Nigerian Army Can’t Defeat Boko Haram – UK High Commissioner

The outgoing British High Commissioner
to Nigeria, Andrew Pocock, has said the
problem of Boko Haram insurgency in
North-east Nigeria is not something that
can be resolved with the use of the army,
the police or the security agencies only.
Speaking at a farewell interactive session
with members of Kaduna chapter of the
Nigeria Union of Journalists
Correspondent Chapel in Kaduna on
Monday, Mr. Pocock said: “We don’t look
at the problem in the Northeast as purely
a security problem.
It is not something that can be resolved
with the use of the army of the police or
the security agencies only. It is not going
to be solvable.
“There has to be three different things;
the first is a properly articulated security
efforts.
The second is that, there has to be a
different kind of politics in the
Northeast, where state and Federal
Government work together instead of
against each other and where there is a
much more common and agreed agenda
about what needs to be done to correct
many years of mis-governance and of
poor policy in the North-east.
“The third dimension has to be a
developmental and economic uplift
agenda.
Too many, particularly young people are
not only without employment in the
North-east but because of the insurgency
are without any economic prospect
whatsoever.
No one can live without hope and indeed
if the economic and the developmental
aspect of these are not addressed, the
opportunities for radicalisation are much
greater.
So, those three things have to work in
tandem, the security instrument, politics
and development/economic approach.”
He however stated that with the new
government of President Muhammadu
Buhari, people are looking to a chance to
get out of the security situation in the
North-east, adding that, in the overall,
there is greater possibility of stability
and economic success, economic recovery
perhaps than they might have been
before the election.
The High Commissioner said although
the army had some successes in 2013,
those efforts were not followed up and
Boko Haram came surging back in 2014
and effectively controlled most of the
North-eastern country in Borno State as
well as Adamawa and Yobe.
“20, 000 people killed in a conflict is a
very serious matter,” he said.
He said in the overall, there is greater
possibility of stability and economic
success, economic recovery perhaps than
they might have been before the
election.
“The British government has long been
involved in training Nigerian soldiers to
fight the very difficult anti-insurgency
combat that they are faced with in the
North-east,” he said.
“We have done this with some success.
There is a lot more that we can do. What
we need is high level access to the new
people that President Buhari is likely to
appoint.”