\n
By Johnson Momodu<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>The story of David and Goliath remains a popular and fascinating tale.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>A young shepherd slays a seasoned and \u2014by some accounts\u2014 gigantic soldier.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>This story plays into the narrative of the underdog emerging triumphant despite overwhelming odds.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And everybody loves a victorious underdog.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Everybody likes to see the big, bad bully get his comeuppance. It is in this context that we need to interrogate the uplifting, yet highly implausible accounts of hunters with Dane guns overpowering Boko Haram insurgents armed with rocket propelled grenades and armoured vehicles.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, the reported victory of hunters over Boko Haram terrorists is not just about portraying the Nigerian Army as either cowardly, incompetent, or both.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In the run-up to the 2015 general elections, it should be clear that the reverberation of such portrayal goes beyond the Army. It aims at discrediting the Army\u2019s Commander-in-Chief, President Goodluck Jonathan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n To grasp the essence of the entire hunters\u2019 charade, look no further than the recent fulminations of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress. According to Odigie-Oyegun\u2019s confused logic, \u201cPresident Goodluck Jonathan is so desperate to win re-election that it will now appear that there is a secret understanding that our security forces should turn a blind eye to the Boko Haram insurgency, so that the insurgents can occupy as much territory as possible and make elections impossible in these areas, knowing full well these are APC strongholds.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOtherwise, how does one explain that local hunters carrying Dane guns and amulets are capable of dislodging the dreaded Boko Haram while our once proud army, which has distinguished itself in and out of the country, has failed?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Therein lies the illogicality of Odigie-Oyegun\u2019s vituperations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>How can hunters achieve what, in his own words, \u201cour once proud army, which has distinguished itself in and out of the country, has failed\u201d to achieve? It is simply unfathomable that a man of Odigie-Oyegun\u2019s stature could indulge in celebrating the incredible hunters\u2019 tale without taking cognisance of the fact that he is simply joining in standing logic on its head.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Then again, Odigie-Oyegun is not a man who lacks the ability to discern what is plausible and what isn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>So in going ahead to indulge this hunters\u2019 victory fantasy, it must be because he is interested in perpetrating the narrative of a failing Army.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In so doing, Odigie-Oyegun continues the APC\u2019s self-defeating tactic of maligning the Army, hoping ultimately to undermine the Army\u2019s Commander-in-Chief.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>What a crying shame!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As the Canada-based Nigerian journalist, Tunde Asaju, posted on his Facebook page, \u201cSome stories should not be written.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The story of hunters killing 80 haramists breaks every law of plausibility.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It doesn\u2019t add up…\u201d Indeed, the hunters\u2019 story beggars belief.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In all this hoopla about a purported victory by hunters, it is easy to forget that the Nigerian Army has foiled many Boko Haram attacks, a number of which simply go either unremarked or under-reported.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It is the same self-defeatist negativity propagated by the APC and its vocal media supporters that is behind the continuing attempt to diminish the good work being done by the security forces, including the Army, in stopping bomb attacks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Lest we forget, at the inauguration of the Victims Support Fund Committee by President Jonathan not so long ago, it was made known that Nigerian security personnel prevent about a thousand attacks for each successful one carried out by the Boko Haram.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>This statistics, which Jonathan revealed in his speech at the event, was the first official indication of the enormous scale of the insurgency crisis facing Nigeria today.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Speaking on the determination of the Federal Government to crush the terror group, Jonathan said, \u201cIt is now just a matter of time. I call on all Nigerians to stand together in support of our security agencies against terrorism. They are working night and day under difficult circumstances. It is unfortunate that when our security personnel prevent 1,000 attacks, it is the one attack that succeeds that makes headline news and tends to portray our security agencies as not doing enough.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If Nigerian security forces prevent 1,000 attacks for each successful one carried out by Boko Haram, the question all fair-minded Nigerians should ask is: how then can it be said that the security forces are losing the war against Boko Haram?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>How can the Nigerian Army, which continues to do its best under strenuous conditions, be so maligned by some of the same Nigerians that the soldiers are laying down their lives for?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Whatever the truth may be, it is certainly not encapsulated in the oversimplification which the hunters\u2019 purported victory over Boko Haram represents.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>But in these times, when the excoriation of Jonathan has gained ascendancy, everything that supports or deepens the narrative of his electoral undesirability \u2014 as posited by the APC \u2014 is fair game.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The end result is the continued maligning of the Nigerian Army to the detriment of the Nigerian nation and her people.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>What an avoidable shame!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Of course, Boko Haram must be stopped totally.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>To achieve that, the President and the security forces, including the Nigerian Army, deserve support, not condemnation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And portraying a band of hunters as being more effective than the Army, all in a bid to sully the image of Mr President, is not only self-defeatist, but also utterly ridiculous.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Mr Momodu contributed this piece from Benin City.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Johnson Momodu \u00a0The story of David and Goliath remains a popular and fascinating tale.\u00a0\u00a0A young shepherd slays a seasoned and \u2014by some accounts\u2014 gigantic soldier.\u00a0\u00a0This story plays into the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n\n