The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has been speaking on why the Boko Haram insurgency has been a difficult nut to crack.
Featuring on Channel Television’s flagship politics programme, Politics Today, on Friday, General Musa said the Boko Haram war had taken so long to crush because the war was not a conventional one.
What even makes it more difficult, according to the Army boss, is that the Boko Haram insurgents had nothing to lose. So, they would go to any length to inflict pain, sorry and blood.
“This Boko Haram thing is a lot,” Musa declared, “and for them to have succeeded for 16 years and still fighting, how are they getting their funding? Who is sustaining them? Because they can’t just be doing things like that.
“What I tell people is that no country should allow this kind of thing to commence. It is a difficult thing to eradicate. You know why? Before now when we had conventional warfare, you knew you were for territory you wanted to achieve. Now you have to fight with people who have nothing to lose. It is an ideology they have in their mind.
“They believe they are right and you are wrong. He believes that if he kills you, he is getting blessings. If you kill him, he believes he is going to heaven. Absolutely, he has nothing to lose.
“That makes it very difficult and it’s not written on their forehead. So, how do you identify who is who? We obey international laws and they don’t. So, what do they do? They use human shields. And they go into people because they know you can’t shoot.
“When people say why it’s taking so long, it is a very difficult operation to do. You make mistakes and kill innocent people, the country comes after you. If you don’t kill them, the people will come after you. It’s difficult on both sides.”
Musa also disclosed that the army was working hand-in-hand with the National Assembly to supervise arms purchase as a means of tackling corruption.
“No more corruption in the arms purchase,” the Army boss declared categorically. “We are working closely with the National Assembly. There is an oversight function that is being carried out. We have both people that come and check what we are doing. We are very open and I can bet you that we love this country and we want to give the best to the country.
“If you look at the amount we are getting and buying. The sixteen years of fighting Boko Haram has enabled us to build the capacity of our repair team, our engineers and mechanics. Now we can pick a completely burnt down MRAPV, fix it and put it back into work.”
Speaking on equipping personnel, General Musa disclosed that plans were afoot for the army to start producing its weapons.
