Group scores military high in war against Boko Haram

President Muhammdu Buhari and the Nigerian military have been patted on the back for their concerted efforts towards ending insurgency in Nigeria.

Ahmed Danfulani, chancellor, Centre for International and Strategic Studies (CISS), gave the verdict on Wednesday, at the presentation of a five-year report on the war against terrorism.

The report, which covered the period between 2013 and 2018, specifically hailed the military for “ensuring professionalism in the conduct of operational issues”.

Danfulani, while presenting the report, said the current administration has rebuilt the confidence of the people in standing against the atrocities of Boko Haram.

His remarks below:

There are certain fundamentals about reports. They document what has happened, what is happening and can also predict what will happen. Reports are in a sense history being documented with objectivity. They can reveal to us what is being done right, what is in need of improvement and what can be done differently.

These are positive attributes of reports. But in the contemporary world, reports are also being weaponized.

Reports have become active ingredients in the manufacture of consent, escalation of dissent, brainwashing entire generations and in so doing perverting history.

It is not surprising to have witnessed in recent years incidents of reports being released to make terrorists appear as saints and soldiers fighting them to appear like losers.

Entities that are part of the problem can easily pretend to be the solution under this arrangement.
Nigeria is the practical instance of how reports are manipulated to distort history.

This happens because the body of reports on the country’s war on terrorism have largely been foreign often with intents that cannot be verified for sincerity hence the loss of objectivity.

The resulting subjectivity is not just an opposite of objectivity but has proven to be costly to the country and those fighting to liberate if from terrorists.

Events are recounted from the viewpoint of interests that see Nigeria as a means to an end and not a sovereign entity whose territorial integrity and aspirations must be respected.

The report being presented today therefore sets out present facts about the war on terrorism in their pristine form, untainted by any vested interest. The facts have been painstakingly collated over the said period so that there is a control to the myriad of other reports.

The implication of this is that Nigerians, indeed the world, now has a benchmark for assessing other reports. It is a matter of treating what is being presented here today as the master against which to verify other reports that can be treated as copies.