So the Nigerian army has finally done what should have been done years ago: stormed a Boko Haram stronghold and liberated hundreds of captives. The press calls it a 'regional triumph.' I call it a belated, bloody necessity that reveals more about our own decadence than it does about military prowess. Let us not clap too loudly, lest we wake the ghosts of empires past.
Consider this: a mountain stronghold held by a rag-tag bunch of religious fanatics, surviving for years against a modern state with jets and drones. It is the sort of detail that would make a Roman historian nod knowingly. The empire had its own 'Boko Harams'—rebellious tribes in the highlands of Hispania or the forests of Germania. And what did Rome do? It sent legions to burn, slaughter, and enslave until the land was pacified. But Rome also understood that such triumphs were signs of decay, not strength. When you must repeatedly crush a rebellion, it suggests your rule is not accepted but imposed.
Now we have this: hundreds freed, but at what cost? The army likely took casualties. The survivors, hollow-eyed and emaciated, will need years to recover. The ideology that drove Boko Haram? It is not dead; it is merely wounded. Ideologies thrive on injustice, on corruption, on the slow rot of institutions. And Nigeria, like many post-colonial states, is a master of rot. The north is poor, the government is sclerotic, and the military is corrupt. A triumph today does not erase the fact that these captives were taken because the state failed to protect them in the first place.
Let us also note the historical parallels. The Victorians were experts at 'punitive expeditions' against 'savages' in mountain fastnesses—the Maoris in New Zealand, the Zulus in South Africa, the Pathans on the North-West Frontier. They called them triumphs too. They printed medals and named streets after generals. But those triumphs were the death rattles of empires that could not hold the moral high ground. They were signs that the empire was more interested in crushing dissent than in building a just society.
What does this say about our own era? That we live in an age of intellectual decadence. We pretend that military force is a solution to political problems. We call it 'counter-insurgency' and 'regional security' and imagine we are being sophisticated. But the truth is primitive: we have failed to address the grievances that make young men join Boko Haram. We have failed to build schools and hospitals and jobs. So instead we send soldiers and call them heroes. It is the opiate of the incompetent.
I am not saying the operation was wrong. Freeing captives is always good. But let us not mistake a tactical victory for a strategic one. Boko Haram will re-emerge, maybe in a different form, maybe under a different name. The mountain will be held again by new fanatics. Because the mountain is not just a lump of rock; it is the failure of governance, the inequality, the hopelessness. You cannot kill that with a bullet.
So, yes, celebrate the freed. But keep your eyes open. History does not forgive those who mistake a battle for a war. And this, my friends, is a war we are losing.
