By Ochereome Nnanna
BEFORE I go on with the concluding part, let me appreciate my readers for the rush of support for our Armed Forces in their reactions to the first part of this article. You are all great patriots indeed.

Gemit ille qui dolet se mortui, qui deridet suae super mortuum cadaver. “He who mourns the dead mourns himself, but he who laughs at a dead body derides his own corpse”. Some of you even started something like #Never Again threads. That is our war cry to finish off Boko Haram and never allow them to come near our people ever again.

But a lot depends on us, the people. Let us decide that never again shall any true Muslim see Boko Haram or any other violent or extremist group as soldiers of Islam, or develop any modicum of sympathy or support for them.

CHIBOK UNDER WATCH—Nigerian soldiers guarding Chibok, Borno State, yesterday. Photo: NAN.

It was this misguided attitude that lured many angry and frustrated youth to volunteer to fight for them only to lose their lives as suicide bombers or gunmen and women. It was this misleading idea that led even some of our soldiers to betray their colleagues and their country by providing easy passage for the terrorists to invade our military installations and help themselves to our heavy fighting equipment, including armoured personnel carriers.

Now the mistake we must never make again is to see our army as an “occupying force” as some members of the opposition portrayed them when President Goodluck Jonathan requested for the extension of emergency rule. Nigerian armed forces can never be an “occupation army” within our own constitutional, territorial sovereignty. Anyone who says so is an enemy of this country who is threatened by the presence of the military.

The Nigerian military may have their bad days and their own share of bad eggs, but it is one of the most respected institutions of its peer in the world. Certainly, there is nothing to be compared to it in Black Africa, in terms of pedigree and success stories both at home and abroad. I am sad that this same army that now I extol was once used to decimate the Igbo population during the pogroms in Northern Nigeria and inside Igbo heartland during the civil war. But still, if there is any merit to the fact that Nigeria’s dismemberment was stopped, it was this Army that did it.

From now on, let us look at the Nigerian Armed Forces with a new light in our eyes. The other day, I watched the Nigeria Air Force take delivery of some sexy looking, brand new military helicopters and fighter planes. Clad in full combat gear, the Chief Air Staff, Vice Admiral Adesola Amosu, walked up to the camera after demonstrating capabilities of the equipment, and said: “This is your Air Force at work for you”.

Yes indeed. After all, the guys wearing the military gear joined the forces from among us. When they retire they will come back to us. Their tools of work were provided for them with the tax you and I pay. They are our “boys” and “girls”.

They have sworn to put their lives in danger to defend our country and make us safe. We owe an obligation to respect, support and assist them in whatever way we can. We have no business distancing ourselves from them. We cannot afford to leave them to their own devices. Their success or failure depends upon us to a very large degree. An army that looks back and sees itself abandoned by those they are dying to defend will be demoralised, then enraged. The terrible consequences of that will bounce back on the people.

The inevitability of seamless synergy between the military and the people for the success of a war campaigns has been richly demonstrated by the sagacities of the war in the North East. The military was a lone ranger and suffered huge losses in terms of manpower and equipment in the face of Boko Haram booby traps in Maiduguri and Kano until the lovely incidence of Civilian Joint Task Force (C-JTF) was hatched in Borno State.

Brave young men and local hunters volunteered to form daredevil vigilantes to assist the army in recce and intelligence work. They knew the terrain and they also knew the terrorists, while most of the soldiers were total strangers to the areas.

Today, the success story of our armed forces against Boko Haram could not be told without the efforts of the C-JTF taking a pride of place in it. The C-JTF has proved my assertion that the army and the people are two sides of the same coin in any successful war campaign.

We must resolve that, when the war on Boko Haram has been successfully concluded, the military-civilian cooperation must be sustained. That we defeat Boko Haram does not mean that another, perhaps even more deadly terrorist group will not come up.

The defeat of Mohammed Omar Taliban regime by America and her coalition partners in the early 2000’s could not prevent the emergence of Osama bin Laden, and his elimination could not prevent the rise of Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL). Northern Nigeria is still a fertile ground for all shades of experimental Islamic dogmas.

The advent of suicide bombing in Nigeria, the introduction of explosive device-making knowledge, easy access to Jihadist websites and the escape of many Boko Haram fighters from the cordon of the military in the North East call for extreme vigilance by all of us. We must all pay keen attention to suspicious individuals and activities within our vicinities and act as soon as we notice them.

The security agencies must also turn a new leaf and move in to nip matters in the bud when they are reported. If we do not cement our civilian bonds with our military, we will be back to another war against terror sooner than later.

We must never again allow that to happen. #Never Again!