Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity,
Mr. Femi Adesina


Ahead of the December presidential deadline for the nation’s armed forces to end the activities of the Boko Haram sect, the Presidency has said Nigeria will not seek the help of foreign mercenaries.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday.

He was responding to a question from our correspondent on whether or not President Muhammadu Buhari would ask the military to seek external help in view of recent attacks by the sect.

Adesina, said it was uncharacteristic of the President to direct the military to seek external help in form of mercenaries.

He said Buhari’s position had always been that the nation’s military has the capacity to end insurgency in the country, having performed creditably well in peace-keeping missions in many countries.

Adesina insisted that while the President would appreciate foreign support in terms of equipment, trainings and intelligence, he would not be favourably disposed to mercenaries.

The presidential spokesman said, “The position of the President has always been that he believes the military has the capacity to fight terrorism.

“President Buhari has always made it clear that Nigeria will appreciate support in terms of equipment, training and intelligence. The support the President is seeking is definitely not in terms of manpower or what you will call mercenaries.”

Meanwhile, the United States’ government has described the President’s goals towards countering terrorism and ending Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East as ambitious.

This was stated during a recent briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Centre in the US.

According to the US Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Todd Chapman, America will continue to support Nigeria to counter Boko Haram.

Chapman said, “We have had some security assistance programmes that have been very active. We just completed some training through our Global Security Contingency Fund, which is a $40m effort to help counter Boko Haram. The Obama administration authorised the use of presidential drawdown authority to provide another $45m in support to the countries fighting Boko Haram. And this is all on top of an additional $50m that we had already provided to the region to help with equipment training and logistics systems.”

He added, “President Buhari has set ambitious goals for himself. I’ll leave it up to others to determine whether or not those goals can be met. But we are committed to supporting them as they counter the threat. We heard many stories while we were there (in Nigeria) of some of the horrors that are being perpetrated in the North-East and elsewhere in Nigeria. And clearly, this government, the Buhari administration is committed very strongly to doing all that they can to defeat Boko Haram.”

Speaking at the briefing, another US official, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, Steven Feldstein, noted that there was more to be done than defeating the insurgents on the battlefield.

Chapman and Feldstein who visited the country recently pointed out that the issue of human rights protection remained critical in addressing the current crisis in the North-East.

“A lot of the rhetoric of what the regime and what the president has said when it comes about the importance of linking human rights protection, civilian protection, with the fight against Boko Haram and other elements is something that we view as essential pillars and cornerstones. And so for us to be able to have these important conversations with our military counterparts but also with civil society groups, with human rights activists, other government counterparts,’’ Feldstein said.

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The December ultimatum given by President Muhammadu Buhari to crush Boko Haram terrorists in the North-east is looking highly unlikely as a result of operational, logistic and administrative setbacks that are beyond the control of the military authorities.


THISDAY findings have revealed that there is growing uncertainty about the deadline despite recent gains and the best efforts of the Service Chiefs, who have brought in new ideas and energy to the fighting troops.


However, the earlier momentum is waning with the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations looking like a stalemate owing to the change of tactics by the Boko Haram, the erratic attitude of Chadians towards effective take off of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and dwindling supply of arms and ammunition.


THISDAY had reported how the alleged reluctance of Chad to station its forces along its contiguous border with other member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) was said to be jeopardising the effective operations of the MNJT, which was recently reactivated to checkmate the activities of Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT).


Sources within the military circle who have expressed concern over the unpredictable nature of Chad Republic in the ongoing war against Boko Haram in the North-east, attributed it to both economic sabotage and geopolitical strategy around the Lake Chad Basin.


The military sources noted that Chad is using the war to extract a lot of financial and strategic concessions from Nigeria. It was even revealed that one of the reasons the Nigerien Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) visited Nigeria was for the same financial support.


“Do you know that Nigeria has practically been forced to cede the headquarters of MNJT to Chad because of their blackmail, which was supported by their Francophone sister countries? They have turned Nigeria to a cash cow and tax haven.


“We know that the Federal Government released about $20million for the MNJTF, and each personnel are paid N1,500 per day. So we don’t know yet why the Chadians are reluctant and if they are not being paid,” the officer said.


The senior officer noted that line with the arrangement establishing the MNTF, each member countries including Nigeria, Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroon were expected to contribute troops towards effective control of the contiguous borders aimed at stopping easy movement of terrorists.


“This has however proved difficult because Chad has pulled away from their borders and has not contributed troops for the effective operation of MNJTF. As it stands now, it is like Nigeria is still practically piloting the whole process as Cameroun and Niger Republic are also busy dealing with increasing Boko Haram attacks within their respective territories,” a source explained.


This was also confirmed last week by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin, who said the Chadian government was yet to contribute the needed troops to man their side of the common borders.


Olonisakin who disclosed this recently while fielding questions from journalists after meeting with the Nigerien Defence team led by their Joint Chief of Staff, Gen. Seyni Garba, admitted that the military are having issues with the Chadians but the military authorities are working round the clock to address the issue.

He said: “The troops for the MNJTF are drawn from five nations, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin Republic. Most of the troops have been deployed especially from Niger which is in the same sector with Nigeria and they are performing their roles effectively.


“The importance of this meeting is to deepen our collaboration, our cooperation and coordination to ensure that the menace of terrorism is brought to a logical conclusion soonest.


“Most of the countries in the MNJTF arrangement have deployed troops except for areas relating to Chad. They are having some issues which we are addressing, the commander of the MNJTF have gone round the countries involved in this operation to ensure that they are well deployed in their location.”


Further enquiries also revealed that the latest ambush by Boko Haram, which allegedly left some soldiers dead and several others missing, has caused a lot of apprehension and consternation about the feasibility of the December deadline.
Even though some of the officers and soldiers who confided to THISDAY could confirm that the missing soldiers have returned and joined their units, they were however uncertain about meeting the deadline.


The sources also complained that no new weapons, arms and ammunition have been supplied for some time now as they are fast running out of stock.


Similarly one of the soldiers close to the theatre of operation was much more sceptical about the missing colleagues, saying; “soldiers missing were about 125 were not accounted for as at then, however we heard they have returned but you know our people that they will never give you the correct number of troops
“Another challenge is that there are no new weapons that we are using except the new General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) that we have”.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/mnjtf-military-unlikely-to-crush-boko-haram-by-dec-deadline/226353/