Our technical victory, their tacit attacks - By WabaIribi

Thursday February 18, 2016

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Chilling on Technical Victory' may allow insurgence regroup for daring attacks is the warning coming from Nigeria's foremost security media outlet www.security1656.com

Shortly before the New Year President Muhammadu Buhari declared the war against the Boko Haram insurgents technically won. His words were " articulated conventional attacks on centres of communication and populations in towns and so on, they are no longer capable of doing it effectively.

So technically, I think we have won the war".

The recall is particularly imperative because even though the war still remain technically won, the audacious attack on the town of Dalori over the weekend, was disturbingly articulated, effective and on populations. It didn't follow the convention of previous attacks where young female suicide bombers were the principal actors. It is this seamless ability of the insurgents to device new technique to attack soft targets that make the war against them at this dicey.

When their campaign of bloodletting in Dalori was over, more than 86 persons were killed, 136 injured and the town reduced to ruins. Survivors have spoken of women and children being burnt alive.

They also describe how the insurgents came into the town in two Golf cars and motorcycles and this account has been corroborated by Army's official statement which was published by Premium Times. The audacity of that entry should give us a cause to worry as such an overt operation was neither nipped nor contained by the security operatives especially as the attack happened just 10 kilometres away from Maiduguri.

Certainly, the attack raise serious questions and at this point, it is premature to even speculate that our technical victory is under threat but we cannot deny that the tacit approach of the Dalori attack which lasted over four hours under the nose of the military, so close to Maiduguri, the command headquarters of the fight against the insurgents is an affront to the Authority of the Military in the area. This is perhaps the reason why GarbaShehu, the senior special assistant to the President on Media and Publicity released a statement on behalf of the President describing the attack as a desperate attempt to embarrass the government.

Admittedly, the Army has done a remarkable job of fighting the insurgents to a fall back position. They must now do even more to keep liberated territories and protect citizens. Attacks like the one in Dalori cannot be planned in a day. It could have taken weeks. It could not have been successful without the insurgents carrying out surveys and mapping out strategies that require them to be physically on ground. The failure to detect them is a problem of intelligence. It should not be allowed to repeat as that could boost their shattered morale and we can as well just kiss goodbye to the gains so far made

The timing of the Dalori attack has coincidentally come at a time when the President is on another leg of his foreign trip to Europe. This time he shall be in Strasbourg, France and is schedule to address both the French and European Parliaments. His address is expected to focus on terrorism. Having been at the receiving end of a similar attack last year in the hands of terrorists suspected to be members of the ISIL group, the President’s visit was to seek closer defense assistance from the French. Obviously, the war against the insurgents is in need of some new vigour especially as the Chibok girls whom the President has promised to find during his inauguration are still missing.

We must also admit that with such challenge on our hands, the technicality of the victory over the Boko Haram remains fragile. The final push will land the outright victory over them should be well underway. Obviously the Presidents trip to France will go a long way to support whatever existing plans to win the war outright. If we live too much on a technical victory, we buy time for the insurgents to regroup and launch daring attacks like Dalori.

About the author;WabaIribi is a political scientist and a writer.

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Ghana bans goods from Nigeria, other countries On February 17, 20169:23 pmIn Business, NewsComments 1.7k Shares 81776 By Favour Nnabugwu with agency reports Ghana has prohibited some items from entry into its domain, following Nigeria’s foot steps that restricted 41 items from access to foreign exchange. Ghana however has placed a ban on some goods from being imported into the country. Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah stated yesterday that Ghana and Nigeria are said to account for some 68 per cent of the ECOWAS region’s Gross Domestic Product. President Muhammadu Buhari with his Ghanaian counterpart, President John Dramani Mahama. President Muhammadu Buhari with his Ghanaian counterpart, President John Dramani Mahama. Nigeria accounts for almost 10 per cent of Ghana’s foreign trade volume, whereas Ghana is listed as the 9th largest trade partner to Nigeria. Favourite investment hub In spite of the difficulties, Ghana remains Nigeria’s largest trade partner and favourite investment hub in the West Africa sub-region, as Ghana imports the largest share of all Nigerian oil exports in the West African sub-region. While ‘bagged cement’ is on Nigeria’s prohibition list, Dangote Cement brings in and bags some 750,000 tonnes of cement a year for the Ghanaian market, and is expected to increase this to 1.5 million tonnes by end of this quarter. The Chief Executive Officer of Ghanaian Association of Ghana Industries stated that there should be a clear letter written to the Nigerians complaining about this, and then also try and use some diplomatic means to quickly resolve it,” “If it does not work then we must also look at countervailing measures…it could be product targeting,” he said. “If we also make it difficult for them to export, then we would have to find common ground,” Kate Quartey-Papafio, CEO of Reroy Cables argued. Even for those who are able to export to Nigeria, you have to get different certificates for different customers and it takes a whole lot of time to get it. It makes the whole thing so cumbersome. You are exporting the same thing but you have to go and get certificates for each of the customers,” she said. Nigeria has used an “Import Prohibition List” to refuse certain goods entry into that country, including a host of pharmaceutical products. Also, the Managing Director of Intravenous Infusions Limited, a pharmaceutical company, Mr Richard Okrah noted that his company could have generated an additional 25% of export turnover from the Nigerian market. “We have been making efforts through our agent in Nigeria to get us off this list. But it is becoming a very difficult job for us,” Richard Okrah told the B&FT by phone. The company, he said, currently produces close to 6million IV fluids of various sizes per year, and that: “We have the capacity to step this up to 15 million because we are installing a new semi-automated plan that should be up and running by the middle of April this year”. He said his company faces no such restrictions from Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire and other countries where it exports to.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/ghana-bans-goods-from-nigeria-other-countries/