SADOH MS' Blog: How Authentic Is This? 'We Have Defeated Boko Haram' - Minister Of Information, Culture And Tourism

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said on Wednesday 23rd December, that the Nigerian military had met the December deadline to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists. The minister said this during his maiden meeting with editorial heads of media houses in Lagos. President Mohammadu Buhari had, upon assuming office, issued a December 31 deadline to the military to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists.

Nigerian Troops on the Boko Haram defeat mission

"Today, I can report that the war against Boko Haram is largely won. I can confidently say this because just recently, I led a group of 33 journalists from both the local and international media to the hotbed of the insurgency, that is, Maiduguri, Kondugua, Kaoure and Bama".

“Today, I can report to you that the entire 70 plus kilometres stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki which leads to Cameroun and the Central African Republic are in the hands of our gallant troops.”

He said the military presence could be felt ”every few metres along the road; at a point along that road we were just a kilometre to Sambisa forest.

IDPs predicaments

“They have so degraded the capacity of Boko Haram that the terrorists can no longer hold on to any territory just as they can no longer carry out any spectacular attack.”

Mr. Mohammed, however, said that although there were still cases of suicide bombings, it was pertinent to note that such was the nature of insurgency globally.

“Unlike a war between two armies, an insurgency never ends with arms victory

“Even in countries like Colombia where insurgency was supposed to have ended decades ago, attacks like this still happen.”

He said that the insurgents had adopted a new style of attacking soft targets like motor parks, schools, entertainment centres, religious centres, killing innocent people mostly women and children.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians to support the military in the fight against terrorism in the country, saying that the military had availed itself creditably.

“It is our turn as civilians to give them our support; to realise that the war they are fighting is not their war alone, but our war, hence we must own the war.”

The minister disclosed that a national security campaign had commenced to raise awareness among Nigerians about the war, the sacrifices of our troops, and how to stamp out the remnant of the war.

“Jingles are being played on national radio and television as part of the campaign in order to keep the media better informed about the war, so that they can also better inform Nigerians,’’ he said.

Mr. Mohammed also said that an ad-hoc committee, comprising media representatives as well as intelligence agencies, would be inaugurated to regularly be updated about the war in order to better inform the public.

- (NAN)

Boko Haram harzard

Our ordinary concern now is whether this information is right at this moment or just another political gimmicks and propaganda as we had heard before? In the recent past, we had been informed deceitfully that the Boko Haram leader, Imam Shekau was killed in the war front but only for the whole information to appear futile in few days later when the acclaimed dead Shekau appeared in a secretly broadcast video, denouncing the rumours of his death and mocking the prowess of the Nigerian military men. Another time, it was a false rumour of how no territory was controlled by the insurgents but only to be discovered later that about 17 of the 774 local government areas of the Nigerian federation were solidly under the control of the insurgents. Other false hopes of liberation of the Northeast were pervaded by the military spokesmen and all were later found as futile and lies.

So, in this era of 'Change' government, are we in for the same gimmicks and propaganda? Since the information is rightly coming from the lips of the Minister of Information, who had been branded as 'Chief Propagandist' by the opposition party, are we supposed to believe that the eras of heavy bombings and Boko Haram terror strength are over? Or according to one of his previous statements that, there may still be 'pockets' of attacks on vulnerable citizens and inhabitants: how much could such 'pockets' of attacks are we anticipating and which region could be the target? Many of these kind of questions are still lagging in answers...

SADOH MS' BLOG

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