Buhari losing war against Boko Haram

Many Nigerians and the international community are becoming perturbed that President Muhammadu Buhari seems to losing the war against the Boko Haram guerilla fighters in the North East, Nigeria. The Federal Government has over the past three years declared that Boko haram have been technically defeated; degraded and chased out of occupied territories in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states where the warfare was raging before the coming of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.

Other security reports also indicated that the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Army have cleared the Sambisa forest while several locations of the Boko Haram hideouts in the North East have been cleared by the Airforce.

However, the Boko Haram guerilla fighters have continued to prove the federal government wrong in all the claims. The guerilla fighters have continued to cause more damages and killing of citizens including soldiers.

Last weekend, a faction of the Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), announced to the world that the war in the North East has gone beyond the Nigerian government under the leadership of President Buhari. Hauwa Leman, an aide worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was brutally killed. The killing occurred after the expiration of the ultimatum given the federal government for negotiations.

National Daily gathered that Leman was among the health workers kidnapped in March 2018 in Rann, Borno State. One of the victims, Saifura Ahmed, was killed about one month ago by the Boko Haram over alleged failure of the Nigerian government to meet their demands.

A short video released by the group showed how Leman, who was clad in white hijab, was shot at close range. Her hands were tied to her back and asked to kneel down.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, in a statement on Monday fromLondon, the United Kingdom, on Monday, descried: “It is very unfortunate that it has come to this. Before and after the deadline issued by her abductors, the Federal Government did everything any responsible government should do to save the aid worker.

”As we have been doing since these young women were abducted, we kept the line of negotiations open all through. In all the negotiations, we acted in the best interest of the women and the country as a whole.

”We are deeply pained by this killing, just like we were by the recent killing of the first aid worker. However, we will keep the negotiations open and continue to work to free the innocent women whoremain in the custody of their abductors.”

Several stakeholders in the Nigerian project have argued that since the federal government has been doing its best and the best has been yielding bad results, people are still being kidnapped and killed, shows that President Buhari is losing the war against the Boko Haram guerilla fighters in the North East.

National Daily further gathered that the ISWAP intensified offensive in the Lake Chad axis of Borno State after the execution of their leader, Mamman Nur, by some dissidents who felt aggrieved by his approach to leadership.

The ISWAP had insisted that they retain Leah Sharibu, the only captor of the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls left behind “a slave for life.” The group also said Alice Ngaddah, a Christian who works with UNICEF before she was captured would also be kept as a slave.

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Hauwa Leman was a 24-year-old midwife and student of Health Education at the University of Maiduguri.