VICE president Professor Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan was never committed to ending the Boko Haram insurgency during his tenure hence why the terrorist sect survived for so long.
During the administration of Dr Goodluck, Boko Haram grew in strength, bombing civilian targets indiscriminately and at one stage controlled 14 local government areas in Nigeria. However, since the Buhari administration took over last year, almost all of this territory has been recaptured and the terrorists are now on the back foot.
While speaking in the US during a recent trip, Professor Osinbajo said in a lecture titled The Unravelling of Boko Haram and the Rebuilding of the North East of Nigeria, that a lack of political will allowed the terrorists to thrive. He delivered the lecture at the Harvard University’s Weatherland Centre for International Affairs.
While attributing his position to many factors, Professor Osinbajo said it was politically convenient for the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party to claim that the Boko Haram sect was sponsored by the northern Muslim political elite to discredit the government led by a Christian. He recalled that when the All Progressives Congress was formed, the then ruling party was also quick to paint it as the political wing of the Boko Haram sect.
According to professor Osinbajo, it was not until President Muhammadu Buhari who was then the leader of the opposition, was nearly killed in an attack in Kaduna that the false narrative began to lose credibility. He added that it was not until the abduction of more than 200 secondary schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok that public outrage against Jonathan’s government’s inept handling of the insurgency reached its peak, forcing the regime to act.
Professor Osinbajo added: “The ruling party also somewhat cynically seemed to have considered that since Boko Haram attacks were actually in the heartland of the opposition it was not necessarily an unwelcome development as it could only weaken the opposition.
“Thirdly, extensive corruption in arms procurement estimated at about $15bn, ensured that the military remained poorly equipped and demoralised. A number of well-publicised mutinies occurred and troops involved were taken through widely unpopular court-martials and as the government dithered and equivocated, Boko Haram proceeded to realise the objective of occupying territory and establishing Islamist states in Nigeria and in the Lake Chad basin.
He pointed out that in Borno State alone, it occupied and hoisted its flag in 20 of the 27 local government areas that constituted the state. In Adamawa State, Boko Haram took Mubi and also some villages in Yobe State.
According to Professor Osinbajo, the strongest reasons for President Buhari’s victory in the March 2015 presidential election was the expectation that going by his reputation as a no-nonsense soldier, he would defeat Boko Haram and restore peace to the north east. True to type, within six months of the Buhari presidency, the sect had been effectively dislodged from all the local governments they once held and had retreated into the Sambisa Forest and the northern border towns and villages.
Professor Osinbajo said the terrorists’ military capacity had been severely degraded and their supply lines effectively blocked. However, he added that the ability of Boko Haram to get willing suicide bombers remained a mystery.
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