RABE: Nobody Is Above The Law

The military raised the alarm recently, alleging that some powerful people are behind the Boko Haram insurgents. Why have you not named those ‘powerful’ people?

YOU would agree with me that there is no Nigerian that would wish this kind of challenges we are facing to continue. Whatever one is doing, there are usually people, who may attempt to distract one’s attention for reasons best known to them. We are no longer distracted with what people say, our purpose now is how to win this war and end it within the stipulated deadline given to us by Mr. President. We are working round the clock.  Lots of issues came up, some people even concocted some stories that the military beheaded some Boko Haram fighters, but this is not true. Any group, no matter how powerful it is, would not distract us. Our focus is to end this security challenge.

Are some Nigerians above the law?

Nobody is above the law. Everybody would be treated based on his or her actions. We are a civilised nation, so we do things according to the law. We don’t want to do things that are against international best practices. If we arrest Boko Haram, we hand them over to the agencies responsible. But I can assure you that nobody is above the law.

Nigerian military has failed to embrace some measure of transparency in their operations at the Sambisa forest and this is not the case in other climes?

The Defence Headquarters is working along this line. We are being careful about it due to the state we find ourselves. Even in developed cultures, where journalists are embedded in military operations, they still do it with caution. There was an incident sometime ago, where journalists were embedded in military operation led by Americans and a CNN reporter carried a story that almost jeopardised the operation. We can do it, but we are considering it. We are doing it gradually. The military of the past is not the military now. We have undergone a lot of transformation. We need the support of the Nigerian public and the media. This war requires collective effort of Nigerians; it is not just war of the military against Boko Haram. We would soon organise a seminar for the media on how to report insurgency.

Some security experts have suggested possible fencing of Nigeria borders with neighbouring countries, how do you view it?

If there were need to fence the borders, the appropriate agency would advise the government. Defence headquarters is operating a borderless operation due to this insurgency.

Why did you ban the use of donkeys and horses as means of transport in northeast?

Having dislodged the terrorists group and block their sourceS of supplies, they resorted to using animals like donkeys and horses to attack harmless civilians. We have to intervene, because the security of citizens in that general area matters. But we have lifted the ban after the sallah. The ban has helped a lot.

Why do you thinks some soldiers in the past abandoned their weapons and ran away without confronting the Boko Haram fighters?

In fighting insurgency, there are elements that form the requirements in an unconventional war.  One of them is purposeful leadership. A leader that eats from the pot of the soldiers, feel what they feel, sleeps with the soldiers in the war front. Morals of the soldiers are boosted, when they see this kind of leaders. If you have the right leaders, no soldier would run away and leave his weapons. What ever they want, they are given. We are happy doing what we are doing now, because of the new orientation. We are good to go now. We are lucky to have such leaders now. Fighting terrorist requires the use of modern equipment on both land and air. No military world over can boast of having all the equipment for fighting war but they can have what we call ‘minimum requirements’. We have what it takes to win this war and more would soon come.