Captain Umar Aliyu (rtd.) has said that the resurgence of Boko Haram insurgents in the North East is line with the antics of the sect, especially when elections come close.
The security expert told The Guardian yesterday that insurgents seek to undermine constituted authority, particularly before elections.“The only downside to it being their use of methods, the baptism and exposure to which our troops have already had, and hence should be wiser and better primed at anticipating and containing.
“Don’t forget, Nigerian troops are not new to attacks on their locations, nor to spikes in insurgency attacks pre-political transition. In our struggle with this threat type, we should not also be new to lessons learnt from past occurrences and efficient solution options, should they reoccur,” Umar said.He debunked insinuations that the army discloses its operational strategies before executing them.
“That is not correct; more like the army should be seen more and heard less. As things are, the army is seemingly overly engaged in a social media endeavour to respond to any and every subject of discourse as it relates to the goings-on in the North East. They, by so doing, unwittingly play into the hands of what I call the ‘pull effect’ of social media traffic and hype.
“While public enlightenment on military operations is important, it should not be reduced to unnecessary news activity on social media. Outside having their own social media platforms, there should be no need to individualise army official responses and news.”
“I would suggest that the army focuses more on being seen than heard. Put another way, that means proactive action and positive results.”On the way out of the insurgency, he suggested: “Result-driven, innovative-imagination and meta-cognition-led approach to National-Security Solution-Options across board, by all security and law enforcement brands. Until this occurs, the insurgents will continually run circles around our efforts. Suffice it to say: ‘a chain can only be as strong as its weakest link’. As it is, there are indeed weak links.”
