» Nigerian Army Can’t Defeat Boko Haram Alone – UK High Commissioner «

The outgoing British High Commissioner to
Nigeria, Andrew Pocock, has said the problem of
Boko Haram insurgency in North-east Nigeria is
not something that can be resolved with the use
of the army, the police or the security agencies
only.
Speaking at a farewell interactive session with
members of Kaduna chapter of the Nigeria Union
of Journalists Correspondent Chapel in Kaduna on
Monday, Mr. Pocock said: “We don’t look at the
problem in the Northeast as purely a security
problem. It is not something that can be resolved
with the use of the army of the police or the
security agencies only. It is not going to be
solvable.
“There has to be three different things; the first is
a properly articulated security efforts. The second
is that, there has to be a different kind of politics in
the Northeast, where state and Federal
Government work together instead of against
each other and where there is a much more
common and agreed agenda about what needs
to be done to correct many years of mis-
governance and of poor policy in the North-east.
“The third dimension has to be a developmental
and economic uplift agenda. Too many,
particularly young people are not only without
employment in the North-east but because of the
insurgency are without any economic prospect
whatsoever. No one can live without hope and
indeed if the economic and the developmental
aspect of these are not addressed, the
opportunities for radicalisation are much greater.
So, those three things have to work in tandem,
the security instrument, politics and
development/economic approach.”
He however stated that with the new
government of President Muhammadu Buhari,
people are looking to a chance to get out of the
security situation in the North-east, adding that, in
the overall, there is greater possibility of stability
and economic success, economic recovery
perhaps than they might have been before the
election.
The High Commissioner said although the army
had some successes in 2013, those efforts were
not followed up and Boko Haram came surging
back in 2014 and effectively controlled most of the
North-eastern country in Borno State as well as
Adamawa and Yobe.
“20, 000 people killed in a conflict is a very
serious matter,” he said.
He said in the overall, there is greater possibility of
stability and economic success, economic
recovery perhaps than they might have been
before the election.
“The British government has long been involved
in training Nigerian soldiers to fight the very
difficult anti-insurgency combat that they are
faced with in the North-east,” he said. “We have
done this with some success. There is a lot more
that we can do. What we need is high level
access to the new people that President Buhari is
likely to appoint.”