So, Shekau is alive

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, is racing against time to meet the target set for him by President Muhammadu Buhari to crush the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents. He, and by extension, the military, has only 63 days from today to meet that target which has been considered by many as Herculean.
In a move to prove is mettle, Gen. Buratai, on Wednesday, at the Maimalari Cantonment Youth Centre, Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, declared 100 members of the notorious sect wanted. At the occasion, the Army chief presented
to the Nigerian public a poster displaying the faces of the wanted terrorists. Of the 100 photos on the poster, most of them are teenagers, with only three above the age of 70 years. Attached to each of the terrorist is a number with which they could be identified. Gen. Buratai also reeled out three mobile telephone numbers where information as to their whereabouts could be communicated, assuring such informants of total secrecy and protection.
Of interest is the character tagged No 100 in the poster, whose photograph dwarfed every other ones. If one’s eye is still to be believed, the man tagged No 100 is the acclaimed leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau.
It is unbelievable to see that Gen. Buratai included Shekau in the list of wanted terrorists after all the noise of his death time and time again. So, Shekau is alive after all. If that is the case, then the Nigerian public deserves unreserved apology from the military which had fed them lies that Shekau had long been ‘dispatched.’ With this latest move, it is sure that the new crop of military chiefs are determined to bring an end to insurgency in the country.