Alkasim Abdulkadir: The march to Gwoza, the road to Mogadishu (Y! FrontPage)

by Alkasim Abdulkadir

TY Danjuma does not mince words, for he has no reason too, as a retired General who has fought in the trenches for the soul of Nigeria, he understands when the country is faced is by a clear and present danger. As such during the inauguration of the Victims Support Fund, he didn’t mince his words during his remarks, he said: It seems as if the insurgents are having an upper hand, and Nigeria must win this war, Nigeria must win this war quickly. It is this decisiveness that has seemed to be elusive action in the fight against Boko Haram.

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We have been drowning in our sea of conspiracy theories while an entire region and country languishes in blood and death; we have been busy pointing fingers at political parties, calling each other names, while these insurgents and their highly misplaced Jihad run amok planting flags and commandeering armories bought by tax payers’ money. Above all the senseless death of Nigerian citizens, cut short, families displaced in utter agony is a part of the larger picture we have ignored or denied by lumping them together as statistics.

Like General TY Danjuma said, we must win this war. We must win it now. The tide must change for Nigeria to survive. The march to Gwoza should not lead us to the road to Mogadishu.

If we weren’t convinced by the attack on Giwa Barracks, are we still in denial with the attack on Gwoza. The clip is to say the least, painful to watch, their sense of bravado as they marched into town. In the aftermath of the attack, the Emir of Gwoza, HRH Muhammadu Idrisa Timta, has since met with President Jonathan and the president assured him that the Nigerian forces would reclaim his domain for him.

There was nothing new to add to the psychology of the insurgents of or of Shekau himself from what he said in his last video of declaring a caliphate, he made true their desire made known since 2012 to mark territories in the North East, one of the reasons which moved the President to say: Already, some northern parts of Borno state have been taken over by groups whose allegiance are to different flags other than Nigeria’s. He further stated in strong terms that: These actions amount to a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state and threaten its territorial integrity. As a responsible government we will not tolerate this.

These were the remarks of President Jonathan in May 2013, however, we have seen an escalation in violence leading to higher body count than ever since the proclamation was made. Not since Biafra has Nigeria lost an inch of its territory through the mode of rebellion or insurgency from within the ranks of its population.

Abubakar Shekau once more gloated on the strength of his army and boasted about their exploits, yet still, he berated the civilian joint task force as he had always done in the past; therein letting his morbid fear for the group come to fore again. His appeal to the CJTF to change their ways shows not only the fear and contempt he has for them, but also shows their formidable courage and strength in Nigeria’s counter insurgency strides. The clip from Gwoza also shows us some of the things we know already, that Shekau detests democracy this time around he likens it to homosexuality and incest, not only likens it but says it is worse than them. This time around the psychosis of hatred goes a step further by his display of a fleet of SUVs which he claimed they had in hundreds in their possession. He lets out a quip when he says they don’t regard the vehicles more than wheel barrows unlike the rest of us who worship the cars.

The end of the clip shows the most demoralizing depiction of the sorry state of our affairs, the complete routing of an army garrison. Men of the Nigerian army fleeing up the Gwoza, fatigued almost giving up; then we are shown hardware stores and the carting away of military hardware. That same evening we heard of the tactical maneuver involving more than 400 troops into Cameroon, though they are back the circumstances of the crossing the border still remains shrouded in mystery.

Like General TY Danjuma said, we must win this war. We must win it now. The tide must change for Nigeria to survive. The march to Gwoza should not lead us to the road to Mogadishu.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

 

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