Editorial: A tricky war with Boko Haram

A few months ago, President Biya had talks with his Nigerian counterpart, Goodluck Jonathan, in France in the presence of the French president. The agenda was not by any consideration complicated. But the subject matter itself remained tricky and required a high sense of diplomacy.

It was a matter of dealing with an insurgency that was threatening the sub region.

Right there in France, it would appear that the three heads of state had pledged to put efforts together to fight against Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic group that has clung to profane Islamic teachings. Profane because their belief falls short of the fear of God.

And right there in France, President Biya declared a war against the insurgents, in an interview with a French television channel. Back home in his country, he is quoted to have promised to disgrace Boko Haram.

Since then the official media has continued to feed Cameroonians with information on breakthroughs in our armed forces’ confrontations with the extremists and this is in the form of heavy causalities, seizure of arms and ammunitions.

The reports have however not forgotten to mention that, on our part, we also lost some of our fighting men, or, others wounded. For a declared war, this is a major success. But for a war against an enemy applying terrorists’ tactics, it becomes tricky and difficult to assess our gains.

For instance, one of their most paying weapons is the abduction or hostage taking which is not only humiliating, but silences the guns of their pursuers, leaving them with the only option of paying ransoms running in millions of the tax payer’s money. To a certain extent, this diverts hard earned money away from the country’s development course.

The abduction of twenty seven people some eighty days ago, allegedly by Boko Haram, is indeed a test case that should leave a hand-writing on the wall to explain whether we are winning the war or losing it.

This latest drama is not the first time people have been abducted from our soil. Indeed no amount of rhetoric will convince anyone that the release of these people was purely a matter of on-the-table diplomacy. No amount of congratulatory messages will wipe away the obvious, that no compensation was paid for the release.

It will not be an overstatement to say that the insurgents are in business and the huge amounts paid for the release of their captives only goes to beef up their arsenal and boost their moral. It is not different from the era of sea piracy in Somalia. When this was defeated, attention turned to Al-shabaab, a similar extremist group like Boko Haram.

Concerning the recent release of the twenty seven hostages including the wife of Minister Amadou Ali and ten Chinese, a certain Hon. Abba Malla has been named as the expert mediator who is alleged to have played a major role in the negotiations.

While he may be appreciated immensely for the part he plays in securing these releases, this role of his can also very easily come to be questioned by those who believe in greater details. For example many would want to question his real relationship with the group because there must certainly be a sure source of communication with the group.

The fear here is that, this may only be the beginning of a series of such abduction exercises. This fear is backed up by reports which followed the release of the twenty seven abducted from Cameroon, that Nigeria has reached a ceasefire with Boko Haram and this is likely to lead to the release of more than two hundred school girls in a village in Borno State.

The difference is that the Nigeria population remains skeptical about this announcement on grounds that the government has had a long list of contradictions in their approach to the war against its insurgents.

The war against Boko Haram is therefore a very tricky one that must keep aside unnecessary propaganda and image boosting.