Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Neighbours’ intervention

Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Neighbours’ intervention

Also published in Daily Trust

The recent military cooperation between neighbouring Chad and Cameroon to jointly raise combat troops with a view to hunting down Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria’s territory is a welcome development.

In fact, it is quite overdue in view of the inexcusable and embarrassing failure of Nigerian government to contain the insurgents’ continued conquests of towns and villages in Nigeria, let alone reclaim the conquered areas and/or crush the insurgents. Chad and Cameroun have always been affected by Boko Haram terror activities. Cameroon in particular has suffered from their recurrent intrusions into its territory.

Chad has already sent hundreds of military vehicles and thousands of troops to Cameroon in preparation for the impending joint military operation. Chadian President, Mr Idriss Deby represented by the country’s Head of Parliament was quoted to have made it clear that “We answered the call of (Cameroon’s) President Paul Biya. We cannot remain indifferent to what happens to our neighbours. Cameroon must not be left alone to face this threat that has hurt innocent people in Cameroon and in Nigeria,”

Though Chad is part of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) headquartered in Baga and made up of units of Nigerian, Chadian and Nigerien armed forces to coordinate their military strategies and actions to tackle organized violent crimes across their shared borders, its recent unilateral decision to cooperate with Cameroon in the fight against Boko Haram indicates how much it doubts Nigeria’s purported commitment to tackle the terrorists.

After all, it (i.e. Chad) and Niger had withdrawn their forces from the Joint Task Force earlier this month when Nigerian soldiers defending the Force headquarters took to their heels in an encounter with Boko Haram insurgents who after overrunning the headquarters went ahead to massacre thousands of people in and around the town.

Interestingly enough, though Boko Haram is admittedly a home-grown Nigerian terrorist group that is also hell-bent on dismantling the Nigerian state and replacing it with its own version of what is falsely calls Islamic system, Chad and Cameroon did not consult or even notify Nigeria either, as confirmed by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade. This is even though the operation will unavoidably violate the country’s territorial sovereignty.

Anyway, whether Nigeria will eventually be invited to join it or not, building such military cooperation without it from the beginning indicates the little respect (if any) Nigeria’s neighbours, African countries and the international community have for it as a country. Though, frankly speaking, this is due to its lack of adequate commitment to ending the insurgency.

For instance, recently the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma commended Cameroon and Chad for building this military cooperation and lamented that; Nigeria did not seek any support from the Union, which according to her “leaves the Union with no option than to watch the happening in Nigeria from a far”.

Moreover, Nigeria’s ironic lack of interest in ending the crisis appeared quite obvious again during the recently held foreign minister-level talks on the crisis between Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin and Equatorial Guinea as well as representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, China and other countries, which was held in Niamey, Niger Republic. The ministers of foreign affairs of the other countries attended the meeting; however Nigeria was represented by its ambassador in Niamey, Aliyu Isa Sokoto.

Likewise, Nigeria’s shocking display of indifference towards the plight of millions of its citizens directly affected by the insurgency including hundreds of people abducted by the militants and, of course, the monumental corruption that pervades the entire system including the military discourage many potential regional and international partners from fully engaging in the fight against the insurgents.

Whereas, Cameroon, for instance, and even before its recent military cooperation with Chad, had already proved its commitment to tackle the insurgents in its territory. Earlier this month it used airstrikes to reclaim a military base from Boko Haram insurgents in Achigashia in Cameroon. It also recently rescued 24 out of the 80 people abducted by the insurgents just a couple of days earlier. Moreover, it deployed almost 7,000 soldiers across the Far North region in the country, which is quite big considering the size of its armed forces and also the size of the country.

In fact, just last Tuesday, the Cameroon army conducted a successful rescue operation in Nigerian territory where they managed to rescue a German citizen; Nitsch Eberhard Robert abducted by Boko Haram militants. It is not yet clear whether Nigeria had prior knowledge of the rescue operation or not.

In any case, Russian ambassador in Yaoundé; Nicolay Ratsiborinski had assured Cameroon of Russian military assistance that includes heavy artillery, missiles, armoured cars and other modern armaments. Likewise, the United States ambassador in Cameroon, Michael Stephen Hoza had also expressed his country’s commitment to provide military equipment and training in counterinsurgency, to the Cameroon army.

Anyway, though Nigerian government will definitely oppose this impeding operation under the pretext of the imperative of respecting its national sovereignty, Nigerians should swallow their already empty pride and overwhelmingly support the liberating forces of Cameroon and Chad hopefully they will be able to liberate not only Baga but all the Nigerian towns and villages under Boko Haram control and even crush the militants to restore peace in the region.

After all, desperate times call for desperate measures, and I am sure that those particularly in the north east will not hesitate to welcome any foreign military intervention likely to end their suffering, with or without Nigerian government approval.