Ending FG’s Protracted War against Terrorism

CICERO/Issue

Beyond naming three religious organisations sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria, the federal government should intensify efforts to prosecute them in order to end the insurgency war, Michael Olugbode writes

Over a year after the federal government threatened to uncover the identities of persons and organisations sponsoring terrorism in the country, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd) has named three religious groups fuelling insurgency in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

Monguno, who spoke at the 14th workshop of the league of Ulamas, preachers and imams of sahel countries last Tuesday, named the groups to include: Jama’at Nasr al-Islam Wal Muslimin (JNIM), Islamic and Muslim Support Group (IMSG) and Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS).

He said terrorism and violent activities by militant Islamist groups in the Sahel since 2016 is primarily driven by the ISGS.

“It is bolstered by activities of groups such as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam Wal Muslimin (JNIM), the Islamic and Muslim Support Group (GSIM) and ISGS, which have continued to pose an imminent threat to the stability of the region. In Nigeria, Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) dominate terrorist activities, especially in the North-eastern part of the country,” he said.

“The situation in the Sahel has never been grimmer, extremist violence continues to spread; the number of internally displaced persons (IDPS) is growing; and food insecurity is affecting more people than ever before. Thus, it is assessed that while the groups maintain the long-term strategic goal of creating a caliphate, the efforts of Lake Chad Basin Commission countries will continue to frustrate that goal.”

“In that regard, it is imperative that Ulamas, preachers, and community leaders in your localities key in to support efforts of our security forces, in order to end this menace,” the NSA added.

Before the long-waited revelation by Monguno, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) had stated that the federal government would go after sponsors of Boko Haram insurgents, stressing that investigation had since begun with a view to unraveling the root cause of the insurgency.

Malami spoke through a Director in the Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Lola Eket, while addressing members of a group identified as Lawyers United for Equality and Human Rights Advocacy who were on a peaceful protest to the ministry.

The AGF promised that the federal government would very soon, through the Federal Ministry of Justice’s Complex Case Group, resuscitate and reinvigorate the existing special terrorism prosecution courts in the country in order bring to book all those found guilty, so as to serve as deterrence to others. He maintained that Boko Haram could not have gained grounds if there were no strong sponsors of the terrorists, adding that a Judicial Commission of Inquiry would be set in motion to unravel how the menace found its way into the country.

“In the past, no Nigerian will commit suicide under any persuasion, and the way they have sustained onslaught against the state since they started, it seems they were being sponsored and I assure all of you that Judicial Commission of Inquiry would be set up to investigate where the sponsorship of Boko Haram comes from,” the AGF said.

Boko Haram and its breakaway group, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) had killed over 70,000 people and displaced more than two million people in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states since 2010. They had also destroyed properties worth billions of naira.

Since Monguno made the disclosure, many Nigerians have been unhappy that the federal government, after much suspense, would come out with the names of organisations without disclosing the identities of those behind them. They wondered when the government would begin to do things with courage.

Months after, the same government through Malami announced that it was set to prosecute 400 suspects arrested for allegedly funding terrorism in the country, nothing has been heard, raising questions about government’s commitment to ending insurgency in the country.

Nigerians wondered why the federal government cannot emulate the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which had promptly prosecuted and convicted six Nigerians identified as financiers of Boko Haram terrorist group upon their arrest in Dubai.

In a bid to underscore UAE’s commitment to target and dismantle networks that finance terrorism and its related activities, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, had in April 2019 sentenced both Abdurrahaman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad to life imprisonment followed by deportation for having ties with Boko Haram as financiers.

Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were each sentenced to 10 years in prison, and also followed by deportation

The six Nigerians were said to have transferred up to $800,000 in favour of Boko Haram between 2015 and 2016.

The court found them guilty of setting up a Boko Haram cell in the UAE to raise funds and material assistance for the insurgents in Nigeria. In December 2019, a UAE Federal Supreme Court also turned down an appeal by the six Nigerians, upholding the ruling of the Appeal Court.

But in Nigeria, it has always been difficult either to prosecute or name the sponsors of terrorism in spite of the havoc they have wreaked on the country.

Last week, the Theatre Commander of ‘Operation Hadin Kai’, Maj. Gen. Christopher Musa, raised the alarm that many repentant Boko Haram fighters were backsliding and subverting the war against the insurgents and bandits.

Musa, who spoke on the sidelines of the Chief of Army Staff Conference in Abuja, disclosed that ‘repentant’ sect members, who had surrendered to troops had ulterior motives.

All these were happening against the backdrop of the assumption made in December 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari claimed that the war against the Islamist militants had been “technically won.” He said the militant group could no longer mount “conventional attacks” against security forces or population centres.

This was followed by the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed who in 2019, said the military had “successfully defeated” Boko Haram insurgents. He said the country was facing a fresh crisis, called a “global insurgency.”

Mohammed also said Nigerian troops had “successfully cleared the remnant of the home-grown insurgency called Boko Haram and are now being confronted by a fresh crisis, a global insurgency.”

“A faction of Boko Haram has aligned with the global terror group, ISIS, to form ISWAP, the Islamic State’s West African Province. In other words, ISIS now has a strong foothold in West Africa – with Nigeria at the forefront of the battle against them.

“With ISIS largely dislodged from Iraq and Syria, there is undoubtedly a flush of fresh fighters and weapons to ISWAP. Therefore, our military is fighting a global insurgency, without the kind of global coalition, including the United States, that battled ISIS in Syria and Iraq,” he had reportedly said.

Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd), had equally claimed that Boko Haram group had been defeated, insisting that the Nigerian military was fighting an international criminal gang known as ISWAP.

For him, what was playing out in the North-east was the “metamorphosis of ISWAP which is an attempt by a group of international criminal organisations to explore the loopholes created by the breakdown of law and order in some neighbouring countries to perpetrate criminality in the West African sub-region.”

Apart from the then army chief, other officials of the Buhari’s administration had made different claims about the group being ‘defeated’, ‘technically defeated’ or ‘decimated.’

Yet, the more these claims were being made, the more the terrorist groups were launching more deadly attacks and assaults on the military and residents of Borno as well as other neighbouring states. Government’s critics argue that it has exaggerated the scale of its success against the militants, and that each time the army claimed to have wiped out Boko Haram, the militants would quietly rebuilt.

From time to time, the military would regale Nigerians with statements on how tens of the terrorists are neutralised, but the insurgents are still able to regroup, and attack civilian and military targets, killing hundreds of people.

“I listened to the NSA, General Monguno and could not comprehend what he was saying. I was totally shocked that he just mentioned the names of some organisations without the identities of the people behind them. Is there any organisation that does not have promoters? You see, this is the problem we have always had – shielding and covering up for some persons. At this particular time in the country when things are really down, do we really need that?

“The only way to tackle this malaise is to prosecute both the sponsors/financiers of terrorism and repentant members of terrorist groups whether Boko Haram, ISWAP or others. Nigeria is bad today because there are no consequences for wrongdoing. This is what has brought this country down and made crime to fester,” says a security expert who prefers to remain anonymous.