Mr. Olusola Iginla:

I thank the distinguished parliamentarians. I will take the questions one by one of course. What have the Nigerian Armed Forces and Government done and what desired results have been achieved so far? As I said in my statement, in the first instance the current Nigerian Administration made sophisticated military equipment available to the Nigerian Armed Forces. This has enabled them to operate. When these attacks started, Boko Haram operated by guerrilla warfare. Later, those involved became more confident following their military successes and they started to seize territory. That was happening before the current Government came to office. There were seizing territory and planting their flag on seized territories. Then, when the current administration came to power, it improved military hardware. This enabled the Nigerian military to push the Boko Haram terrorists out of the territories they had seized. As we speak, no swathe of Nigerian territory is under the control of Boko Haram insurgents. They have been pushed back. Now they have returned to guerrilla tactics. They seek soft targets. They go into villages, massacre people and run back. That is their strategy at the moment. This is one of the desired results. They have pushed Boko Haram terrorists out of the territories they had seized. They are now back using guerrilla warfare.

When the current President assumed office, we realised the Boko Haram terrorists were not only operating on Nigerian territory but operating from Chad and Cameroon as well. When the current President assumed office, he went to these countries to seek the support of their presidents and to co-ordinate efforts to ensure the terrorists could be defeated. This resulted in the establishment of the joint multinational task force. This now comprises personnel from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and the Republic of Benin. These are the countries that have contributed military personnel to the multinational task force. They now have approximately 8,700 soldiers operating under the task force. This has resulted in a further degrading of Boko Haram operations. As I have said, they have now returned to their initial guerrilla tactics.

Another question related to the support Ireland could give to Nigeria to aid all the efforts we are making to defeat Boko Haram. Condemning the acts and supporting all UN resolutions on Boko Haram are the ways by which Ireland can contribute to our efforts to defeat Boko Haram.

There was a question on whether the people arrested, the terrorists, were being prosecuted. This is definitely the case. After debriefing, they are charged in court and sentences are passed on them. We have seen this on a number of occasions. Some of them have been imprisoned. I hope that answers some of the questions raised by the honourable Deputy Quinn.

There was also a question on the type of facilities the Nigerian Government has in place to rehabilitate people who have been rescued from the Boko Haram terrorists. We have internally displaced person camps. Those who have been displaced as a result of the activities of Boko Haram are being kept in these camps. These camps are all over the place where there is conflict in the northern part of Nigeria. The camps consist mainly of women and children. When they are rescued, we take them to the IDP camps. There they are debriefed and asked about their original villages and their names. As a result of this information they are reconnected to their families. That is the way the process is being handled. Of course, when they are reconnected to their families, they will start the process of rehabilitation. Again, this is one of the achievements of the Nigerian Government in the fight against Boko Haram.

It was rightly noted by someone that their main enclave is in the Sambisa forest. That is where they are mostly based. When those involved abducted the Chibok girls, that was the place they were taken to. At the time, through military assistance from the United States, France and China, they located, through satellite imagery and so on, where the Chibok girls were being kept in the Sambisa forest. If there had been an attempt to rescue the girls at the time, I imagine many of them would have been killed. There was no way a team could steadily go to where they were being kept and rescue them. The terrorists would definitely have known that a military team was on a mission to rescue the girls. Certainly, they would not have wanted that to happen. If a military team had reached the place, the kidnappers would have killed the girls and run away. Given the possibility of that happening, the Nigerian Government decided not to take that action at the time. Now, certainly, many of the Chibok girls have been forced into marriage with the terrorists. They are definitely not in one location anymore. They are scattered all over the place. I believe the Chibok girls can only be rescued if there is enough intelligence to show where some of them are, who they are with and where they are staying.

That is the only way they can be rescued, in my own personal opinion. It has got to be a one-by-one rescue approach. When they look at one of them through intelligence, then they can plan how to go and rescue the girl from whomever she has been forced to marry. That is the way. They are definitely not in one location any more.

There was another question about the extent to which external influences are involved in radicalising Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria. The case in Nigeria is not so much about radicalisation. The Boko Haram terrorists are mainly youths that are not integrated into society through education. All of the youths are definitely Muslims, anyway, but it is not a question of radicalising them. It is just a question of recruitment. They just tell them that they are in this condition because the Government is not providing for them. They say they want to create an Islamic state where the youths are going to be themselves. That is why many of these youths are joining Boko Haram. They do not know the implications of their actions. They only feel that they have to create an Islamic state by fighting Nigerian soldiers.

The case of Boko Haram is not a case of radicalisation. It is just a case of the local discontent of these youths. The discontent is not caused by the Government but by the culture of that part of Nigeria. It does not encourage western education. It encourages Islamic education. As a result of that, because they did not go to school, many of them do not have jobs, they just hang around. They have practically nothing to do. That is why they are so easy to recruit into the ranks of Boko Haram. In the case of Nigeria, it is not radicalisation as such.

There was a question about political and military co-operation between Nigeria and our neighbours to eliminate Boko Haram. I referred to the joint multinational task force that comprises of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin. The influence of that task force has helped a lot to degrade Boko Haram. It does not have the capacity any more to attack and seize territories. That is not going to happen again, I can assure the committee of that, because of the level to which it has been degraded.

The last question was about the clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers. Let me give some background. The Fulanis are mostly from the north-western part of Nigeria. Right from the beginning of time they have been known for cattle rearing. Northern Nigeria consists mainly of desert, not so much rainforest or grasslands, but cattle have to grass - it is what they eat. Over the years these Fulani, because they are trained to rear cattle, drive their cattle down from the north to the south where we have the rainforest and a lot of grasses. The problem is that in doing this, they release their cattle onto farmlands and the farmers of those areas will definitely not be happy with that kind of situation. That is why we have these clashes. It has become intense now, I think, because of the terrorist activities of Boko Haram. We now have a lot of arms, greater availability of arms and things like that. Instead of the usual machetes, cutlasses and bows and arrows that they used to attack people in the past, they are now using guns. That is why the problem has become more intense. I am talking about the Fulani, the cattle herders. They attack villages where the farmers have been known to oppose them. They go there in the dead of night and massacre people. As part of the efforts the Government is making, they have now established a kind of community rapport between the farmers and the Fulani herdsmen to try to resolve the problem.