In the last one year, Borno and Yobe states have been under an undeclared state of emergency due to the scale and scope of military operations going on there. Results achieved have been minimal at best. In fact, the indiscriminate use of force has alienated the civil populace who should be on the side of the military operations. What is baffling is that government is using conventional warfare tactics to fight irregular warfare waged by small bands of highly mobile AK 47 wielding terrorists who are operating with mobile phones, homemade bombs and rocket propelled grenades. Heavy armour and conventional forces are no match for fast, flexible, fluid and determined mobile units that vanish after every operation. Our military must mimic this operational style to defeat Boko Haram. Without it, declaring more state of emergency will solve nothing. We need to learn a lot from America and Britain about irregular warfare. It’s about intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities. In spite of America’s superlative capabilities in this regard, they were still humbled by terrorists in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan hence they resorted to drone attacks. America is withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan and Iraq without achieving the peace they hoped for in order to stabilise the governments they installed in those territories. Our government needs to rethink its military strategy and focus attention on alternative conflict resolution methods.
Emmanuel Onyilofor,
7, Alice Fatimoh Street, Ilupeju,
Lagos State, onyilofore@gmail.com,
+23480330634.