Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State

Despite the Federal Government’s position that is has technically defeated Boko Haram, the United States has said that the Nigerian military lacks the capacity to hold captured territories in the north eastern region of the country.

According to the 2016 Country Reports on Terrorism released by the United States Department of State, the claim by the country’s military that it was on top of the situation was false, a fact seemingly attested to by Tuesday’s ambush of an oil exploitation team in which about 50 persons in the convoy are feared dead.

“Despite gains made by the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), much of its reported progress was merely duplication of failed efforts carried over from the end of the last dry/fighting season,” said the report by the US Bureau which tracks terrorism and counter terrorism measures across the globe.

“The Nigeria military was unable to hold and maintain civilian structures and institutions in those areas it had cleared,” the report added.

The report also faulted the federal government’s decision to return internally displaced persons without first providing adequate security and appropriate conditions needed for their continued safe stay.

It also pointed out the various weaknesses in the nation’s approach to dislodging Boko Haram including the lack of coordination among intelligence gathering agencies and bureaucratic delays in the processes involved in the freezing of terrorist assets in the country as required by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).