Some concerned retired army generals have advised the Federal Government on how to tackle the Boko Haram sect whose violent activities have yet to be contained by relevant authorities.
They asked the Federal Government to adopt effective measure by seeking advice from professionals to handle the situation.
The Boko Haram insurgents had killed thousands of people and destroyed valuable property in the country in the last five years with the latest attack being a twin bomb blast in Jos, Plateau State on Thursday.
The concerned retired senior military officers, however, told Saturday PUNCH that the Boko Haram attack had become an international issue that needed to be handled effectively.
According to the former governor of old Western region, Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo, President Goodluck Jonathan, as the Commander of the Armed Forces of Nigeria needs to pursue the war against the Boko Haram sect with vigour so as to stop the attackers from extending their violence to other parts of the country.
The octogenarian also urged the President to involve relevant and experienced people, especially those that had handled similar anti-terrorism war in the past.
Another former military governor, Gen. David Jemibewon (retd), called on the executive and the legislature to collaborate on genuine strategies to tackle the insurgency.
Like Adebayo, Jemibewon urged the government to engage experts in order to tackle the terror war.
He said, “Even though the National Assembly has not approved the President’s request on the extension of the emergency rule in states badly affected by the Boko Haram crisis, I don’t think the military can abandon Nigerians in those troubled areas just because the state of emergency has not been extended. That will not remove the armed forces that are already in place because they are there to protect the people.
“Also, people have expressed divergent views on the emergency rule; some even said it was not extensive enough. The right thing to do, in my view, is to assemble knowledgeable people in that field and some professionals; task them to dialogue, engage in a debate and make recommendations to government on what to do.
“The question we should rather be asking on this issue is what would have happened if that state of emergency had not been declared at all. So, when the people consider the perfection and imperfection of the declaration, whether it was extensive enough or not, they should also consider what would have happened if it had not been declared at all, and I think the whole thing should have been subjected to a constant review by a group of professionals and experts.”
A former Director of Procurement in the Defence Headquarters and a Fellow of War College, Brig.-Gen. Ayodele Ojo, urged the Federal Government to upgrade military equipment to stop the attackers.
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