On January 21, 2020, Daciya Dalep, a student of the University of Maiduguri, was gruesomely murdered by the terrorist group in an execution video. The 22-year-old had been on his way to school when he was abducted by the terrorists two weeks ago.

Just a day before the release of that video, the terrorist group also beheaded Lawan Andimi, the Michika branch chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Andimi was abducted earlier in January during a Boko Haram attack in Michika.

In December 2019, four aid workers were executed after months in captivity; and weeks later, 11 people were executed on Christmas Day by Boko Haram in revenge, according to the group, for the killing of terrorist leaders in Iraq and Syria.

The group had also killed seven people during another December attack on a Borno village, also staging similar attacks this month that have led to the death of civilians and military personnel.

As he so often does, President Buhari, in reaction to Andimi's execution, vowed in a statement that his government will ensure that "these terrorists pay a heavy price for their evil actions".

Ideally, the president's words would be considered a strong stand against the evil actions of a terrorist group that many agree should long be history.

However, Nigerians' trust in the president's ability to deal effectively with the group has waned over the years partly down to his own dishonesty about the war on terror.

Fighting terrorism is not a cake walk - it's tough business and it can get really messy really quickly; but Buhari, time and again, sold himself as the man capable of bringing a swift end to the menace of the terrorist group.

And the plain truth is that Boko Haram is far from dead and buried, and definitely not as limited in operational capacity as Buhari's administration has so often tried to represent to the world.

The administration's most notable position on Boko Haram is that the enormity of attacks from the group has dropped significantly since Buhari became president; and that is a fair position to take.

In fact, a year after Buhari was inaugurated as president, terrorism-related deaths dropped by a whopping 80% in Nigeria, according to the Global Terrorism Index.

However, in the time since then, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has broken off as a faction of Boko Haram to become a fully-fledged terrorist group that has gone on to cause major headaches for Nigeria and its neighbours - Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

ISWAP is backed by the Islamic State, a once-indomitable jihadist group which has taken a more keen interest in Sub-Saharan Africa after experiencing huge defeat in Iraq and Syria.

Dozens of Nigerian military troops have been killed in daring attacks staged by ISWAP, especially in 2018, and a lot more civilians have either been killed in attacks, abducted (like Leah Sharibu), and/or executed in callous fashion.

And while the current administration continues to maintain a bold face in public, it was engaged in at least three high-profile ransom negotiations that were successful in 2018 alone. Although the ransoms paid have never been made public, the government has not done enough to convince that securing the freedom of those hostages did not come at a price, in cash, or in form of the release of terrorists in custody.

Boko Haram has been active in the northeast region, where it has concentrated its savage campaign of terror, for the past 10 years and has killed over 30,000 people, abducted thousands and displaced over 2 million from their homes.

Even though its capacity has been limited in the years that Buhari has been president, Boko Haram/ISWAP is still too active for a group that's on its last legs like the government claims.

Earlier this month, Boko Haram terrorists attacked the convoy of Major General Olusegun Adeniyi, the theatre commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, a military command launched in 2015 to fast-track the war against terror in the northeast.

"It is the wish of the Federal Government to end this terrorism quickly in this part of the country. As the insurgents have refused to understand and come to the right way, we must force them to make sure that peace return to all parts of Nigeria," the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, declared when he launched Operation Lafiya Dole.

Five years later and Maj-Gen Adeniyi is the command's eighth theatre commander, many of his predecessors removed due to failure to properly contain the menace of terrorism.

While failure is punished at this level of the operation, Buhari has resisted calls to apply the same measure at a more senior level.

The president has indefinitely extended the tenure of Buratai and his fellow service chiefs for baffling reasons that have failed to convince the Nigerian public. 

The public's confidence in Buhari's fight against terrorism won't improve any time soon as there's no clear vision that he can point to to allay fears that he doesn't know what exactly he's doing.

It doesn't help that his government's plans for combating terrorism, both military and otherwise, are sometimes shoddily implemented.

For example, Operation Safe Haven, a military programme that rehabilitates former Boko Haram terrorists and reintegrates them into society, remains contentious and continues to be controversial because it's not clearly defined in the public domain.

The European parliament, the legislative branch of the European Union (EU), recently noted that progress has stalled in Nigeria's fight against terrorism. And, based on the evidence of the events of the past couple of years and the consistently piling bodies, it's hard to find anyone who seriously disagrees.

The biggest problem with Buhari's public posturing about Boko Haram's defeat is that it's hard to determine if he does it to save face and is well aware of the amount of work still left to be done, or if he really believes the group is dead enough.

While the former is understandable and likely means his eye is still on the ball and he's trying his best, no matter how currently inadequate, the latter holds terrifying consequences for the people of the northeast and the country in general.

It would be dishonest to say Buhari has not in some way limited the capacity of Boko Haram, ISWAP and other terrorist elements in the northeast, but he definitely can be doing more.

He can start by being honest with the Nigerian public about the reality of the war on terror.