THE CAPTURE OF SAMBISA FOREST; THE DEFEAT OF BOKO HARAM?

Last week, Nigerians were greeted with news of the capture of the Sambisa forest by the Nigerian military.
Perhaps, what makes it good news is the significance of the forest to the insurgents. The Sambisa forest is renowned as a Boko Haram stronghold; if not its greatest stronghold. When the Chibok girls were kidnapped in 2014, they were said to have been kept in the forest. The leader of the insurgents, Abubakar Shekau, was said to be putting up in the same forest. Thus, capturing the forest cannot be anything short of a good news to Nigerians.

It however seems that people are rejoicing like the war against Boko Haram has been won. The Federal government has been quick to make Nigerians believe so.

We should not be too quick to celebrate the defeat of Boko Haram. Obviously, they have been decimated as they have been unable to carry out frequent attacks as before and they have lost almost all territory which they hitherto controlled. But we should not underrate the dreaded sect yet. There has been no evidence of the capture of Shekau, its leader. So far, only 22 out of the 219 abducted Chibok girls have been rescued with no information on those remaining. Even this week, Boko Haram struck again with multiple bomb blasts in the North East.
While acknowledging the Federal government's feat against the insurgents, we must bear in mind that the war is yet to be won. The capture of the Sambisa forest has in no way signified the defeat of Boko Haram. The attack they carried out after losing the forest shows that they still have some potency. More work needs to be done in finally defeating the insurgents.