Ahmad Salkida, a journalist known to have access to the leadership of the Boko
Haram insurgent group says the words of Abubakar Shekau, leader of the sect, in his latest video, should not be interpreted to mean that the sect has been completely defeated.
Shekau had said in the video that he was tired and wanted to die because of the calamity that has befallen his sect. “My name is Abubakar Shekau, the one that is an invincible enemy that you are fighting. That is our stand. I am tired of this calamity; it is better I die and go to rest in paradise,” Shekau had said.
But Salkida took to twitter to say if Shekau’s words are taken literally, “then we are still very ignorant of the group’s corrosive ideology, which is, ‘to kill or be killed.’”
According to him, Shekau hast trained thousands of men and women that may pose more danger than the sect leader.
He said though Shekau remains the “face” of the sect, he is “no longer the driver of it”.
“If we consider one of Shekau’s lines in his last video literally, that he is tired of being around and would prefer death than this life, as a sign of complete defeat, then we are still very ignorant of the group’s corrosive ideology, which is, ‘to kill or be killed’,” the tweet read.
“Shekau has groomed men & women in their 1000 are that even he can no longer keep in line, many within the network see him as an obstacle to what they would have accomplished if he was gone long ago.
“No doubt, he remains the face of the insurgency, but no longer the driver of it.”