Boko Haram: Nigerian Army Needs Refocus-Part 2 By Ola’ Idowu

We are blaming the US government for refusing to sell us AH-64 helicopter gunships (called the Cobra) but apart from the fact that they are afraid of the human rights record of the Nigerian military and the possible use of such gunships against innocent civilians, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle some weeks back criticized the Nigerian government for wanting to buy helicopters and jets when we don’t have pilots to fly them. I would have thought he was joking but then I remembered late Wing Commander, Hedima Chimda, who was beheaded by Boko Haram, was flying an Air force jet which crash landed recently.

Tactical coordination (combined arms operation) is clearly missing in the battle so far. This is due to the fact that there is a lack of communication, shortage of manpower and command and control centres far from the front-line. You cannot defeat a terrorist organisation like Boko Haram that has shown it has the capacity for both guerrilla and conventional warfare without aerial support and troops to mop up and hold the ground against them. Hence the decision to scrap the Joint Task Force (JTF) to form the 7th Division (Maimalari) in Maiduguri by Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (retd.) was a costly one and has helped Boko Haram grow to this size. Why the present CDS has not reinstated the JTF I wouldn’t know, but it behoves on him to do so immediately.

Nigerian SoldiersAFP

The JTF needs to have a central command in Borno state led by a top military officer who is tested and trusted, and its fully staffed, protected and fitted with communication gears. Due to the cut off of phone and internet services to most parts of Borno and the north east, the JTF needs to have secured lines of communications with all military formations and sub-divisions of the JTF involved with the war, so as to always know their needs particularly when they are attacked by insurgents. Be that aerial reinforcements, resupply of ammunitions, food or troops.

We are blaming the US government for refusing to sell us AH-64 helicopter gunships (called the Cobra) but apart from the fact that they are afraid of the human rights record of the Nigerian military and the possible use of such gunships against innocent civilians, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle some weeks back criticized the Nigerian government for wanting to buy helicopters and jets when we don’t have pilots to fly them. I would have thought he was joking but then I remembered late Wing Commander, Hedima Chimda, who was beheaded by Boko Haram, was flying an Air force jet which crash landed recently. I also recall stories of aerial supports arriving late when called for by fighting troops and when it arrived it fired on their own troops position (Nigerians right away blamed it on sabotage by northern elements in the military) but the truth is we do not have pilots in the Air-force. The Nigerian Air-force even in the dark days of the military, used to be one arm of our armed forces with so much togetherness and professionalism, but for them to have fallen to such an extent shows the decay that has eaten at every fabric of our lives in Nigeria.

Two men walk amidst rubble after Boko Haram of Benisheik.Voice of America News

To those reading out there, a Wing Commander in every normal case shouldn’t be flying a jet or helicopter gunship except in emergency situations. He was promoted a commander so that he commands a squadron of jets and air-crafts, you have Pilot officers, Flight Officers and Flight Lieutenants, what would a Wing Commander be doing flying a fighter jet in normal circumstances? Add to that several crashes of Alpha Jets in recent weeks. It shows the US Ambassador was right we do not have pilots at the moment. We need to start training pilots quickly and recall recently retired Pilot officers, Flight officers and Flight Lieutenants who are willing to go into the front-line and pay them handsomely for the risky job. Commercial pilots capable enough and ready to fly some military air-crafts at least to safe areas in the war sector to deliver re-supplies of ammunition, food and troops should also be engaged and paid handsomely for the risk.

The significance of aerial power is evident in how the US has been able to push back the advances of ISIL in Iraq. I can also cite the example of Iraq forces with just roughly 300 men and how they were able to defend and hold their ground against ISIL terrorists when they attacked the largest refinery in that country based in the town of Beiji. The sprawling complex was defended by about 300 soldiers facing an onslaught from over a thousand terrorists with heavy weapons, but they had to rely on regular aerial support by the Iraqi air-force through resupply of equipments and ammunitions, food, water, medical supplies, evacuation of wounded soldiers and reinforcements by bombing identified enemy position or bringing in fresh troops to break through the ISIL encirclement of the refinery. 

