Nigerian Army Changes Tactic on Suicide Bombers
The Nigerian Army is widening its encirclement of residual Boko Haram operations with particular reference to suicide bombers. It is promising a cash reward of half a million Naira to informants and or information that unearth a suicide bomber. This could be through guidance to the house of such a potential bomber, discovery of the transit house or factory of the suicide bomber(s).
The army said in a statement it was incentivising law abiding Nigerians to join the anti-terror campaign in the interest of the security of all. The army took into consideration the spate of suicide bombing that has characterised Boko Haram operations in what appears a departing resistance. Describing the rate as of disturbing proportions, Brigadier-General Sani Kukasheka Usman who issued the statement was particular about the rate of suicide bombing in Maiduguri and Maiduguri metropolis. In the last of such, a professor and four others were killed at the University of Maiduguri last Monday.
General Usman gave firm assurance that all information would be treated confidentially and with despatch, adding that vigilance and security consciousness were still the right things to do by all citizens in the circumstance. It gave telephone numbers by which citizens could access the system. Among them are 09064823221; 09078599985; 08022375305 and 08065504576. Others are 08097211700; 07080217992 and 09021668444.
The war against Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria appears to have proceeded swiftly in comparison to the general success rate elsewhere across the world. Not only has the insurgency been basically decentered and denied space of its own, it has been reduced to relying mostly on more sneaky terror tactics such as suicide bombing, the strategic logic of which is to gain more concessions from the society. Based on a study of 187 cases between 1980 and 2001, Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago and the author of one of the most quoted academic paper on the phenomenon titled “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” discredited the claim that suicide terrorism is driven by religious fanaticism or psychological conditioning. Published in 2003, the study in question was based on cases far removed from Nigeria and the extent to which his conclusion applies to Boko Haram insurgency tactics might have to be tested. It is most likely the Nigerian military has studied the ‘strategic logic of suicide terrorism’ within Boko Haram and the cash incentive might be its policy response to its finding.
