Federal Government has again insisted that Boko Haram has been incapacited and degraded.
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo who made the pronouncement yesterday said the attacks on Government Science and Technical Girls College, Dapchi, resulting in the abduction of 110 girls, as well as the gruesome murder of United Nations aid workers in Rann, Kalabalge Local Government area of Borno State by the insurgents was meant to send the message that they were winning when the reverse is the case.
According to him, the terrorists must be fought on multiple fronts, starved of funding and resources, sympathy, and of the oxygen of publicity, especially on the Internet to ensure their total defeat.
He spoke at the opening of the eighth Edition of the National Security Seminar 2018, with the theme: “Fighting tomorrow’s warfare today,” organised by the Alumni Association of the National Defence College (AABDEC).
Osinbajo who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, said unlike first and second world wars that had clear beginnings and endings, the terror is different.
“Today’s enemies, loosely-structured non-state actors, sometimes faceless, choose to mutate. They will alter their goals and objectives at random, and are capable of doing anything and everything to continue feeding off the oxygen of media attention. Yet, this should not be interpreted as meaning that we are fighting an unwinnable war. We can boldly say that today Boko Haram is no longer a serious fighting force.
“We have to be strategic in our approach, responding not out of panic or fear, but out of a determination to secure our nation and keep our people safe not only from terrorism but from every other threat they face. We must fight them on multiple fronts, starve them of funding and resources, of sympathisers, and of the oxygen of publicity, especially on the Internet.”
He said the armed forces must learn the art of rapid evolution and adaptation.
“They must focus their energies not just on expanding conventional reach but also on developing a robust capacity to take the fight outside their comfort zones: from the financial networks that sustain terrorists to the cyberspace that amplifies their noise.”
-Sun