After five months of holding their ground, just last week they were able to push out the terrorists, counter-attack and now not just the refinery but the entire town of Beiji is liberated and back in government hands. Obviously it helped the Iraqi government that when the terrorists attacked the refinery they met forces who were used to the entire complex and its terrain as they were the regular guards for the refinery and they just refused to give up their day jobs without a fight, but it would never had happened without regular aerial support for five months. Its thus makes no sense to take troops from somewhere in the South to Abadam, Borno state with no clear communication link to a central command, no proper training and no hope of regular aerial support and then expect them to hold their ground against hopeless terrorists, its like asking them to pay a needless supreme sacrifice with their lives. In modern warfare you fight to kill your enemies not to lose your soldiers, everything is always put in place to ensure the enemy suffers maximum casualty to demoralise them not you asking troops to just sacrifice their lives and if they don’t they are cowards.

It brings us to the issue of knowing the terrain, this is where the Civilian JTF (CJTF) comes in. Most of these hunters, youths and civilians in the north-east know the terrain better than the soldiers deployed there and its time to train them and equip them as local militias so as to fight against these terrorists. The weapons (restricted to light arms, assault rifles and ammunitions) we give them can be clearly marked and made distinguishable so that they don’t end up on the black market or can be easily traced later on. We are not involved in a police action we think we can win within some few months, with the appalling way the presidency has handled the Boko Haram issue, even if we have an APC government next year this war would still continue as it is a religious war and they only take instructions from Al-Qaeda. 

Its time these CJTF who have proved more successful than “foreign” soldiers we’ve been sending to the north east from other parts of the country, know the terrain well and together with the army can at the first start to drive back this terrorists and then later counter-attack them wherever they go hiding. They proved themselves by securing Maiduguri, in the battles they fought together with the army in Konduga, on their own in Mubi, its time we train and arm the CJTF and with promises of direct enlistment into the army should they behave properly and be disciplined. In any case how do you restrain a people if they want to fight for their land and defend themselves since the government and army has failed so far? We don’t want to wait until these innocent people being killed decide to stand defending themselves from terrorists, it would be chaotic then and out of the grasp of government so its better we organise them now as they won’t wait forever on a government reluctant or unwilling to protect them, their lands and their families.

It also follows that we would need the best form of intelligence. We can make use of all the fitted reconnaissance aircraft bequeathed us by the Americans since May after the Chibok incident but nothing beats hard nosed human intelligence, and this is where the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) our own equivalent of the CIA fails the nation, miserably. What are the guys at the NIA doing for heaven’s sake that they haven’t traced the funding and weapons network of Boko Haram till date? If they have done so and given it to the government and someone is sitting on it or not taking action, then just leak it to the media. That is our Americans keep their governments on its toes, they leak things to the media who then chase it up and force government to take action. But with the defence minister Aliyu Gusau days back calling on the intelligence agencies to unravel the funding network of Boko Haram, then it shows the NIA only exists in name and there to protect only the president and not the entire nation. The Department for Military Intelligence (DMI) need to be up and doing, if Boko Haram recruits foreign fighters from Niger and Cameroon with about $3,000 there is nothing stopping us paying informants about $5,000 and planting them in the midst of Boko Haram. By now we should have been having successful aerial campaign against the terrorists when we have information as to where they gather, train or hide. To win these war we would need better intelligence gathering and working on it right away when we get them.

