Nigerian military clears Boko Haram militants from Yobe State

Boko Haram Takfiri militants have been cleared from Nigeria’s northeastern state of Yobe, following the reclaiming of the town of Goniri, military says. "We announced the reclaiming of Goniri today," AFP quoted defense spokesman Chris Olukolade as saying on his Twitter account on Monday. He added that Goniri was the Takfiri militant’s last strong hold in Yobe. Last week, the army announced that the state of Adamawa had been cleared of the ISIL militants. "Adamawa is free, Yobe is free, Borno is soon to be freed by our able military," Olukolade added via a separate tweet.  

Earlier in the day, following days of intense fighting the ISIL Takfiri militants were forced out of from Bama in Borno State, said defense authorities. Before retaking the town, the militants torched residents’ homes. The fire forced large numbers of residents to flee to state capital Maiduguri. Bama fell into the hands of the militants on September 11, 2014. The town of Gwoza is now the only town under the control of Boko Haram in Borno. The three Nigerian states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, located in Nigeria’s northeastern regions, have been the core of six years of Boko Haram violence, which has claimed over 13,000 lives and displaced a further 1.5 million people. In May 2013, all three states were put in a state of emergency while troops and civilian forces pushed the militants out of urban centers into remote rural areas. In November 2014, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (pictured below) attempted to extend the state of emergency for a third time but the country’s parliament blocked his move.

The violence intensified to a point where the Nigerian army lost control of the situation and failed to stop the takeover of scores of villages and towns in all three states.  The Boko Haram violence and a four-country military operation set back Nigeria’s presidential elections by six weeks. Over the past weeks, Nigerian troops backed by soldiers from Chad, Niger, and Cameroon have been carrying out operations to secure and stabilize the northeast before the presidential vote, slated for March 28. Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.

The Nigerian/Biafra War was a curse on the conscience of the nation but a blessing to the Northern Military establishment. Many of these Generals made fortunes from the war and took the opportunity to entrench themselves in power. Olusegun Obasanjo like Good luck Jonathan came to power during that period as a beneficiary of the sad spoils of death. They were considered outsiders or trespassers to their god ordained power. For this reason, the country had to be made ungovernable to prove them and any person outside the North unfit to defend the constitutional order, national cohesion and republican values.  Under these dire circumstances, the Northern Military establishment, their feudal and religious confederacy would step in and take back power through democratic or other means. This is the rationale of the unfolding drama in the election taking place in this March general elections.