Boko Haram renew offensive

Posted by admin Boko Haram, Latest Politics Monday, July 8th, 2013

By ROBERT OBIOHA

The on-going military campaign against Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa suffered a major setback at weekend when gunmen suspected to be members of the dreaded Islamist sect attacked a secondary school in Yobe State in its renewed offensive against the Nigerian state.

According to reports, the Saturday morning attack on Government Secondary School, Mamudo in Potiskum Local Government Area of Yobe State, left 29 pupils and a teacher dead. While some of the victims were burnt alive, others were said to have been shot by the gunmen while trying to escape. Scores of pupils of the boarding school also sustained injuries. Some of the injured pupils are in critical condition at a hospital in the town. The students were asleep when the attack took place.

Traumatised parents, who besieged the hospital, reportedly struggled to identify their children among the charred bodies and gunshot victims of the dastardly attack. Survivors of the gruesome attack narrated that the suspected militants arrived with containers full of fuel before they set some of the school’s buildings on fire.

The spokesman of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Yobe State, Eli Lazarus, confirmed the killing of the pupils and put the casualty figure at 21.

However, unconfirmed reports disclosed that the number of dead persons was 29.

The latest onslaught by the militant sect shows that the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan in May this year to rein in attacks in the troubled North-East states, though working, needs to be reinvigorated. The unwarranted attack on schoolchildren is in line with the sect’s disdain for Western education, which is sinful in their eyes as their name suggests. The renewed offensive on educational institutions and children who are the future leaders of the country is an affront on civilisation and is an attempt to further weaken the education base of the North. Just as Boko Haram’s campaign has killed the economy of the North, it is unwittingly putting a death knell on its education.

Northern leaders who are sympathetic to the cause of the sect should come out of their cocoon and condemn the sect’s affront on education and the depopulation of Northern youths by series of mindless attacks on schools in recent time. Those using the sect’s insurgency as a weapon to settle old political scores should be mindful of the collateral damage the sect is doing to the nation in general and the North in particular. If the excesses of the sect are not checked, its relentless attacks will eventually ruin both the economy and education of the North, especially the North-east geo-political zone. Those playing politics with Boko Haram are engaging in a futile exercise because that alone cannot give them any political mileage. Instead, it will further alienate them from the rest of the country and further spell their political doom. Politics is, indeed, not worth the unconscionable destruction occasioned so far by the sect. Let Northern leaders come out strongly against the sect before more harm is done to the polity. Those Northern leaders whose body language is sympathetic to the sect’s cause should read the handwriting on the wall and call a spade a spade. They should publicly condemn what the sect is doing and support government’s effort to restore peace in the beleaguered region.

If the current spate of attacks on schoolchildren is not checked, Northern parents will stop sending their children to school. Forceful withdrawal of pupils from primary and secondary schools in the North will obviously have serious effect in the socio-economic and educational development of the North.

It is time the sect members and their sponsors reassess their mission and see whether such is still relevant and achievable in a country of diverse ethnic groups, languages, religions and cultures. Continuous attacks on government institutions, agencies, churches and now schools, will ultimately lead to nowhere. The destruction of lives and property cannot achieve any worthwhile goal.

It will be recalled that Jonathan declared state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in May this year to flush out the insurgency in the North-East geo-political zone. After an initial successes recorded against the sect by troops deployed there, it is apparent that the sect is fast regrouping and attacking some targets, especially educational institutions. The latest incident is the second of such deadly attacks by Islamic insurgents on schools and students in Yobe State. Last month, six students, two teachers and a resident were reportedly killed at the Government Secondary School, Damaturu, when gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members attacked the boys’ school. Also, in Maiduguri, Borno State, the epicentre of the insurgency, nine students and six teachers were killed when the armed sect stormed a public school within the metropolis and shot sporadically at final year students who were writing their Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) organized by the National Examination Council (NECO).

Also, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which said that the attack should be “condemned absolutely by all communities”, pointed out that a total of 48 pupils and seven teachers had been killed in four attacks since June 16. Its West African Director, Manuel Fontain, was quoted as saying that “there can be no justification for the deliberate targeting of children and those looking after them.” Similarly, Yobe State Government has confirmed that it had spent over N4 billion battling insurgents and stressed that a total of 209 schools had been razed down by the terrorists in various parts of the state. The Yobe State Deputy Governor, Abubakar Aliyu, who disclosed this to visiting members of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of the Security Challenges in the North led by Kabiru Turaki, said that the state had lost many lives since November 2011.

While the security operatives deployed to flush out the insurgents should restrategize and increase surveillance in the troubled zone, government should not foreclose the dialogue option. This is borne out of the fact that it is not easy to win guerrilla warfare. The JTF should exercise restraint and talk less of their exploits against the Islamic militants. Such revelations can only fuel the crisis the more. Above all, there is the need for collaboration among the nation’s security operatives in the current campaign against terrorism.

-Sunwp_posts