FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiMonday, December 15, 2014
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Bonn, Germany

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2014: THE YEAR NIGERIA WOULD NOT FORGET IN A HURRY (14)


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Continued from Part 13

Nigeria is in a trying period of insecurity, which has adversely affected our socio-economic and political development especially, in the Northern Region, hence the need to fervently pray for peace, stability, prosperity, and equally remember the plight of internally displaced persons in various refugee camps as a result of the terrorist activities (Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF))

If the North's problems would have been solved by having a Northerner in power, the North ought to have been a paradise by now. No. The problem of both North and South can ONLY be solved by having the RIGHT people in power not once in a while, but all the time. Vision and discipline and the strength of character to stick to it until the vision materializes are what are needed for Nigeria to develop (Pat Utomi)

ome northerners, who, through their countenance, actions or inaction aided the insurgency, were at first shouting against what they termed the Nigerian military’s high handedness in its war against the insurgents, but, when the insurgents became deadlier and beyond their control, those northerners started shouting that President Jonathan’s government is not doing enough to defeat the insurgents. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, while noting that the war against Boko Haram is politicized, urged Nigerians to stop condemning the Federal Government on the war against the Boko Haram insurgency. In an interview, he said the government would have achieved results, if some things had been done differently. He stated that it was necessary to stop the blame game and work towards getting the country out of its predicament. His words: "The idea that government is not doing enough is an oxymoron and an extension of our creeping cynicism and the unfortunate politicking that has dogged this tragic war. No one has come up with a superior exit war plan. It is true; a few things could have been done differently. As they say in Hausa, ignorance is at the back of the head. We have to take off from where we are and stop the blame game. There is a lot of credit in the bank of blame to enrich us all. We are on a long road and we must wear the shoes of the long distance runner. Let us not be deceived and do not listen to anyone who might claim that they know how this can end tomorrow. We have been dealt a tough hand and we must play it." Kukah also noted that those who complain that government is not doing enough are the same people complaining that the war is costing too much.

How can those who empowered Boko Haram and made it the monster it has turned to, blame President Jonathan now for the security mess in the northern part of Nigeria? At first, those northern leaders supported the terrorist sect, in one way or the other, just to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan, as they felt that he, Jonathan, took the position meant for them. Earlier, when the Nigerian military started confronting the insurgency in the north, those northern leaders started seeing it as “belligerency” against the north. Now that the insurgents have heightened their bellicose tendencies in the region, the same northern overlords have started shouting that President Jonathan is not doing enough to rein in the insurgents, infact, that the President is using the insurgents to stifle the north and make it economically unviable, while using the insurgency to perpetuate his rule. How do we reconcile the two different viewpoints espoused by those northerners? The Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), IGP Ibrahim Coomasie (rtd), said in October 2014: “Head or tail, we in the Northern Nigeria are the ones losing because our people are still being killed, property being destroyed and people charged with the constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property are not doing much”, and, Professor Abdullahi said: “The population generally believe that President Jonathan is not doing enough, either deliberately not doing enough or he is incompetent and unable to do. The government should be blamed for the long crises. They were foot -dragging”.

Statements like these fueled mistrust and insurgency in the land:

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), who has now accused the Nigerian leadership of not having the political will, uncommon courage and unrelenting determination to deal with the insurgency, once asked the Federal Government to stop the clampdown of Boko Haram insurgents, saying Niger Delta Militants were never killed or properties belonging to them destroyed. The Pointblanknews quoted Buhari, when he spoke on a Liberty Radio programme, Guest of the Week, as having said that unlike the special treatment given to the Niger Delta militants by the federal government, the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished by government. Then, while accusing President Jonathan of failing from the beginning to address the security situation in the country, Buhari said he has never been in support of the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States. According to Buhari “what is responsible for the security situation in the country is caused by the activities of Niger Delta militants. Every Nigerian that is familiar with what is happening knows this. The Niger Delta militants started it all. What happened is that the governors of the Niger Delta region at that time wanted to win their elections. So they recruited the youths and gave them guns and bullets and used them against their opponents to win elections by force. After the elections were over, they asked the boys to return the guns; the boys refused to return the guns. Because of that, the allowance that was being given to the youths by the governors during that time was stopped. The youths resorted to kidnapping oil workers and were collecting dollars as ransom. Now a boy of 18 to 20 years was getting about 500 dollars in a week, why will he go to school and spend 20 years to study and then come back and get employed by government to be paid N100,000 a month, that is if he is lucky to get employment. So kidnapping becomes very rampant in the South -South and the South -East. They kidnapped people and were collecting money. How did Boko Haram start? We know that their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, started his militant and the police couldn’t control them and the army was invited. He was arrested by soldiers and handed over to the police. The appropriate thing to do, according to the law, was for the police to carry out investigations and charge him to court for prosecution, but they killed him, his in-law was killed, they went and demolished their houses. Because of that, his supporters resorted to what they are doing today. You see in the case of the Niger Delta militants, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua sent an aeroplane to bring them, he sat down with them and discussed with them, they were cajoled, and they were given money and granted amnesty. They were trained in some skills and were given employment, but the ones in the north were being killed and their houses were being demolished. They are different issues, what brought this? It is injustice”.

