Why military hasn’t won counter-insurgency war — Col. Nyiam

The recurring failure of the Nigeria Armed Forces to end the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East and widespread insecurity in other regions have been attributed to the unconventional warfare tactics deployed by the terrorists and armed bandits operating in the country. After nearly a decade of engagement between the terrorists and the Nigerian troops, the war theatre has grown wider and more complex as Boko Haram extends its bloody campaign into the North West and North Central regions of the country.

The local terrorist group has even metamorphosed into a deadlier organisation following its affiliation with the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In spite of the repeated claims by the government and security forces to have technically defeated Boko Haram, there are fears that the war might not end any time soon unless the Nigeria Armed Forces returns to the drawing board to evaluate its current approach to the war and change its strategies A security strategist and military veteran, Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), said while the Nigeria Armed Forces remained potentially strong, its troops have had a lot of difficulties combating the Boko Haram elements because those directing the battle were fixated on conventional warfare.

Nyiam, one of the survivors of the April 1990 military coup d’etat that shook Nigeria to its foundations, argued that given the “consistent ineffectiveness” of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to halt the fast growth and spread of the insurgency and banditry, there was an urgent need for the Nigeria Armed Forces to do an honest introspection in order to understand where they got the battle plans wrong. According to him, the internal security threats unleashed by these armed groups was gradually weakening the structural foundations of the country. He contended that for any national army to overcome in a battle it must have the requisite training and intelligence that can put its troop ahead of the enemies.

“This is a useful enquiry, particularly as non-state armed men have become the prevalent enemy-within, especially in the far Northern Nigeria neighbourhoods. PMB’s consistent ineffectiveness in the prevention of the fast growth, and spread of the high intensity, internal security threats, is gradually weakening the structural foundation of Nigeria,” he said.

In a chat with Saturday Telegraph, Nyiam observed that the Nigerian leadership had ignored what he described as “the changing nature of war” to the detriment of national security. “The nature of the military threat that the Nigerian state is facing is one of a new normal, the use of non-state armed forces as enemies within the country.

The skillful resort to unconventional warfare tactics by these enemies within, and their foreign collaborators, has turned the Nigerian national security situation, literally, upside down.”

“The daunting development can begin to be arrested, if the Nigerian leaders are ready to exercise their ‘critical thinking’ faculties, to think outside the box of conventional military threats. Or, lateral thinking which is useful for solving problems by unorthodox methods.

“The absence of good public institutions that would have made up for the glaring lack of leadership capacity, has turned the Nigerian national security situation into one of fast downward slide,” he said.

Nyiam likened what has been happening to Nigeria in the last few years to termites eating up an expensive furniture from within because the wood was not treated with the necessary chemicals that will make it resistant to such a vulnerability. “There is in the Nigerian setting, a lack of the appropriate military doctrine, and the attendant training skills, for fighting an asymmetric war, such as we are now facing. “This is a war between dissimilar opponents that could be likened to a Nigerian boxer pitted, at the same time, against three opponents.

One from the North-East is a ‘Kung Fu’ Marital Art expert. “The second opponent from the North-West is a good African traditional wrestler, and the third challenge comes from foreign support in form of training and the arming, of the enemies within Nigeria.”  (Saturday Telegraph)