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Continued from Part 15

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others (Jacob M. Braude)

We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach (Bertrand Russell)

You will never find the real truth among people that are insecure or have egos to protect. Truth over time becomes either guarded or twisted as their perspective changes; it changes with the seasons of their shame, love, hope or pride (Shannon L. Alder)

he Emir of Kano incurred the wrath of a group of larrikins calling themselves Boko Haram members because he asked residents to “acquire what they need” to protect themselves. The Emir said people should not be afraid of the militants and should prepare to defend themselves. In his words: “These terrorists slaughter our boys and abduct our girls to force them into slavery. People should not sit idle and say prayer is the only solution. People should be made aware of the importance of being in a state of preparedness and make sure they acquire what they need to protect themselves. We should be ready to give our lives”. The Emir said residents should not wait for help from the military, as there have been numerous reports of soldiers deserting, saying they are not as well equipped as the militants. Unfortunately, the Emir’s criticism of Boko Haram might have been half-hearted, although Boko Haram has taken it serious. The Emir was an outspoken critic of the government when he was a banker and may have played into the hands of the terrorists. Sanusi, as the CBN Governor, was antagonistic to President Jonathan and was covertly working for the opposition, as many leaks on the economy, which ended up in the hands of the opposition politicians, must have emanated from his office. The President sacked him as CBN governor, and he was elected the Emir of Kano under suspicious circumstances. Later on, he apologized to the President, but, it seems that the rapprochement was ill-fated. Now we know that the apology was not a sincere one. To show his inanity; Sanusi, few days ago, expressed optimism that the Boko Haram insurgency which has claimed some 13,000 lives will soon be over. Hear him “I say help is on the way. Terror must and will be defeated. All it requires is the good leaders, uncommon courage and unrelenting determination, and victory will be ours." According to Business Standard, Sanusi, Nigeria’s second most powerful Islamic leader, was presumably referring to the emergence of former military ruler, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, as the candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s presidential election.

This writer is asking for the readers’ time and patience, as we need to look at the utterances of some northern overlords, who in their desperation for power, overtly exhibited their hypocritical tendencies, thereby fanning the ember of ethnicity and nepotism:

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, through his Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), said, on Sunday, November 30, that the multiple explosions in the Kano Central Mosque was an indication that the Nigerian government has failed in her duty to protect her people. The body blamed the government for the bombings in the north, noting that it appeared the government wanted to justify the essence of the extension of the emergency rule in the three North-East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. In JNI words: “But must blood be spilled to justify the extension of state of emergency? Why is it that any time the ineffective state of emergency is about to elapse and/or an extension is being sought, attacks are carried out with sophistication? Are we really aware of the repercussions of spilling the blood of innocent souls? What is the essence of the government’s war on terror and its attendant huge budget? Where are the intelligence and security agencies? Can we afford to continue relying on them for our safety and security? Why? We ask ad infinitum with no satisfactory answers. Without mincing words, Nigeria is being misgoverned to the brink!”

The Sultan, a retired military officer, recommended the recall of ex-service men to prosecute the ongoing war against the insurgents. He urged the government to wake up to its responsibility of protecting lives and property of Nigerians. He said Nigerian sovereignty had been threatened by the sect’s taking over of towns and villages as such, calling on the government to “act fast and stop wallowing in diatribe, as human lives are sacred and must be seen to be treated as so!” Describing as worrisome and embarrassing the way and manners soldiers flee battlefield on sighting the insurgents, the Sultan queried, “Where withered the Nigerian Army of the 1967-69 civil war? Where are the heroes of international peace keepings? When will the government bring an end to this scourge? Does the government really have the capability, capacity, commitment and sincerity to bring an end to this insurgency and the multifarious security challenges facing the Nation? The Sultan frowned on the way soldiers take to their heels, abandoning bases, arms, ammunition and other military hardware at the sight of the insurgents, only to surface after the deadly attacks on the people.

It’s regrettable that a person of Sultan’s status, who was a military man, didn’t know that the Nigerian civil war lasted from 1967-70 instead of 1967-69 he was quoted above as having said. The question for the Sultan is why his cousin, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), who is the National Security Adviser, is not performing, as he has the president’s ears on security matters? Afterall, President Goodluck Jonathan has just lamented that he always get contradictory advice from authorities when he wants to take decisions on major national issues. If his cousin, the NSA, fails to do his job well, who else can do it for him? As a Sultan’s cousin, President Jonathan might find it hard to sack Sambo, because, powerful people such as the Sultan will see it as northern marginalization, not taking into consideration the security implication his cousin’s continued stay in office has for the nation. A reporter for The Sun wrote on Monday, November 17, 2014 “If money meant for equipment is going the wrong way, a probe is urgently required. If competence is the issue, let's get more competent hands to do the job. In the past, we were told that once a Gen. Gusau or a Col. Sambo Dasuki, got in the saddle, Boko Haram would fizzle out in no time. The men have been there for quite a while now, nothing has changed. Isn't it time, we audited our men and materials for optimum results?”