A senior presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, on Tuesday November 4, condemned Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for his recent comments on insecurity in the Northeast, alleging that some past utterances of the former Vice-President contributed the escalation of the insurgency. Referring to a statement by Atiku at the Northern stakeholders Forum in 2010 that “those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent change inevitable,” Okupe said it was unfortunate that those who desperately stoked the fire of insurgency are now laying the blame on the shoulders of a government that is working hard to put it out. He described it as a mark of unpatriotism for Atiku to talk down on the military, which he hopes to lead if elected President of the Federal Republic. Okupe said the former Vice President was not known to have taken any hard position on terrorists and terrorism in the past and shouldn't expect to gain any political mileage from the unfortunate killings and kidnappings in some parts of the North by presenting himself as being on the side of the victims of the insurgency. He advised the APC presidential aspirant to learn from political leaders in other climes who drop the toga of partisanship in moments of national crisis by supporting their government to raise the hope of citizens and defeat enemies of civilization (Saharareporters).

In 2012, this was what Buhari said about Boko Haram: “Since the leaders now don’t listen to anybody but do whatever they wish, there is nothing the North can do”. On alleged existence of three groups of Boko Haram, General Buhari added, “I will like to quote Professor Ango Abdullahi that said there are three Boko Harams including the original one led by Muhammed Yusufu who was killed and his supporters tried to take revenge by attacking the law enforcement agencies and politicians. There is another developed Boko Haram of criminals who steal and kill… while the biggest Boko Haram is the Federal Government”.

The killing spree of the members of the Boko Haram sect has gotten out of hand as the terrorists are no longer differentiating between those they were meant to protect from those they are meant to deal with, as all they know now is killing, killing and killing of anybody as long as that person is not one of them, being a Moslem or Christian makes no difference to the terrorists again as blood has entered into their eyes and beclouded their rudimentary sense of judgment. The insurgents seem unstoppable, because, despite the belated effort to rout them, they still have the capability to strike anywhere and whenever they like. We just read that more than 31 people were killed in a double bombing in Jos on Thursday, December 11. The blasts in Jos happened at a makeshift market near the Terminus bus station, which had been set up after a twin car bomb attack in May that left at least 118 people dead. Also, a 13-year-old girl in an explosives vest was arrested in Kano. Who’s sure, she is not one of the Chibok Girls brainwashed, drugged and sent out to cause mayhem? The Nigerian Army said it has discovered a plan by the Boko Haram insurgents to attack 25 communities and villages in five states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, and Yobe. According to The Economist: In recent months, the extreme Islamist group has taken over swathes of north-east Nigeria! The group routinely slaughters unbelievers as well as Muslims, establishing its writ through fear. Boko Haram, which started out by assassinating provincial officials from the backs of motorbikes, has become an able fighting force. It conducts complex military manoeuvres reminiscent of those used by the formidable Chadian army. One seasoned observer calls it “a fairly effective commando force”. The Islamists have looted military garrisons across the region, and now have tanks, armoured personnel carriers, anti-tank weapons and artillery. Boko Haram claims to have downed a Nigerian fighter jet (and has filmed the beheading of the pilot), so it may have anti-aircraft guns, too. The archbishop of Maiduguri speaks of its “inexhaustible boxes of ammunition”. Worryingly, the group’s focus is now on holding territory in the north-east. Along with new weapons and tactics, the group has acquired new members. It may now field 5,000-10,000 fighters in total. The group produces slick propaganda videos showing attacks in which its fighters overwhelm barracks and chase soldiers into the bush. The videos also show supposed sharia justice in action: offenders are lashed, stoned or have their hands cut off in front of sullen crowds. The insurgency has driven about a million people from their homes and may have killed 13,000 in the past five year. Agriculture has collapsed in parts of the north-east. Fields are barren. Markets are noticeably empty even in areas still under government control. Public schools have been closed for half a year. Many hospitals have run out of drugs. That is one side of a strangely bifurcated country. A very different Nigeria exists a day’s drive away. While the north is imploding, the south is booming.

