Boko Haram: Let’s do what America did to Mexico — Nigerian serving in the US Army

By Gabriel Enogolase
MAJOR Wisdom Osagiede Ogbewekon-Osemwende is a Nigerian serving in the
United States Army; he served in Iraq during the American/Iraqi war. A
member of the Benin royal family, he is currently attached to the
African Command in Germany. In this interview conducted by telephone,
he spoke on the security challenges facing the country and how the
Boko Haram insurgency can be tamed.Excerpts:
On security challenges in Nigeria
Terrorism is an enduring situation worldwide. In Nigeria, this is
causing a lot pains to the people and the armed forces. The extreme
ideology of the Boko-Haram sect and what is happening in the North is
very disturbing. Northern leaders such as the late Sarduana of
Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; Mallam
Aminu Kano; the late Major Gen Joseph Garba; and many others who
labored to make the North what it is today will never forgive the sect
for what they have turned the region into and I know that average
northerners are good people and are not in support of what they are
doing. Iam however pleased with what President Jonathan is doing to
curtail the insurgency and the Niger Delta militants and needs the
support of all Nigerians.
On security challenges, the country needs to create special branches
in thearmed forces, that is, the army, navy and air force that would
be given specialized training on how to handle terrorism; they should
be able to fight on land, sea and in the desert. This special force
should be deployed to the Gulf of Guinea to maintain peace inthe area.
There should be combined operations involving the army, navy and the
air force to curtail the activities of Boko Haram; it should not be
left in the hands of the police or army alone.
Stability of operations
This follows after combined operationsof the military. They must not
leave the scene of operations immediately, they should stay to
stabilize operations and return normalcy to the area.
Border patrol
A division that is made up of men and officers from all branches of
the armed forces should be created to join the Customs, Immigration
and police to patrol our porous borders with Cameroun, Chad, Niger,
etc . They should effectively man the border points because this is
where the Boko Haram people leave for Mali and Mauritanian for
training. The Nigerian government should be prepared to spend money on
technology, censors and radars should be mounted at sensitive border
points to monitor what is going on.
The Federal Government can establish three central control divisions
to man Nigerian/Cameroun, Nigerian/Niger, and Nigerian/Chad borders
with radar installed to monitor the movements ofpeople. The radar will
send information to the central divisions and place those on patrol at
alert. This is what the Boko-Haram people do andthey move with ease in
and out of the country to train in Mali and other countries. There is
also the need to install underground sensors along the borders with
our neighbours that will send signals to the central control system
which, in turn, calls for air support in cases of emergency. The
security agencies should train dogs to sniff persons and cars coming
into the country because terrorism takes time to plan. It is not done
overnight.
They select targets to be attacked, they have good intelligence
network and so, to counter them, you must have an intelligence
gathering system that is superior to their own.
How to defeat terrorism
Government should allocate more funds for the education of youths in
the North; by so doing terrorists wouldnot be able to brainwash or
indoctrinate them on their cause. Northern youths should be able to
compete with their southern counterparts in every field of human
endeavours once they get the right education.
Nigeria should subscribe to the African Military High Command to make
her strong in the continent; for training, special assistance, among
others.The police should be properly equipped, they should have a
rescue combat training and, above all, Nigerians should have faith in
the police and know that they are serving their interest. I recall
hosting some Nigerian police officers sent to the United States on
community policing with another Nigerian U.S. army officer,Lt. Col.
Oronsaye, and we tasked them to ensure that the training they received
in the U.S should be well implemented while back in Nigeria. While I
commend the Inspector- General of Police, Mr. Muhammed Abubakar, for
the innovation that he brought into the police, the men should be
adequately funded, supported with adequate logistics provided,
computerized vehicles for crime detection and arrests.
All Nigerians get national identity cards entered into a national data
base. You must have records of people living in the country including
foreigners.
The Federal Government should erect walls along our borders with our
neighbours as the United States government did along its Mexican
borders when it became clear that there were illegal aliens entering
the country through its borders with Mexico.
The Federal Government should dialogue with religious leaders in the
North especially Imams on the dangersof allowing Boko-Haram to keep
weapons in the mosques. We discovered this in Iraq and we talked with
them about the dangers of allowing them to do so.
The Boko-Haram sect and the Niger Delta militants should dialogue and
embrace because there is no nation onearth that can survive two wars.
Nigerians should give peace a chance.
Crisis in the Niger Delta and oil theft
It is regrettable that Nigeria reportedly lost about 191 Billion U.S.
dollars to oil theft and vandalization. I commended the Joint Military
Task Force set up by the government to tackle the issue. They should
concentrate more efforts in tackling the issue and they should be
properly equipped to provide security to Nigerians living in the
region. The militants should embrace peace.