by Abimbola Adelakun

The Nigerian Army seems fixated with killing Abubakar Shekau, the equally self-obsessed psychopath who not only fancies himself a reincarnate of Osama bin Laden but also rides on the wave of moral panic ISIS is generating all over the place. He is the Army’s first obsession.

Their second obsession concerns the unwitting denigration of their own rank-and-file. Third is a consequence of the first two – turning the agency into an embarrassing joke both locally and internationally.

The Army has “killed” Shekau, at least, three times since 2010 when he claimed headship of Boko Haram. After each “kill”, he resurrects and laughs in everyone’s face. His frequent resurrection reminds me of Lawrence Anini who Nigerians thought was invincible till it turned out that ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) George Iyamu, was the ‘mole’ funnelling insider information to his gang. Till the Army unearths the Iyamu in their midst, they will pursue this Tom-and-Jerry chase until humanity relocates to Mars.

By making their victories revolve around one maniac’s death – as if that will stop Boko Haram – the Army does a disservice. We know that the death of Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, only made them more venomous. The school of thought that figures the death of Shekau will shake terrorism in Nigeria misses the big picture: Boko Haram is more than Shekau and victory is autonomous of his death.

For a while, the Army has been repeatedly overrun and decimated by Boko Haram on the fields of battle and the facts of this are quite troubling. There are too many news reports of soldiers being killed; soldiers turning ‘cowards’ at their duty post; Boko Haram gaining territory and, villagers being kidnapped, sexually violated and even killed. These various anomalies are due to outdated tactics of counter-insurgency; poorly maintained armoury; low morale amongst fighting personae and perhaps, add to all those an inconsistent strategy propounded by those tasked with running the nation’s security agencies.

Despite the Army’s losses in the war against Boko Haram, it tries to sustain the myth of its near invincibility it acquired during the military era by a large measure of aloofness. If not for the stubborn wives of Giwa Barracks, the death sentence on The Mutinous 12 and, the recent court-martial charge against 97 of its rank-and-file, the Army could go on forever acting as if they are their own country; interacting with the public only when they vandalise BRT buses.

Given that an ever-expanding industry grows out of war nations engage in (and which explains why the world might never know peace permanently), it is not entirely unsurprising that the Army has had too many foibles which have exposed their incompetence to the point it overshadows their best efforts. In the instances where they have hung out their men to dry in the name of a court-martial, they have also revealed the weaknesses of their organisation and why, with such indignity and indiscipline, they are faltering in their fight with rag tag terrorists. Yet their failings are symptomatic of the larger ones that ail Nigeria.

How, one wonders, does a fundamentalist sect without any training in modern warfare defeat Army officers? Boko Haram, ab initio, is a copycat organisation; no original thought. They are as vicious as any psychopath armed with high-octane weapons can be. Their videos portray them as a disorganised band whose major strength is the worthlessness of their lives which they never hesitate to throw away. On this page some weeks back, I noted that now that ISIS beheads people on video, Boko Haram too will soon follow suit – and they did! Boko Haram is asymptotic of the spectacularisation of violence elsewhere. Even their triumph is barely original.

How can such a group endlessly confound the Nigerian Army if not for the politics of war?

It is vital that the Army overcomes its fantasy about the mortality of Shekau and concentrate on what really matters: asphyxiating Boko Haram and building their institutional credibility. Both objectives are independent of Shekau’s existence.

For now, the evidence that Shekau had truly been killed is weak yet cuts at the heart of the credibility of the Army. The Army has been caught in several blatant lies that believing they actually killed Shekau sounds like ‘tales by the moonlight’. Worse, the evidence they presented works hard at saying nothing but destroying their claims. There were no forensic tests neither was there any evidence of a rigorous attempt to prove they got the guy apart from the fact of resemblance – which might just be a coincidence – and some eyewitness accounts. They could not even invite journalists to corroborate their story. Also, if Shekau was as central to the operations of Boko Haram as we have been made to believe, what further success was his death able to achieve? Why didn’t it lead to the rescue of Chibok girls and how has it affected the operations of Boko Haram?

It is vital that the Army overcomes its fantasy about the mortality of Shekau and concentrate on what really matters: asphyxiating Boko Haram and building their institutional credibility. Both objectives are independent of Shekau’s existence. Al Qaeda was nullified and its backers, the Talibans, chased out of Afghanistan even before bin Laden was killed. Joseph Kony is still very much alive but his guerilla group, Lord’s Resistance Army, is as dead as an iron nail. When the whole fuss about Kony 2012 erupted in the US, even the poor guy must have been surprised at the gratuitous benefit of 15 minutes of fame he neither expected nor deserved.

If not for Boko Haram’s propaganda, the Army might still remain detached from us. Until Boko Haram started posting videos of their victories online, the Army did not realise that it was no longer the era of military government and they needed to drop their ingrained snob. Judging by their recent efforts, they seem to have learnt that winning the battle against Boko Haram should not be the only goal; they need to win the propaganda fight too. That was when they too started announcing big successes against Boko Haram. Yesterday they killed dozens; today, they have killed scores.

Their spins are positive gestures but came late and nearly not enough.

They have not done nearly enough to cultivate the Nigerian public and keep it appraised of their nation-building activities. For now, Nigerians do not see enough of her soldiers’ heroism; what we see is the soldiers’ betrayal of the Army ethos and a fickleness that has resulted in mutiny and therefore deserving of death sentences. If only the Defence Headquarters have glorified their good works like they glorify their weakness, they won’t have to kill Shekau over and over to give them a much needed psychological boost.

————–

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