To see how hypocritical the Sultan is: He wrote a letter to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), that is far away from home, on why their action is against Islam, but, didn’t do the same to Boko Haram, here at home. For this, he was attacked by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), who urged him, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, to write a similar letter to Boko Haram to stop their attacks just as he did to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor reminded the Sultan of Sokoto that Boko Haram is worst than ISIS. During a 2-day roundtable meeting with Senior Special Assistants on Religious Affairs from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently, Ayo Oritsejafor openly confronted the Sultan of Sokoto thus: “His Eminence said he wrote a letter to ISIS, I have to truly congratulate you for that because that was a very good move. I didn’t know about it until today and I am so glad it happened. But I want to appeal that you also to write to Boko Haram because Boko Haram is worst than ISIS. They have killed more people than ISIS, they have caused more atrocities than ISIS; they need to be written to as well, it is very important, it will help’’.

Rev. Asake, a CAN scribe in the north, when asked if he harbors any fear that if these terrorists are not stopped, they might overrun the entire North, said: “They have already run over the North. That is why we are calling with a loud voice that President Jonathan should sack the Minister of Defence and his NSA. They are doing nothing. They are the people that have allowed this thing to happen. Like Gusau, the Defence Minister, Jonathan brought him back. When the late Andrew Azazi was in office, he was fired because the Muslims mounted pressure on Jonathan that he should be fired. They brought in a Muslim, Dasuki. Then they brought in Gusau who had been in this office in the past. He even resigned and contested for the presidency. I cannot understand the rationale for bringing him back. What we were told at that time was that they were going to put an end to Boko Haram. Ever since Gusau came back and met with Dasuki of which they are both in laws, terrorism has been bad. What is happening in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno is the plan of Dasuki and Gusau. If they are not sacked, the presidency will live to regret it. These people are not helping this country. Let us not pretend or play over it. Let me tell you. It will get to a point where everybody will have to start defending himself. The Christians are being killed everyday in the North. If you go to Yola now, the streets are occupied by Christians that have been dismissed from their places of living. They are now homeless because of some blood suckers called Muslims in the name of Boko Haram. Muslims will tell me that these are not real Muslims. Who are real Muslims? They are fighting the cause of Muslims. They have not changed their agenda. Anybody trying to tell me that they are not real Muslims should tell me if they are Christians. Let the real Muslims stop them. If we have anybody parading himself as a Christian and then doing things like this, we will have to stop him. If we do not stop him, it means we believe in what he is doing. The president, as a person, is working very hard. He is very concerned. He wants to bring this mess to an end. But those surrounding him are not with him. Let me make it very clear. The president sees himself as president of Nigeria. That is why he is doing what he is doing. But the Muslims do not respect him. They do not accept him. They believe that unless a Muslim becomes president, Nigeria will never be in peace. Let me repeat what I have said before. Check the results of the elections in 2011. The Muslims in the North did not vote for President Jonathan. They do not believe in him. Those that even surround the president do not believe in him. Those in his cabinet will never get any votes for him. Let me make it very clear. They did not vote for him in 2011. They will not vote for him in 2015. Many people surrounding Jonathan are hypocrites. When they go back home, they reduce themselves to nothing, but Islam. It is very clear. Quote me anywhere”.

Those who supported Boko Haram, or kept quiet when it transmuted itself into something deadlier, are now calling on President Jonathan to declare total war against the sect! The Chairman of the Northern State Governors’ Forum (NSGF), Dr. Babangida Aliyu, on Monday November 11, said that unless the federal government declared a total war against Boko Haram terrorists, the group might over-run the entire North. According to ThisDay, the governor explained that Boko Haram members were no longer terrorists but “rebels” and as such, the federal government must declare total war against them. He lamented that the activities of the murderous and destructive group had dealt a deadly blow to the socio-economy of the northern region, promising that the 19 northern states were prepared to support the federal government to root out the terror group. His words: “We must as leaders all come together on bipartisan or non-partisan basis to encourage Mr. President and the federal government to declare total war and eliminate Boko Haram in our midst before the 2015 elections. They are no more terrorists but rebels, who have declared war against their country and have acquired illegal territories; we must therefore crush them. Boko Haram is no more terrorists as it affect all of us”.

Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), the APC presidential candidate for the 2015 election, has accused President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration of playing to the gallery on security, a reason he argued has made the Boko Haram insurgency assume a dangerous dimension in the last four years. Reacting to a statement by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, accusing him of playing politics with the insurgency and unpatriotically refusing to join hands with Federal Government to address the problem until he is elected president, Buhari concurred, saying that Boko Haram will be a thing of the past if he is elected. In a statement by his spokesperson, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, the presidential aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, said , amongst other things, that "It is an irreproachable fact that Boko Haram insurgency has assumed this intolerably dangerous dimension in the last four years, because this regime has chosen to play devious politics with a national calamity”. Furthermore, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) was quoted to have said that the Nigerian military should not be blamed for not being able to crush the Boko Haram insurgency. The military, he said, is ill equipped despite the abundance of wealth being wasted on trivial issues by the government in power. Buhari added that “soldiers have been complaining that they are ill equipped, in spite of the trillions spent on defence budget in the last three years.”

