Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Nigeria’s fourth president, after the return to democratic platform, was sworn in on Friday 29th May, 2015 on the pledge partly to tackle Boko Haram, the terrorist group that has created havoc since 2009. With the support of the international community, particularly the United States which supported the Nigerian administration through increased military aid to revive the Multinational Joint Task force (MJTF), Muhammadu Buhari took the war to the door step of the terrorists by moving command and control of the Armed Forces of Nigeria to Maiduguri from the federal capital, Abuja (800km). He met with the leaders of neighbouring Niger, Benin, Cameroon, and Chad in a bid to establish a stronger frame work of cohesion to battle the terrorism and significantly improved the armed supply to the battle fronts. The war to the door step of the terrorists paid off as the dreaded Sambisa forest was sacked by the military, reasonable numbers of the kidnapped Chibok girls and other abductees were freed and their supplied lines and fuel chains were frozen and cut off. The Buhari regime quickly moved to solve all the quagmires that have inhibited the success of the military: sabotage, poor funding, inadequate logistics, and antiquated remunerations among others. This paper identifies the progress made on downgrading the menace of Boko Haram since 2015. Policies and strategies adopted by the government and the security agencies are discussed in this paper. It is the position of the paper that significant exploits with huge successes have been recorded. However, if the war of Boko Haram is to be completely won, problems of internal sabotage, lack of adequate machines of war and inadequate funding among others are still herculean requiring refreshing ideas, consummated strategies, and tactics for way forward.