Now that the genie has left the bottle, the northern lords are recanting their earlier support for the terrorists, and are now crying foul, and have taken up the blame game, because, they have gotten more than they bargained for. Now, President Jonathan is their uniting factor, as they disparage and accuse him of all sorts of crime and not living up to his responsibility as the commander-in-chief. For example: The Arewa Consultative Forum wrote a letter to President Jonathan accusing the President of “insensitivity” in handling of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast. The ACF listed its grouses against the President and his administration. The letter signed by the ACF Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, a former Inspector General of Police, and Secretary, Col. JIP Ubah (rtd)., described President Jonathan’s “nonchalance attitude to the plight of northerners, whose area has suffered gruesome murders and arson from the extremist sect since 2009,” as worrisome. It expressed fears that in spite of the emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, towns and villages are being sacked, people maimed and killed while Nigeria’s territories are being seized by a group of insurgents. The northern organization noted that there has been no decisive action to expose, contain and resolve the Boko Haram insurgency.

Paraphrasing the Sunnews of May 12, 2014: Where does Buhari come in, in all these? He is a national leader, a Northerner and a leading opposition figure in the country. Thrice, he had attempted to rule the country and thrice he had failed. There is the possibility of his trying a fourth time. Since the Boko Haram virus broke and began to spread in the country, the man had maintained almost a deafening silence. He had not spoken openly in condemnation of the atrocities of the group. This had fuelled speculations that the deadly sect enjoyed support from prominent Northerners, including Buhari. Even the national government had through its functionaries, tacitly accused the opposition leaders of being in cahoots with the group since they had not denounced its activities, other than merely knocking President Jonathan for not decisively tackling the insurgency. In the case of the General, he had been accused of being behind the bloodletting that has ravaged the North since the 2011 presidential poll. Evidence? He had spoken about the monkey and baboon being soaked in blood, if elections were rigged. And when blood began to flow as a result of ethno-religious crises in the North, Buhari faced accusations despite his several denials to the contrary. Then the Boko Haram began to bomb everywhere, including churches, schools, public and private places. Not a strongly worded condemnation from easily one of the most respected Northerners, albeit Nigerian, on the issue. Some of us were clearly disappointed at his muteness. Could it be because of politics, not wanting to identify with the Jonathan government, which he accuses of rigging the 2011 election? Then, he sprang a surprise. In a short piece, dripping with emotion, he called on the BH goons to stop the senseless killings because those they had killed were someone’s father, mother, brother, sister or child. The murdered persons had family and dreams, which were brutally aborted. And they had to die in gruesome circumstances due to the rascality of Boko Haram. Some of us thought that was a fluke or playing to the gallery by the General. I refused to comment on Buhari’s statement because I wasn’t sure if he actually meant what he wrote or he was merely fulfilling all righteousness. (Then in) 2014, Buhari tells his country men and women to unite, as one to flush out the criminal gang, calling itself Boko Haram. He says it’s time to save our country from predators, irrespective of party, religion, ethnic or regional affiliations. He tells the Boko Haram group: “You are not of God”, even as they claim to be carrying out their nefarious activities in the name of God. Surely, those who kill and maim innocent citizens can’t be doing God’s bidding. Those who have abducted defenceless young schoolgirls, defiling them and threatening to sell them into slavery could only be on a satanic mission. Certainly, those who have caused their fellow citizens sleepless nights, heartache and insufferable agony cannot be doing God’s work. When you behold the national and global outrage against the kidnap of the Chibok 234 and the concerted efforts to free the abducted girls, you begin to see the heinous crime of this fiendish group. A small group of people for whatever reasons, certainly evil, is causing humanity uncommon grief. And to think that they once lived or actually still live amongst us, is quite frightening to imagine or contemplate. But that is the sad reality. That is the truth we must confront”. Some people think he (Buhari) is only just condemning Boko Haram because 2015 is by the corner and he would be needing votes. Many prominent Northerners are either too lily-livered to speak up or are hiding out of fear or whatever political gains they hope to reap for not identifying with efforts to rout the sect.

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9hzCKt5XPA&index=2&list=RD_4HEyu7G-BU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goBREseotZE&list=RDgoBREseotZE

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 13

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IMAGES IN THE NEWS