Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has said for the present administration to succeed in its war against insurgents and bandits, it must show determination to weed out terrorists’ sympathisers in the military.
He made the declaration on Tuesday while speaking on Arise TV live programme, Morning Show.
The former Minister alleged that there are officers within the Nigerian Army who share intelligence reports with terrorist groups.
He reminisced on the experience the United States’ military had under former President Goodluck Jonathan when the United States wanted to collaborate with the Nigerian government to save the Chibok girls in the custody of Boko Haram.
He said: “I believe that his government and its security forces should show a willingness, determination and the ability to confront these people and to defeat them. I have had it said on your programme that if we can do what we did with the ECOMOG, why can’t we take on these people and the answer is simple. Because we’re not united domestically, that is the consensus that must be created by Tinubu’s administration.
“The administration must give directives to its own troops and those troops must obey those directives if it’s necessary.
“Tinubu should clean out those troops to make sure that there are no people within the security operation who are leaking information to either Boko Haram or the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP).
Don’t forget that the Americans had a critical experience under former President Goodluck Jonathan when the Chibok girls were picked up by Boko Haram, the Americans came in quietly, with the invitation of the Jonathan administration and in collaboration with the Nigerian troops. “They discovered the camp where these girls were being kept and they said all right, we will throw gas into those camps while everybody is sleeping, including Boko Haram, to go in with the Nigerian troops and take out the girls. When the Americans sent the reconnaissance aircraft over the camp, what did they find? Boko Haram troops, Boko Haram militia, were wearing masks, which means somebody within the Nigerian army had leaked to Boko Haram what the plan was. The Americans pulled out. They were not going to subject their troops to this,’’ he said.
So, we must clean out from within the Nigerian troops, people who are sympathetic towards Boko Haram or ISWAP. But, if you want to stop Trump from doing what he says he wants to do, the Nigerian administration must show a determination to clean out this ourselves.
“But don’t let us get into this internal civil war, religious civil war. “Christians are not being killed, Muslims are not being killed. Nigerians are being killed.” “For the first time, we are getting a superpower who says, I want to help you clean out this mess. And then we are busy now, you know, within ourselves, fighting among ourselves. Yes, it’s happening. Yes, it’s not happening.
“Trump didn’t say he was coming to invade Nigeria or occupy Nigeria. He said he was coming to help us to clean out the mess. Then, we have no choice. We haven’t been able to clean out all these years.”
Reacting to President Trump’s narrative of alleged genocide against Christians, which informed his designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, Professor Akinyemi said he agreed with the position taken by the United States President as he alleged that Christians are being killed in the Middle Belt region.
He said: “If you live in the Biddle Belt, saying there is no genocide, then you don’t know what you’re talking about . In fact, people who say there’s no genocide in the Middle Belt, I will suggest they go and live in the middle of Jos or wherever for 100 days and then they will come back onto your programme and tell you their experience.
“Someone made a rational point this morning, he said why would any Nigerian leave his village and go and live in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp? When I was serving on the Boko Haram committee for God’s sake, even the hygiene there, you send your enemy to prison than to send them to an IDPs camp. So, why Nigerian go to an IDPs camp? He is running away for his life . Why will a Nigerian abandon his farm, which is the main thing for sustaining his family if he’s not afraid that he will be attacked and killed on that farm. So, let us pardon Trump for the bombastic language because we know Trump.
“He is used to that, but the basic questions we should be asking ourselves are Nigerians getting killed in Nigeria and the answer is yes. Let us not get into a religious civil war with the question of whether Christians are getting killed or Muslims are getting killed. Christians are getting killed, but they are getting killed by Muslims not by fellow Christians, Muslims are getting killed not by Christians.”