Thread by @DefenseNigeria

Few Nigerians know that an integral part of the Sambisa forest was once a game reserve that puts Yankari to shame, attracted tourists from as far away as Australia. The Brits with good intentions had gazetted the Sambisa as a reserve in 1958, making it one of the conservation

legacies bequeathed to the Nigerian state by the colonial power. With the discovery of rare animals in 1977 the area was re-gazetted as a National Game Reserve for the preservation of rare animals..thid brought in a ton of money in revenue from tourism after FESTAC 77.

What is now synonymous with Boko Haram was home to a variety of wild boars, bush elephants, leopards, lions, hyenas, lots of snakes, monkeys of various species, gazelle, as well as about 62 different species of birds. Even till this day there has elephant sightings.

The once thriving game reserve that attracted tourists for Safari's is DEAD. What a big loss for northern Nigeria. The animals are gone. For years what remained in abundance when it was the HQ for Shekau and his men in the green landscape was a battalion of Nigerian troops

battling a motley of brutal terrorists that specialize in killings, bombings, beheadings, and the abduction of girls and women for sex slavery. The forest transformed from a game reserve for human and animal pleasure into a human abattoir of unimaginable proportions. How sad.

This could have been the Vegas of Africa. Covering 66,000 km, an entire city could have been built. Former dictator General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime once nursed the idea of a national guard. The general cleared the inner areas of the reserve and built a training camp fitted

with military facilities. The facility was named Camp Zairo. Sadly IBB was trying to play clever. The National Guard was analogous to Irans Paramilitary. It was a special security force designed to protect his military regime, separate from the police and the military.

Nigerians got wind of it and all hell broke lose. Public outcry prevented the national guard from taking off. The idea of an uncontrolled special security outfit in the hands of a dictatorial military regime was something the people could not accept.

The angry general left the facilities were left in the bush and cut funding for maintenance or anything else. It was these facilities that Boko Haram would convert into training camps several years later.

Oddly enough Boko Haram actually started in Maiduguri.

The fled to the forest after they were dislodged from Maiduguri towm by the military. Finding nowhere else to launch their deadly attacks from, they invaded the forest. The security guards staffing the gate were killed and the remaining staff scampered away for their lives.

Contending with thousands of snakes and wild bees they then set up various camps in the forest and made Camp Zairo their headquarters.

The Nigerian military had no other option than to bombard and invade the forest to take out the terrorists from their fortresses.

When Nigerian troops finally captured Camp Zairo, the army announced plans to occupy the landscape and turn it into a training ground. The army already staged its 2017 annual sports competition in the reserve. It has also started construction in the area.

The Obama administration requested billions of dollars to build drone basis in Cameroon, Niger and Chad. All countries bordering Nigeria. What followed was the fastest construction project in the HISTORY of the USAF. Six drone bases built in a five months span.

The bases were built not during the insurgency. Notbwhen the Chibok girls were captured. Not when Boko Haram captured huge swatches of land the size of Belguim and declared a Caliphate. Not when when Abubakar Shekau swore allegiance to ISIS

Thats the world's deadliest terrorist group swearing allegiance to the world's richest and second deadliest terrorist group. Against all odds, projections, predictions the Nigerian army not only took back territory lost to Boko Haram, but invaded

..the Sambisa forest and captured Camp Zairo, stunning western observers. Suddenly the Obama admin requested emergency funding for the construction of drone bases in every country that shares a land border with Nigeria, leading to a record breaking building project.

Within months Boko Haram came back from the dead. Larger, stronger. Suddenly the Nigerian military had bigger problems.

The army had intended to totally dominate the landscape and deny the terrorists a haven invariably signaling the end of BHT. That was no longer possible.

Its taken the Nigerian military another five years to put to rest the threat of Boko Haram as an existential threat to the territorial integrity of Nigeria.