President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said the Boko Haram sect was no longer a serious fighting

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said the Boko Haram sect was no longer a serious fighting force despite the ugly incidents witnessed recently in Dapchi, Yobe State and Rann, Borno State .
The sect had abducted 110 pupils from the Government Science and Technical Girls College, Dapchi and killed United Nations ’ aid workers rendering humanitarian service in Rann, Kalabalge Local Government Area of Borno State . the

Buhari, however , said the separate incidents were not indications that the government was fighting a war that could not be won .
Buhari was represented by Vice- President Yemi Osinbajo at the opening of the 8th National Security Seminar 2018 organised with the theme “ Fighting Tomorrow ’ s Warfare Today , ” by the Alumni Association of the National Defence College in Abuja .
The President said the terrorists , who he described as faceless were capable of doing anything to continue to get media attention which he said was their oxygen.
He said , “ Today ’ s enemies , loosely- structured non- state actors , sometimes faceless , choose to mutate . They will alter their goals and objectives at random , and are capable of doing anything and everything to continue feeding off the oxygen of media attention .
“ Yet this should not be interpreted as meaning that we are fighting an unwinnable war . We can boldly say that today, Boko Haram is no longer a serious fighting force . ”
Despite the latest incidents , Buhari said there should be no room for self -pity or frustration on the part of government .
According to him , the Dapchi and Rann incidents should rekindle the determination of the government and the Armed Forces to permanently subdue terrorism in Nigeria .
“ Will there occasionally be what seem to be setbacks in the war on terror? The unpalatable but realistic answer is yes . Again this is by no means unique to Nigeria , ” he said .
Buhari said since the incidents happened , Nigeria ’ s security and intelligence chiefs had all mobilised to Yobe State and environs, and had been re -assessing their strategies and approaches to securing lives and property and containing the threat the sect poses .
He said government was mobilising to ensure that schools in the North- East were kept secure from Boko Haram .
Buhari said the government and security agencies must be strategic in their approach , and ensure that they were not responding out of panic or fear , but out of a determination to secure the nation and keep the people safe .
To win the war , he said terrorists must be fought on multiple fronts.
He said the insurgents must be starved of funding and resources , of sympathisers, and of the oxygen of publicity , especially on the Internet .
The President said the Armed Forces must focus their energies not just on expanding conventional reach but also on developing a robust capacity to take the fight outside their comfort zones - from the financial networks that sustain terrorists to the cyberspace that amplifies their noise .
Buhari added , “ Towards the end of 2017, the Global Terrorism Index reported that terrorism deaths in Nigeria fell by 80 per cent between 2015 and 2016.
“ That figure of 80 per cent represents countless Boko Haram attacks prevented from happening by the efforts of the Nigerian military . We must never forget that.
“ Frustratingly , however , all that a terrorist group requires to be deemed extraordinary is for it to record a high- profile success every now and then . I am reminded of what the Irish Republican Army told former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , after an unsuccessful bomb attempt on her life in 1984: ‘ We only have to be lucky once – you have to be lucky always . ’
“ So , clearly , the job of governments and militaries is never an easy one , especially when you are dealing with an unconventional enemy , who only needs to be lucky once . ”
In his welcome remarks, the President of the Alumni Association , Brig . Gen . Jonathan Tamlong , regretted that despite getting early warnings on terror attack since 2000, Nigeria was caught napping because the government did not act on the reports.
He said , “ The battles of tomorrow have already begun today. Nigeria is facing multiplicity of threats from mostly non -state actors such as the Boko Haram terrorist organisation, separatist groups amongst others .
“ Some of these threats emanated from hostile narratives which are outright hate speech , high powered politics, religious and communal conflicts , climate change, desertification , herders/farmers crisis , and cyber crimes to mention but a few.
“ We have continued to witness changes both in the character of war and the means of violence which include suicide bombers and the context in which they occur . The social media and cyber have also continued to shape the character of war . ”
Tamlong said it was sad that from recent experience with Boko Haram at its inception , it was said that the nation ’ s Armed Forces were not prepared for asymmetric warfare.
This, he said , was despite the fact that Threat Analysis conducted in the early