Former President Obasanjo Commends Nigeria Army on counterinsurgency

Former President Obasanjo Commends Nigeria Army on counterinsurgency 

BY Blogger 

Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, had yesterday commended troops of the Nigeria Army and other sister military troops for the successes they have so far achieved in the area of counterinsurgency operations. 

Former President made this commendation when he honoured an invitation by the University of Maiduguri  for a two day official visit during which he was supposed to commissioned projects, inspects ongoing ones and even meet with members of the university senate. 

Speaking during a courtesy call on Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima, had also  called on the Federal government of Nigeria to carry out in-depth research and document the root cause of the Boko Haram insurgency, so that the country and other African nations could learn lessons from the experience. 

The former President and elder statesman, said he was impressed with the achievement of the Nigerian military in the ongoing counterinsurgency operations, adding that the military must be commended for reducing the hostilities of the Boko Haram insurgents to the barest level. 

He however cautioned the federal and state governments on the need to slow down in its desire to quickly relocate the IDPs back to their recovered communities even as he emphasised that it would be dangerous to do so giving the fact that the communities might still be dotted by landmines and explosives that could further endanger the populace. 

"We are not out of the woods yet but it will appear we can seen the light beyond the tunnel: there is no doubt that with the combined efforts of the local, state, federal and the community level that our security forces are on ascendency over the forces of destruction”, said  Obasanjo.

The former president had also assured the over 2 million displaced persons that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is very much “committed to rebuilding all the destroyed communities and help the IDPs return back to their homes” as soon as it is considered safe to do so. 

He thereby enjoined all to help the government by praying to God for the return of a sustainable peace to the troubled zone and the country at large. 

Obasanjo said he was saddened by the alarming number of Widows and orphans created by the insurgency. He insisted that “they must empowered and given life again as they prepare to return home”.

“My being in Maiduguri today is sign that normalcy and peace is fast returning to this region”, said OBJ. 

He further called on governments at the federal and state to leverage on the present economic downturn as a turning point for diversification. He emphasised that agriculture should not only be the alternative to oil but that government must also diversify its investments within the agricultural sector. Adding that with agriculture Nigeria can run its economy if well diversified. 

Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima,  who cut short his official engagement outside Maiduguri to receive the octogenarian former President, had expressed his delight in his visit even as he pointed out that he was honoured to be the serving governor of Borno state to host  Obasanjo’s first courtesy visit on the Government of Borno state since the last one he (OBJ) made some 40 years ago. 

He said Obasanjo’s courtesy visit would also be the first ever made by a former President  in the annals of the state. 

“Your Excellency, Sir, you have to forgive me today for some of the things I will say. I had prepared myself to pay tribute to you in 2015, when Leadership Newspapers was honouring you as Person of the Year, in Abuja, but you were not there in person so I reserved my comments. Part of my reasons for being at that function was to meet you”, said Governor Shettima

“If I were to author a book on President Obasanjo, I would title that book, THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION, and this is for the fact that, since my adulthood, I have not practically seen any Nigerian leader that has the courage of President Obasanjo when it comes to standing by his conviction. At some point, when governance was at its lowest ebb in this country in recent past, President Obasanjo was the lone voice that told the truth to power. He was the only elder statesman that openly stood up against the reelection of an administration that the entire world had condemned as being ineffectual, to borrow from an editorial by the Economist of London. 

At some point, Baba Obasanjo was the loudest voice speaking against poor handling of the security situation in Borno and rest of the northeast. He regularly spoke in our interest at different times within and outside Nigeria. I recall that Baba Obasanjo was the first leader to have made a bold effort towards peaceful resolution of the Boko Haram crisis. When others saw Maiduguri as a no-go-area, President Obasanjo risked his safety and flew into Maiduguri in September, 2011 and drove to a daring location to interface with the inlaws of late Mohammed Yusuf so that he could establish a channel of negotiation to nip the insurgency in the bud before it later grew out of hand. 

“Your Excellency, Sir, for us in Borno State, you occupy a special place in our hearts and minds. You did the best you could to save us from mass murder. I am aware that you had met with then President on many occasions over the situation in Borno. You passionately wanted to prevent the high scale deaths and destructions that were to later become of us. We appreciate your sincere efforts. 

Borno has seen hell, Your Excellency. 

Tens of thousands of our innocent citizens were brutally killed; married and single women were abducted and raped; our sons were forced into becoming child-soldiers; more than two million citizens were internally displaced in camps and host communities in Maiduguri alone. Others fled to different parts of Nigeria including Lagos, some fled to neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Recently, we carried out a Post conflict assessment in accordance with international best practices that are verifiable through satellite images and physical analysis and based on our assessment,

*About one million private houses were destroyed by insurgents across the 27 local government areas in the State.

* 5,335 classrooms and other school buildings were destroyed in primary, secondary schools and two tertiary institutions.

* A total of 512 primary schools, 38 secondary schools as well as two tertiary institutions: Umar Ibn Elkanemi College of Education, Science and Technology in Bama and College of Business and Management Studies in Konduga were affected.  Your Excellency, 201 health centres comprising mostly primary healthcare clinics, dispensaries and some General Hospitals were affected across the 27 local government areas. 

*A total of 1,630 water sources that include Motorized Boreholes, hand pumps, solar powered boreholes and facilities for piped water schemes were destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents. 

* 665 Municipal buildings comprising Ministry and LGA buildings, prisons, police Stations and electric offices were destroyed. 

*Also, 726 power distribution substations of 11 KV/415V and distribution lines of 415-230 V were destroyed across the 27 local government areas of the State and so were destructions of our  Eco systems that include parks, game Reserves, Forest reserves, Grazing reserves, green wall projects, orchards, ponds, river basins and lakes, some of which were either poisoned or bombed in 16 out of 27 local government areas. 

*These are in addition to other monumental economic looses suffered by millions of citizens as well as huge quantum of funds expended by Government on complimentary services to the military, rebuilding communities initially destroyed before they were occupied as well as rehabilitating victims because we figured out that we had to be paying some sort of compensation to victims so that they do not join Boko Haram out of frustration. 

Your Excellency, there is light at the end of the tunnel. You have fought for change and change we have got. The fight against Boko Haram has largely been result driven under the Buhari Administration and we are most hopeful that the end of Boko Haram is closer than it ever was. We have began reconstruction works as a short documentary clip I am respectfully handing over to you, would confirm. We started reconstruction works to demonstrate commitment on our part. We are optimistic, that we will be supported by the Federal Government soon.