
difficult for the armed forces to carry out its tasks at the time,
Boko Haram developed strong military capabilities, mainly from our
army, occupied and kept significant Nigerian territory leading to
its declaration of a Caliphate. We are today turning the page to
that sad and frightening episode of our history.

Sambisa has fallen but the majority of the Chibok Girls have
still not be founded and liberated. For a long time, the
expectation was that they had been kept captive in the forest and
the liberation of the forest would lead to their freedom. Today,
991 days after their capture and bondage by Boko Haram on 14th
April 2014, 196 girls remain in captivity. No one had imagined that
the girls would be in captivity for so long. The Chibok Girls have
remained one of the top concerns for the entire world as a
statement of what should not happen. Girls must not be captured and
enslaved simply because they went to do to school to acquire
knowledge. It had been assumed that slavery was abolished two
centuries ago so it was a real shock to see a movement openly
proclaiming that it had enslaved human beings. It was for that
reason that the whole world had been been demanding from the
Nigerian Government to #BringBackOurGirls. The attitude of the
Jonathan Administration was that they did not care about these
particular citizens. For that reason, the Chibok Girls became a
huge statement about the Nigerian State because it revealed to the
world a clear narrative about the Nigerian State not caring about
the fate of its citizens.

The Buhari Administration came into office with a singular
determination to crush the Boko Haram insurgency. Success took them
much longer than they had anticipated. Their first challenge was to
recreate a fighting force from an army that was already used to two
forms of action only – corruption and running away from the war
front. We must commend the President, the Armed Forces High Command
and our troops for building back the capacity of our forces to the
level where it could begin to fight again. I recall that at the
beginning of the struggle for the liberation of the Chibok Girls,
we had gone to the Defence Headquarters to demand why no action was
being taken to rescue the girls. The response we got from the
military high command was that the Nigerian armed forces had not
received new military assets since the Shagari regime of 1979-1983
and were not in a position to fight the insurgents. Following the
probe of the $2.1 billion, we now know that a lot of money was
released to the armed forces by the Jonathan Administration for
arms procurement but that most of the money was simply stolen. Our
prayers today are that the struggle against the insurgents should
continue until all those captured by the insurgency are found and
liberated. Chibok for me has always been a signifier for all those
placed into bondage by the insurgency. The girls became important
as the global symbol for the defence of the dignity and sanctity of
human life; of the girl child, of women, of the right to education
and for defending all those that are oppressed. It is for this
reason that all those placed into bondage by the insurgents must be
liberated by the Nigerian State.

The Nigerian State is today facing many other security
challenges. These include herdsmen/farmers killings, cattle
rustling and rural banditry, kidnapping and the return of militancy
in the Niger Delta. The security agencies are stretched but this is
not the time to relax their efforts. We must all strive to make
2017 the year in which significant progress can be made in
liberating Nigeria and its people from the forces of evil and
destruction. It is important to note however that the insurgency in
the North East is an expression of the underdevelopment in the
zone, which would require urgent action. The North East is however
only marginally more underdeveloped than the rest of the country.
The response of promoting development must therefore be broad based
and national. The various crises affecting different parts of the
country have created a vast humanitarian crisis affecting millions
of internally displaced Nigerians and hundreds of thousands of
refugees spread across the three neighbouring countries that must
be addressed. The challenge before the Nation is the reconstruction
of the Nigerian State and the placement of the safety and welfare
of Nigerians at the centre of the governance agenda. Let 2017 be
the year in which the reconstruction of the Nigerian State makes
significant progress. Wishing a great new year to all my
readers

The post Chibok, Sambisa and the Struggle for Liberation
appeared first from online sources and was reposted by the community on Welcome to 9jalegal – Nigeria’s Leading Legal
Information and Services Portal.

On one front at least, the year 2016 is ending on a positive
note. One week ago, camp zero in Sambisa forest, the veritable
world headquarters of the Islamic State in West Africa was taken by
the gallant armed forces of Nigeria. 1,240 Boko Haram fighters were
taken prisoners over the period and reports indicate that the flag
of Abubakar Shekau was recovered after he had apparently fled the
area. The war against Boko Haram, which was announced to have
technically ended in December 2015, is finally ending. The cost has
been very high. At least 15 million people have been directly
affected by the insurgency. So many officers and men of Nigeria’s
armed forces and over 20,000 civilians have lost their lives.
Millions of people in the North East have been displaced within and
outside the country. Today, at least 100,000 people in the zone are
facing severe malnutrition and even starvation and in Borno State,
at least half of the homes have been destroyed.

