For failing to meet its constitutional responsibilities to protect its territorial integrity and assure the security and welfare of its citizens, the world would no longer sit idly by and watch the unfolding carnage and human savagery perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists. The federal government’s insistence that it does not need an international force to defeat Boko Haram notwithstanding, the recent African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia authorized the creation of a 7500 Multi-National Joint Task Force, MNJTF to confront Boko Haram whose attacks have now spread beyond Nigeria to neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The standing view is that Nigeria has not asserted with the necessary force, the full authority and power of the state in handling the insurgency, and this is most embarrassing to the self-acclaimed giant of Africa.
The authorization of the AU force backed by no less personalities than, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and AU Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is a welcome idea. International groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and New York- based Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans, CANAN; all support the international approach to fight Boko Haram. The USA at a Congressional hearing had formally called for an international force to deal with the situation. Although the operational modalities of the force are still being worked out, Nigerian officials are lukewarm to the idea, arguing that Boko Haram was a purely internal matter, for Nigerians to resolve. This ostrich fatalism is unhelpful.
To extricate itself from the debacle of denial, the Nigerian government must face the painful truth about the nation in crisis and be realistic to accept the proposed African Union force, in the nation’s interest. President Jonathan must be humble to admit that all is not well with the polity; and that leadership has a lot to do with the problem. He must accept that he has proven incapable to end the insurgency and stop living under the pretension that Nigeria alone can stamp out Boko Haram. Even as it finds a way out to counter the insurgency, government must open to the fact that given its resources, it has not acted as sagaciously as a country of right thinking and prudent leaders should.
The issue really is not whether or not to allow foreign troops on Nigerian soil to fight Boko Haram, which in any event, has been vigorously pursuing war on Nigeria, with remarkable success. More than two dozen towns and villages, across Adamawa, Borno and Yobe have fallen to Boko Haram, which has since declared a Caliphate over captured areas; hoisted its flag and instituted quasi-administrative structures to govern the territories. How can several local governments spanning three states be taken over and administered by a different authority styling itself an Islamic caliphate and nothing can be done about it? The hoisting of flags over the captured areas is indicative of a calculated and deliberate move to disintegrate Nigeria and Jonathan should make no pretence about it.
The palpable fear is that if nothing is done urgently, Maiduguri, capital of Borno State may be the next Boko Haram target. Given government’s inaction so far, the question is whether it can surmount the military capacity to repel the terrorists and reclaim the captured territories! The AU and neighboring countries are strategic partners that the government should have tapped right from inception, to harness their goodwill and intelligence resources in fending off supplies to the insurgents; after all, the arms being used are supplied through land and air corridors of neighboring countries. Obviously, the Western countries are lukewarm, citing Nigeria’s poor human rights record and the lack of integrity in the country’s security forces as disincentives to lending a helping hand.
While the AU contemplates joint action, individual countries should not abdicate their responsibilities. Being the chief security officer of his country, each African leader has the responsibility to fight terrorism. In truth, to mobilize troops to fight Boko Haram is not the issue; for if African leaders can judiciously and transparently manage the finances of their countries, they would have more than what is required in terms of resources to fight terrorism. The real fear, as many have observed, is the commitment and leadership enablement to prosecute a proper continental anti-terrorism project.
Doubts about commitment must of necessity come to mind if the series of unending global summits on African security that have been held in recent times are considered. In the last few months, apart from meetings on the continent, African leaders have found themselves in organized summits in France, in Britain, and the United States to discuss matters of African security. Besides the huge foreign exchange depletion and cost to poor African countries, the summits are devoid of any articulated actionable position, and they leave no one in doubt that the itinerary might have been construed as a routine perquisite of office. It is high time African leaders weaned themselves of the cavalier jamborees, and for once turn the outcomes of the years of meetings into action.
It is very instructive that President Jonathan, whose country is besieged by the horrendous murderous Boko Haram sect, had earlier urged African leaders to adopt an “action-oriented” approach against the terrorists. Much as his admonition eloquently explored the praxis of anti-terrorism measures, it is regrettable and unfortunate that his actions as commander-in-chief of an ill-motivated military and his helplessness in the face of a seemingly irredeemable state of insecurity in Nigeria are a blatant negation of the very action-oriented approach he canvassed. The continuous occupation of the North-Eastern region of the country does not confer any moral leadership on Jonathan in the anti-terrorism crusade.
As African leaders ruminate on solutions to Boko Haram, they should understand its fundamental link with governance. Although terrorism takes refuge in religion, African leaders should not ignore the fact that terrorism blossoms in countries where government officials are too selfish to think of the welfare of its citizens; where the ruling elite indulge in primitive accumulation and conspicuous consumption. It would, therefore, be futile to raise a force to tackle Boko Haram when African leaders refuse to change from their grandiloquent position of privilege, reveling in corruption while the majority of the citizens wallow in abject poverty. Beyond the establishment of the AU force, African leaders must accept that the African situation calls for a stronger African leadership that is built on the strength of character of its individual leaders. It demands leaders who will call corruption by its name, and act decisively without fear or favor.
Fighting terrorism demands moral strength, which needs to be cultivated to fill the moral vacuum plaguing African leadership. For as long as this leadership vacuum persists, so will the conditions that facilitate terrorism expose African countries to the intrusion and dominance of power-hungry misanthropes. The Africa of today demands leaders who will be able to see the dehumanization and injustice they have inflicted on their people and be compelled to act. Only when African leaders have purged themselves of the inordinate power-craze and misappropriated privileges that negate genuine moral leadership can they muster the moral courage, political sagacity and wisdom to fight terrorism.
