The Nigerian Army says it will take a minimum of 30 years to eradicate the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram.
According to Tribune, the Acting Director of Nigerian Army Information Management, Brig-Gen. Folorunso Oyinlola disclosed this in Benin at the 22nd Edition of Social Media Seminar on Civil-Military Relations.
Oyinlola said it will take a new generation of Northeasterners with education and the right orientation for the militancy to be completely wiped out.
The deputy military spokesman said the new generation will have to be educated and re-oriented before Nigeria can truly declare victory against Jihadism and terrorism.
He recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was proactive when he sought to nip the activities of the Nigerian Taliban in the bud during his twilight years but lamented that things degenerated when Alhaji Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, was killed by policemen.
Oyinlola said, “Insurgency is not something that can be filtered away with the snap of a finger. The insurgents live with us. We can’t bomb the whole of Edo State under the guise of fighting Boko Haram.
“We’ll need a minimum of 30 years to be able to defeat the Boko Haram. We will need a new generation of Northeasterners who will have to be educated for us to declare that we have defeated Boko Haram.”
He said the civil war in Libya which is yet to be resolved has led to the destabilisation of the West African subregion as lots of weapons have poured in from the North African country, exacerbating the security situation in Nigeria and elsewhere.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya who was represented by Maj-Gen. Marcus Kangye, the head of Civil Military Affairs solicited the support of media practitioners to wipe out the insurgents.
Yahaya appealed to social media influencers to stop using screaming, gory and scary headlines for the sake of national interests and humanity, adding that such headlines have a negative impact on the fight against insurgency by the Nigerian Army.
