Re: Memo to Buhari over attacks in Gubio, Magumeri

Mutunci Youth Network for Peace, a Borno-based group, has taken a strong exception to a letter written by a Borno title holder, Zanna Hasan Boguma, lamenting the level of insecurity in the north-east.

The group claimed Zanna “and his ilk” have not done enough to support the Nigerian military to totally defeat Boko Haram.

Full text :

Dear Zanna ,

1. Sir, We extend our warm greetings to you, the family and members of your community. We also pray God to continue to guard and protect you abundantly.

2. We read your “open letter” or is it “memo,” to President Muhammadu Buhari, which you also copied the National Security Adviser ( NSA) Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), which mischievously detailed your perceived lapses in the ongoing clearance operations against Boko Haram by Nigerian troops in the Northeast region.

3. Your open letter thoroughly castigated; insanely impugned professional misconducts / incompetence on Nigerian Military; freely embarked on unjustifiable character assassination of the leadership of the Nigerian military and troops. This is portrayed not even with the least consideration of the enormous sacrifices and tremendous successes the military have recorded on the war against Boko Haram insurgency.

4. The mischievous, malicious and misleading contents of what you wrote garbed in pretentious bemoaning of renewed Boko Haram attacks on Gubio, Magumeri and other communities in Borno state reflected in your double and conflicting title of the mail. With due respect, you didn’t know whether it is an open letter or a memo. And in the case of the latter, it’s contents would not have found it’s way to the media houses for publication.

5. We find your posturing on a sensitive matter such as security in your region particularly, very neuseating, the issues uncouth, and an unwarranted attack on the reputation and integrity of the Nigerian military and our troops who have paid the supreme price for peace to return to Borno State.

6. Indeed, your deliberate refusal to acknowledge the uncommon sacrifices of the Nigerian military in battling day and night to give you/ Borno state peace and succour from a destructive, bile insurgency only exposes your biased mind and a suspected conspirator with enemies of Nigeria to torment your subjects.

7. However, as a letter conceived and crafted on ill- motivations and manifestation of a hatchet job, you admitted in one of the paragraphs thus;

8. “We in Borno and the North have high hopes when we elected this government, (Buhari Presidency), we saw in you hope of redemption from our national calamities knowing very well your patriotism and integrity. In the last four years, these hopes were translated into reality but with the recent upsurge in insurgent’s activity in Northern Borno and the actions of the military, we were left with no options than to despair.”

9. We find this submission by you very instructive in the sense that you acknowledged even if unconsciously the great job the Nigerian military has done in quelling insurgency in the past four years, hence you now harp on renewed Boko Haram attacks on certain communities.

10. And this is where you have convicted yourself in public domain. President Buhari has not effected any change in the leadership of the Security Chiefs since he appointed them in July 2015. The leader of the counter- insurgency operations in Nigeria remains, Lt. Gen. TY Buratai who is also the Chief of Army Staff (COAS). He has proved beyond doubts his professional competence in handling the insurgency, a fact known to all Nigerians as even admitted by you.

11. By the substance of your letter and jaundiced verdict, these leaders no longer have a professional touch on the war and they have turned the Boko Haram insurgency war into a “milk cow.” So, the natural question is that; are these leaders encountering money in the counter-insurgency operations for the first time and that’s why they recorded the earlier streaks of victories you admitted in your poorly conceptualised and crafted letter?

12. Why would anybody, much more, a community leader of your status, condescend to such levels of abuse of his personality and people by unnecessarily parroting? Let it be known to you that the Nigerian military deserves unreserved apology for the baseless villification and defamation of character as expressed and publicised by you. It’s the most honourable thing left for you to do now in order to redeem your severely battered image.

13. Least we forget; the position of unprofessionalism, the alleged infiltration of corrupt acts in the counter-insurgency operations and the other alien misconducts you unconscionably aligned with Commanders and troops in the Northeast does reflect the thinking of the generality of the people in the region and Nigerians. We would rather consider your write-up as a mark of ingratitude and an attempt gi demoralize the troops.

14. We the victims of Boko Haram terrorism in the Northeast savouring the abundant respite offered by the military intervention under the Buhari Presidency dispute you loudly. And we have immense respect and gratitude to the Military. We are sure you sat in the comfort of your palace to craft this demeaning letter; something you could not have contemplated before the Buhari Presidency. It is an incontrovertible sign of the restoration of peace in our once troubled enclaves.

15. It is certain that you have never served in the military in your lifetime or even been to the heat of battle in the theatre of war. So, if it is not malicious persecution of the Nigerian military in the counter-insurgency operations, what qualifies you to assume the roles of field instructor, battle strategist and tactician for Nigeria troops in the frontline? What is your pedigree of competence in the areas you freely offered advice and sought to change the modus operandi as trumpeted in the letter? It’s clear that you imagined too much power unto yourself.

16. But most unarguably Sir, you have manifested more as one of these community leaders brainwashed into the mistaken belief that the task of securing his community is exclusively reserved for the military. But it is a fatal assumption by anybody because security is everybody’s business. And community leaders of your ilk have a lot to do in entrenching peace and security in their respective communities. We demand to know your role so far.

17. And we are ennobled to remind you about it by your reference to your claimed unbearable renewed Boko Haram attacks. In fact, your explanation implies that the Nigerian troops extinguished insurgency in these areas. How and why is it resurging now?

18. Sir, please can you sincerely search your conscience to remember when last or to what extent you have engaged your subjects, some of whom indisputably connive with insurgents for a fee to aid attacks on your domains? To what extent have you led the crusade for peace and security in your communities?

19. The foot soldiers of Boko Haram are youngsters and children of your subjects. They are not imported into Nigeria from the Republic of Iran, but within your domain. These are youngsters who give impetus to insurgents operations. It is your responsibility to engage all parents to prevail on their children to resist the temptation of enlisting into the devilry Boko Haram sect or for those already conscripted to surrounder? We are sure you have never thought of it?

20. Boko Haram operations are a complex web of conspiratoral interests and supporters. The faction of Boko Haram led by Musab Al- Barnewi claims it’s violent campaigns are only targeted at military formations, as they spare civilians enclaves.

21. So, believing in this weird and false sermons, some adults, fathers and mothers in your domain are involved in shielding terrorists who hide in their homesteads. Sometimes, they even provide shelter for insurgents in their private residences. Have you ever reached them with a word of peace and the need to abandon such unhealthy practices that endanger security?

22. The Nigerian military have continued to trail and arrest scores of politicians in Borno state who are Boko Haram members/ sympathisers; they also provide back-up and logistical support to insurgents for operations. Have you ever written a letter rendered in this tenor to these polluted politicians admonishing them and seeking their cooperation to finally rout out Boko Haram insurgency? That is what you need to do immediately.

23. Therefore, we find it absurd and unacceptable that you have gleefully ignored the fundamental and complementary roles you ought to play in assisting the Nigerian military finally end Boko Haram. It’s strange and very suspicious that you have delighted in unfair villification, defamation of character and public ridicule of the Nigerian military, it’s officers and soldiers in the battle to finally surmount terrorism in Nigeria. This is an intolerable posture from a leader and you are hereby prodded into a rethink to do the needful.

24. May God give you the grace to ponder and act on the suggested posers in this open letter. God bless you and your community.