Prof. Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno State, has found himself playing a role other than governance for which he has been elected to office. He is now the state’s chief mourner, a position nobody ordinarily would like to take up. As chief mourner, you have to mourn with those who are mourning, condole with the bereaved and try to comfort them and throw words of encouragement that say there is still life to be lived. But sometimes you can’t but use language that nobody wants to hear. This is the role now foisted upon the governor and he is doing a fine job of it!
On March 18th, the holy month of Ramadan, when a resurgent Boko Haram and its sister-at-arms, ISWAP, bombed Maiduguri’s main market and a part of the university in the city, Zulum told his people not to panic. This isn’t a return of the regime of terror. No. This is an enemy on the retreat. The governor promised his violence weary people massive military help was on the way to “neutralize” the enemy once and for all. They harkened, buried their dead and went back to pick up the pieces of a shattered life. But …
Last Friday, the enemy that Zulum said was dying hadn’t died after all. It struck again in a manner that told the people they were not wise to have dropped their guard when the governor told them to “stand easy”. Boko Haram fighters hit the army brigade headquarters at Benisheikh, killing its commander, a brigadier-general and many of his troops. This time Zulum was mad and how he showed it! He was mad because he believed strongly that attack shouldn’t have succeeded but for someone not doing their part. “This is one of the most surprising attacks that I have witnessed in recent times,” he told residents of Benisheikh which he visited on Saturday. The governor was “surprised” the assault wasn’t foiled because intelligence had been received three days previously about an imminent enemy attack. He avoided finger pointing, instead he asked the military to “review the security architecture and protocols” so as to be able to “address emerging threats more effectively.” He questioned the local leadership in Benishikh what it had done with the intelligence it obtained concerning the attack. The governor, all that time, must have been wondering what happened to the “robust response” the army had promised him last month was on the way. Instead of that, the people received another bad blow from the terrorists.
This latest assault by the terrorists happened after the army’s top hierarchy had relocated to Maiduguri from its Abuja base. President Bola Tinubu ordered the relocation after the March 18 bombings in Maiduguri. He believed it would position the military to better handle the renewed Boko Haram/ISWAP threat. In my earlier piece, I had questioned the sense in asking the Chief of Army Staff to move his office to Maiduguri when what was required was better intelligence and equipment. What happened last Friday indicated that the enemy had more “credible intelligence” and worked on it while our military failed to actuate its own intelligence. The enemy knew the COAS and his men were out of Maiduguri, on their way to neighbouring Yobe State. He told his host, governor Mai Mala Buni, that the army was “constantly adapting its approaches to changing dynamics.” However, the Benisheikh attack at his back gave his word the lie. Another thing is that the military partnership Nigeria has secured with the United States, after all, isn’t as effective as it had been thought to be. Are we back in square one?