It was for these reasons that the Nigerian State had to destroy
the Boko Haram movement and it’s pleasing to end the year on the
note that it’s actually happening. Its clear Boko Haram is being
defeated and it has had to change its tactics to essentially
sending innocent girls as unwitting vehicles delivering bombs that
are killing other innocent civilians. Their leader Abubakar Shekau
remains an enigma by releasing videos every time he is declared
dead or defeated. It appears that this time, if he is not dead, he
is in hiding and his capacity for military action is clearly
degraded. The emerging victory must be consolidated and extended to
other spheres of conflict in the country.

The common wisdom in Nigeria is that Boko Haram should never
have developed the military capacity to carry out the mayhem and
atrocities it has carried out against the Nigerian people. It
should have been destroyed and mopped up when it was still a rag
tag group of insurgents. Through the non-challant attitude of the
previous administration and massive corruption that made it
difficult for the armed forces to carry out its tasks at the time,
Boko Haram developed strong military capabilities, mainly from our
army, occupied and kept significant Nigerian territory leading to
its declaration of a Caliphate. We are today turning the page to
that sad and frightening episode of our history.

Sambisa has fallen but the majority of the Chibok Girls have
still not be founded and liberated. For a long time, the
expectation was that they had been kept captive in the forest and
the liberation of the forest would lead to their freedom. Today,
991 days after their capture and bondage by Boko Haram on 14th
April 2014, 196 girls remain in captivity. No one had imagined that
the girls would be in captivity for so long. The Chibok Girls have
remained one of the top concerns for the entire world as a
statement of what should not happen. Girls must not be captured and
enslaved simply because they went to do to school to acquire
knowledge. It had been assumed that slavery was abolished two
centuries ago so it was a real shock to see a movement openly
proclaiming that it had enslaved human beings. It was for that
reason that the whole world had been been demanding from the
Nigerian Government to #BringBackOurGirls. The attitude of the
Jonathan Administration was that they did not care about these
particular citizens. For that reason, the Chibok Girls became a
huge statement about the Nigerian State because it revealed to the
world a clear narrative about the Nigerian State not caring about
the fate of its citizens.

The Buhari Administration came into office with a singular
determination to crush the Boko Haram insurgency. Success took them
much longer than they had anticipated. Their first challenge was to
recreate a fighting force from an army that was already used to two
forms of action only – corruption and running away from the war
front. We must commend the President, the Armed Forces High Command
and our troops for building back the capacity of our forces to the
level where it could begin to fight again. I recall that at the
beginning of the struggle for the liberation of the Chibok Girls,
we had gone to the Defence Headquarters to demand why no action was
being taken to rescue the girls. The response we got from the
military high command was that the Nigerian armed forces had not
received new military assets since the Shagari regime of 1979-1983
and were not in a position to fight the insurgents. Following the
probe of the $2.1 billion, we now know that a lot of money was
released to the armed forces by the Jonathan Administration for
arms procurement but that most of the money was simply stolen. Our
prayers today are that the struggle against the insurgents should
continue until all those captured by the insurgency are found and
liberated. Chibok for me has always been a signifier for all those
placed into bondage by the insurgency. The girls became important
as the global symbol for the defence of the dignity and sanctity of
human life; of the girl child, of women, of the right to education
and for defending all those that are oppressed. It is for this
reason that all those placed into bondage by the insurgents must be
liberated by the Nigerian State.

The Nigerian State is today facing many other security
challenges. These include herdsmen/farmers killings, cattle
rustling and rural banditry, kidnapping and the return of militancy
in the Niger Delta. The security agencies are stretched but this is
not the time to relax their efforts. We must all strive to make
2017 the year in which significant progress can be made in
liberating Nigeria and its people from the forces of evil and
destruction. It is important to note however that the insurgency in
the North East is an expression of the underdevelopment in the
zone, which would require urgent action. The North East is however
only marginally more underdeveloped than the rest of the country.
The response of promoting development must therefore be broad based
and national. The various crises affecting different parts of the
country have created a vast humanitarian crisis affecting millions
of internally displaced Nigerians and hundreds of thousands of
refugees spread across the three neighbouring countries that must
be addressed. The challenge before the Nation is the reconstruction
of the Nigerian State and the placement of the safety and welfare
of Nigerians at the centre of the governance agenda. Let 2017 be
the year in which the reconstruction of the Nigerian State makes
significant progress. Wishing a great new year to all my
readers

The post Chibok, Sambisa and the Struggle for Liberation
appeared first from online sources and was reposted by the community on Welcome to 9jalegal – Nigeria’s Leading Legal
Information and Services Portal.