To refocus the army in the battle against Boko Haram, we would also need to understand the culture of the enemy and their attitude towards time-keeping. Most of the terrorists fighting for Boko Haram are mostly from Hausa/Kanuri speaking areas of the north stretching all the way into Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon. We would have to understand the culture of where they come from and that of their foreign fighters from Tuareg tribes in Libya, Mali and Chad to know what exactly fuels them or motivates them in battle. How long can they withstand pain, bombardments, attacks or having them on the run. When we have an idea of these we can then plan and know how much longer the war would last and what strategies to adopt against them. Now I believe having read through this we can agree their ideology is linked with that of Al-Qaeda and possibly now ISIL. Al-Qaeda’s main ideology is to fight allies of the United States and to drag them into long wars that would bleed them economically and possibly cause a break-up of that country. ISIL’s ideology is the establishment of an Islamic caliphate across the world. But we need to also understand the culture of the fighters as not all of them are fighting due to ideologies, but mainly because of the nature of where they come from and how they grew up. 

It may go a long way in knowing how much longer they fighters can be committed to this war they are fighting especially the local fighters they recruit. Also, we need to understand their attitude towards time-keeping as this is very important to plan defences and for attacks against the enemy. I’m leaving for the last due to its importance as it would save us a lot of losses on the battlefield in the war against Boko Haram. From my observations of many months of fighting this year and from my researches, I noticed the Boko Haram terrorists have adopted the Taliban kind of attitude to time-keeping towards camping, training and attacks. In reports on the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, their normal days starts from around 2am-4am mostly from 4am when they start waking up and gather together for the early morning prayers. This they do till about 6am and they start preparing breakfast and sorting out their duty rota for the day. By 9am those who are going on “patrols” start off from the camp. while some others stay back to clean weapons and tidy up the camp. Lunch is served from around noon and after the 2pm prayers they go out for more “patrols” (attacks) and the day winds up for the Taliban from after 6pm when they have their evening prayers and those on the rota to sleep start going to bed from 9pm while the ones on sentinel guard stay awake to watch over the camp.

I’ve not been anywhere near a Boko Haram camp, but you can deduce by their timing of attacks that they keep to this Taliban attitude to time-keeping. The recent attack on the army barracks in Abadam was done according to reports around 4pm. Numerous reports from fleeing residents of attacked town and villages usually cite the Islamic insurgents arriving their villages around 9am or 10am (recall I mentioned the Taliban starts their day patrols from about 9am) and they are done before noon, giving them enough time to head home for lunch in their camps. There are also reports of many attacks occurring just after the 2pm afternoon prayers, which suggests that the hours after the Muslim prayers of 2pm and 4pm are deadly for any military formations in the battle against Boko Haram as they have just finished “praying” and hope to die to become a martyr in “heaven”. So for example with such knowledge, a military formation in the north-east would have had a bugle call any time from midday to put all troops on standby till any time after 6pm when troops can then stand down from the alert and this should be done virtually everyday especially when they have information of likely attacks, as this would save them from surprise attacks like what happened at Abadam and the troops having to start fleeing from battle.

This same procedure should be done even with troops who are still training in their respective battalions before deployment so they can get used to the procedure when they get to their positions in the north-east. It would defeat the element of surprise advantage the Islamist insurgents have every time over our troops who at the moment are just defending and not attacking. You would also note clearly that most of Boko Harams attack don’t take place at nights except ambushes, and one or two surprise night attacks. This is more-so as the hunters and civilian JTF who drove them out of Mubi last week were reported to have attacked them at night and the ran away leaving their weapons. It follows that when the army refocuses and get better organised with some of the advices I have given here, then most of their attacks against Boko Haram should be done at night as from what I can piece together on my own they are more vulnerable to attacks at night.

In all, the government and the army have to admit they have failed the people of the north-east and entire country miserably, and its time to refocus our strengths using some of the tips freely given here. Boko Haram is not a friend to the north or to northern Muslims otherwise they wouldn’t have caused them this much misery and pain, Boko Haram is an enemy to the north, Jonathan’s presidency, the military and all Nigerians. They should be dealt with full scale and their noses bloodied even before this government hands over to the opposition or itself in 2015, otherwise we might be in for a forever war that would surely drive the country to breaking point and drain us economically.

This article is concluded.
Ola’ Idowu is a management consultant and researcher writing in from the UK.  Email: frenchcoast2@gmail.com