A non-government organisation (NGO), the Governance Watch Initiative, yesterday urged the Federal Government to consider military and political solution to Boko Haram insurgency.
Speaking at a news conference in Abuja, the National Coordinator, Mr. Rotimi Ogunwuyi, said it appeared unlikely to defeat Boko Haram militarily.
Said he: “The Federal Government should pursue and align military with political (negotiated solution). Boko Haram is unlikely to be defeated militarily. Most insurgencies are ended through negotiation.
“The President Goodluck Jonathan administration must emulate the humility of the late President Umarru Yar’Adua (over the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger – MEND insurgency in the Niger Delta), by de-ethnicising and depoliticising the response to Boko Haram and exploring genuine negotiated solution.”
The group warned the Federal Government not to consider 2015 politics in any policy to end the insurgency.
Ogunwuyi said: “Federal Government must avoid any action, which seems to suggest, even remotely, that it is trying to politicise the response to the Boko Haram crisis.
“The calculations for 2015 must not feature in any policy considerations to end the insurgency.”
The NGO, which cried out over the serial killings in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, sought an end to the inter-agency rivalries, which could weaken the fight against the terrorists.
Condemning the discordant voices of the governors and Federal Government, the national coordinator advised that Federal Government must see the governors of the frontline states as partners, who are committed to ending the crisis.
He said the governors’ commitment should not be doubted since they were the direct victims of the insurgency and would be the beneficiaries of a peace restoration.
Ogunwuyi urged the Federal Government to involve them in every decision, “instead of being threatened with removal and verbally assaulted by overzealous officials.”
Seeking regionalised responses, the national coordinator enjoined government to solicit the operational involvement and assistance of ECOWAS and the African Union.
He said government should seek the deployment of multinational security operations across the Sahel, to track and hunt Boko Haram operational chain.
According to him, “it is clear that Boko Haram is no longer a ‘Nigeria-only’ problem, but a regional security menace, which requires regional responses.”
The NGO recommended that there should be effective information management and strategic communication.
Ogunwuyi said government needs to reform the way information is released and managed on Boko Haram.
He asked the Federal Government to go beyond official information management to include working with print, electronic and online media organisations and local information channels.
On the marshall plan for Northeast, Ogunwuyi noted that the “proposed N2 billion recovery fund for the Northeast is laughable. Clearly, more financial resources are needed.
“The economic recovery goes beyond providing substantial funds – it has to be guided by clear objectives, the roles of public and private sectors and civil society groups, and must include social (education, health, religion, culture and traditional institutions), environmental and political aspects, in addition to economic issues.”
He advised the Federal Government to involve peace-building organisations. “There is a wrong assumption that security forces and agencies will bring peace to the Northeast.”
The group said: “Uniformed personnel are never peace-builders. Government needs to involve local and internal peace-building organisations, including NGOs, CSOs, etc, to design peace-building initiatives for the Northeast.”
On the killings, Ogunwuyi said: “Sadly, our country is yet to become a model of good governance, and the insurgency in a part of the country has further limited the ability of the people of the affected areas, who represent a chunk of the population, not only to realise their full potential, but also to enjoy their right to life.
“We are talking of the Boko Haram insurgency or terrorist attacks that seem to have been on steroids in weeks, with thousands sent to their graves prematurely.
“Of course, the height of these attacks was last Monday’s cowardly invasion of the Federal Government College in Yobe State, which left at least 29 pupils dead.
“The ferocity of the attacks, the callousness of it all, the seeming helplessness of the authorities, the quick return to business as usual and the discordant tunes from those we all look forward to, to help end the insurgency, have prompted us to call this conference and offer our own perspective which, we believe, can contribute to ending the insurgency.”
He traced the history of the sect’s crisis to 2002 or even before.
Ogunwuyi recalled that the immediate trigger for the insurgency occurred seven years later, in 2009, when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua ordered a joint security operation, following the killing of over a dozen policemen, and the failure of police action to curb the crisis.
According to him, the operation led to the killing of an estimated 1,000 suspected Boko Haram members, including the extra-judicial murder of Boko Haram leader, Muhammed Yussuf.
The national coordinator said: “What we are witnessing today are the direct fallouts of the failures of that joint security operation.”
The group, however, noted that the Federal Government has, in its attempt to tackle the menace, enacted the Anti-Terror Law in 2011 and 2012.
Other actions, according to Ogunwuyi, were: Declaration of State of Emergency, first in December 2012 covering selected local governments in Plateau, Niger, Yobe and Borno, and then in May last year covering the whole of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
Formation and deployment of the Joint Task Force and Multi-nation Joint Task Force. Creation of new Army 7th Division specialising in counter-terrorism operations and coordinating counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast. New intelligence gathering infrastructure to coordinate, improve and integrate intelligence gathering and sharing across agencies. Ad hoc establishment and support for civilian JTFs. Rhetoric of dialogue, negotiation and amnesty. Proposed N2billion economic recovery fund for the Northeast. Deportation of foreigners. Trial of arrested Boko Haram members and increased security spending.
He said : “We are now at a critical juncture, which we will call a strategic stalemate. Simply put, the government, in its response and the Boko Haram, in its continued strikes, have reached some form of parity.
“Yes, our security forces have achieved some successes, limiting the ability of Boko Haram to carry out the kind of spectacular attacks like those on the Police headquarters and the UN complex in Abuja, but they have been unable to deal a death blow against the sect, which is now focusing on soft targets, such as schools, remote villages and the likes.”
