There are many types of war. We have insurgency and the operational mode is internal security operations; that is what we have been doing. There is the guerrilla warfare, which the terrorists are using; they hit and melt away.
We also have the conventional warfare, which the President and Commander-in-Chief must declare and determine the mode. It could be a police action, which is the lowest level of warfare. He could say he is fighting a war of invasion on enemies encroaching on our territory. That is the type of war we should be fighting now to uproot the enemy.
When you say you are fighting a war, it means that the federal troops are the friendly forces, while Boko Haram should be the enemy forces. It also means that the friendly forces must do everything to defeat the sect.
As of now, we are fighting insurgency. It is not a national task because, if it were, everything would be directed towards it.
With less than 200,000 military officers, the country lacked adequate forces to engage in full-scale fighting. Adequate recruitment of both new and retired officers (reserves) to fill up the loopholes is required.
The army of 150,000 should be quickly built up to a minimum of about 500,000 so that we can capture the ground and occupy it sufficiently.
Retired officers should remain in their places and join the police for internal security. Internal security should go side by side with total war. What happened in Kontagora or Yobe should not happen; we should have men on the ground for surveillance.
There is always such a situation in the enemy’s territory where we have to find a way to cut off supplies to the enemies — food, water, communication and electricity — in order to stop things that will encourage them to continue with the war. We had that in the civil war and it was effective.ENGAGE IN TOTAL WAR
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