Shekau’s death will not end insurgency

A former United States of America Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, has said the death of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, is not as important as ending the ongoing insurgency in the North-East.

The former ambassador argued that though Shekau, through his gruesome videos and fierce rhetoric, had become the public face of Boko Haram, the Islamist insurrection against Nigeria was more than the person of Shekau.

Campbell stated that the death or otherwise of Shekau would not affect the ongoing insurgency in the North-East.

According to him, there is little “hard intelligence on the internal dynamics of Boko Haram’s leadership.”

Campbell, who is currently a Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at Council on Foreign Relations, writing on his CFR blog on Tuesday described the terrorist group as being resilient and independent of any single leader.

He said, “Who knows whether Shekau is alive or dead? The question may not matter much. As Boko Haram’s resurrection after the killing of its genuinely charismatic leader, Mohammed Yusuf, shows, the movement is remarkably resilient, and not dependent on a single leader.

“If Shekau is alive, as I suspect he is, evidence is scant as to what his actual role in the movement’s leadership is. Boko Haram is more than Abubakar Shekau, alive or dead.”

In 2009, the country’s security forces claimed to have killed Shekau. This happened at the time the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was executed. According to reports, no outsider has seen Shekau since that time.

“Subsequently, there have been regular reports that the security services have killed him. Each time, however, ‘Shekau’ has issued a video in order to prove he is still alive.

“However, the ‘Shekau’ figure in some of the videos looks different from others. Accordingly, there are numerous conspiracy theories involving Shekau’s alleged doubles,” Campbell added.

Last Sunday, the Cameroonian authorities claimed that they had killed Shekau in a shoot-out, and they released a photograph of a dead body with some semblance of Shekau.

However, the Defence Headquarters dismissed the claim saying he was killed by Nigerian troops.

The Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said, during a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, that the corpse of the insurgents leader was identified by the people of Kodunga.

He said Shekau, whose real name was Mohammed Bashir, had used other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Damasack.