Strategic thinking requires taking into account the commitment of the Federal Government in deploying troops before taking the measures of locking the state up in business and communication.
It also requires engaging the neighbouring states as we are not an island state. The plan for palliatives should also not come as an afterthought -a good assumption of displacement should be made and consider providing relief services in advance.
For an operation like this, the Chief Executive must resist any pressure and temptation to leave the state for any reason -every minute counts in a context that requires adaptive management to save lives and livelihoods.
What we hear from people escaping out of the state to make calls and other necessities like bank transactions, checking their e-mails is that there is little to show as gains from the operation while the life of the people has been terribly pauperised.
Reports from media sources such as the BBC and national newspapers carry propositions of a frustrated operation.
My sense is that we will sadly hear more of these when the connection returns and people begin to ventilate the anger of suffering they are exposed to without good plans to realise the dividend.
So many loopholes from an engagement driven by ignorance, inexperience, insincerity and negligence. Just by the way, when would this clueless, ill-prepared and poorly coordinated operation end!
Dr. Mika’ilu Barau writes from Sokoto
