•Nigerian troops
As the protracted war against insurgency in Nigeria’s North-East zone enters into its second decade, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has urged the federal government to contract “defence contractors” to rid the country of blood-sucking terrorists.
“We can outsource this fight. We can do this with our shoulders lifted high. Even advanced countries like Russia, for instance, use the Wagner Group. In the US, there is the Blackwater. These are defence contractors,” Dogara said on Channels Television today.
Dogara was a lawmaker in the green chamber for 16 straight years from June 2007 to June 2023 when he represented Dass/Bogoro/Tafawa Balewa Constituency from Bauchi State, one of the six states in the insurgent-prone North-East zone of Nigeria.
He said the military has tried its best in about two decades now but the desired results have not been achieved as Boko Haram and ISWAP factions of terrorists still wreak havoc in the North East.
According to the lawyer, there can’t be foreign direct investments when insecurity has become the order of the day.
“We can engage these defence contractors to help us solve this problem assuming our conventional forces have shown or demonstrated so far that they cannot handle it. This is something we have to resolve ourselves. So, we can outsource it, if that is going to give us results.
“We are talking about results. It’s only a stupid, foolish person who opposes results. I don’t know if that is a definition of wisdom: to keep doing something the same way and expect different results. We have done this thing for how many years now and there have been no results. We can engage these people and they can work together with the conventional forces,” the former lawmaker said.
An Unending War?
Borno, a state in Nigeria’s North-East zone, has been under attack by marauding terrorists for over a decade. Thousands have been killed, even more persons injured, abducted, or displaced, the latest being in June when dark-hearted suicide bombers killed at least 32 persons, with scores injured.
The military has recorded some successes against terrorists in the past years but at the expense of gallant soldiers and other security officials who paid the supreme price.
The state’s eastern border with Cameroon has made the anti-terror war intractable for the military as intelligence over the years has shown that blood-thirsty insurgents swoop on the people of the state and leave the country immediately after deadly attacks, leaving residents in teeth-gnashing agony.
