Professor Khalifa Ali Dikwa, during an interview on Channels
Television’s Newsnight on January 4, 2021, asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to decentralise the command system of the Nigerian
military.
Prof. Khalifa Dikwa, Dean, Borno Elders Forum is worried
about the rising insecurity in the area, admitting that outside the
capital of the state, Maiduguri, people living in Borno State are
not safe.
“Even if they (Boko Haram) are not physically there, they are
psychologically there, disturbing the people,” Dikwa who is a
socio-political analyst told Channels Television’s
Newsnight on Monday. “From time to time, they ride
their motorcycles, come and harass them to pay levies and so on.
Outside Maiduguri, no even five kilometres, nobody is safe. And
they can strike at any time.”
—Turning Deaf Ears—
He claimed that the military did not heed to the advice of the
Private Military Contractor (PMC) to man the country’s land borders
after they had “decimated” Boko Haram in 2014.
READ ALSO: Residents Flee As Boko Haram Attacks
Four Borno Villages
“At that time, they (PMC) said, ‘okay, we have done our bit, the
rest, it has to be political. Have dialogue at a position of
strength,” the university don, added.
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“And that you should allow the other paramilitary, particularly
the police, to take over the terrain that you have recaptured. You
(military) move to the borders.”
According to him, “Unfortunately, the military has continued to
usurp the role of the police which is not supposed to be so.”
READ ALSO: War Against Insurgency: The Command System Of
The Military Should Be Decentralised – Prof Dikwa
Prof Dikwa who called for more collaboration among security
agencies in the fight against insurgency noted that the military
alone cannot fight the terrorism in Borno State.
“If you put all the military inside Borno, it will contain it,”
he said, claiming that “It looks like there is no synergy between
the security and defence agencies as if it is rivalry when they are
actually working for this country and they signed to defend the
people of this country and the territory.
“As a President, he should be able to stamp his feet to say ‘do
the work, I am giving you one, two months maximum. If you don’t
finish up this thing, submit your resignation letter.”