Today, Buhari does not see the insurgents as fighting for justice again as he said few years ago. Due to his presidential ambition, the insurgents are now devils. After the recent terrorist attacks in Kano and Jos, he noted that the insurgents’ ideals were primordial and whatever cause they claimed to be pushing would not succeed. Buhari stated that those who sought to influence the Nigerians way of life; modified their faith and most sacred core values, have struck, “leaving in their wake lives brutally cut short, limbs badly broken and dreams forced to fade away. But these people, whose actions are not sanctioned by any religion and who subscribe to no known decent values, will not succeed. Our people are resilient and strong, and our nation is capable, based on our rich human and material resources, of successfully tackling these nihilists. We will together see the end of them and their reign of terror. They have failed because Nigeria will remain strong and united in the face of what has now become an almost daily infliction of terror on a defenceless people. Women, children and the aged are not spared by these barbaric purveyors of horror, intimidation and panic. No religion condones the killings of such vulnerable and innocent people; hence we are sure these terrorists profess to none of the world’s great religions, much as they seek to mask their actions with the cloak of religion”. Nice words from Buhari; but, why speak up only now that he is a presidential candidate?

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has urged Boko Haram to embrace dialogue with the Federal Government, saying that the onslaught on innocent citizens is now enough. The ACF has decided to condemn Boko Haram now, only because its onslaught have also touched the northern hitherto untouchables. On Friday November 14, the Arewa Consultative Forum, asked the Federal Government to declare a total war on the violent Boko Haram sect. The ACF said that if need be, that the Federal Government should recall trained and retired members of the armed forces and other security agencies to execute the war against the insurgents. The group arrived at this conclusion following an emergency meeting held that day in Kaduna. In its communiqué, the ACF urged the Federal Government “to brace-up and end the destruction of lives and property being perpetrated by the insurgents in some parts of the North. That the Federal Government should seriously address the spate of continued and increasing violence with consequent loss of lives and property, with the aged, men, women and children being dislocated and made refugees in their own country and neighboring countries, and who largely remain uncared for. That the Federal Government should brace up and bring an end to this unnecessary wanton destruction of lives and property. That the Federal Government be advised to seriously consider the possibilities of using available trained and battle- tested reservoir of manpower of the retired Armed Forces and other security agencies to participate in bringing to end this current menace of wanton destruction." But, let’s not forget that it was the same ACF that cried foul when Boko Haram members/bombers were arrested/killed, and kept quiet on the sect's atrocities against Christians/Southerners, according to the publisher@nigeriaworld.

This writer hopes that many read where a Second Republic Minister of Steel, Dr. Paul Unongo, described President Goodluck Jonathan as a disaster to Nigeria. Saying it was immoral for the President to seek re-election when Boko Haram has taken over large chunks of Nigeria's territory. He maintained that by current trends, larger portion of the country would be taken over by Boko Haram if Jonathan continues as President. Hear him: "He (Jonathan) is a complete disaster to Nigeria. He has made us look so ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Some little thing called Boko Haram that started like a joke is laying claim to large junk of Nigerian territories. Huge cities have fallen into the hands of these people. You find them with the kind of equipment that is meant to be for the Nigeria army. A tragedy is playing out in Nigeria and everybody is going about seemingly unconcerned and Jonathan is seeking re-election. I think something has happened to Nigeria. It's a tragedy. And it is a travesty of human dignity and justice for the person responsible for this, who is supposed to give us responsible leadership, instead of confronting the problem; he is busy fighting people and doing everything to retain the Presidency next year. I think it is obscene. I think it is immoral and I think it is sinful." Also, the former Governor of old Kaduna State and national chairman of the de-registered Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa , in an interview with Saturday Sun in November 2014, opined that Jonathan is using Boko Haram insurgency as an excuse to remain in power beyond 2015.

A group of university dons in the North, led by Professor Abdullahi Ashafa, who are worried by the crisis in the Northeast, have accused the Nigerian military of complicity in the war against Boko Haram and called on the people of the North to prepare their own security. The dons met at the Arewa House Kaduna, on Tuesday November 25, under the aegis of the Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP), where they lamented that Nigeria was on the brinks and the Federal Government under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan was, undoubtedly incapable of halting the drift into anarchy but seemed to be assisting in pushing the country in the direction it was going. According to the group, recent happenings in the polity should be frightening to any sensible person and the ARDP, as a concerned stakeholder in the Nigeria project, was alarmed at the way things were unfolding in the run-up to the 2015 general elections. In their words, according to The Tribune: "The level of insecurity in the country today has no parallel, if truth be told ’Insurgents' are having a field day, running roughshod on citizens and taking over towns and villages in the Northeast, with the security operatives looking on hopelessly and the Commander-in-Chief wringing his hands while his lieutenants hurl insults on anyone who dares complain. On the other hand, 'counter-insurgency' has become a lucrative business. Today we have several local governments under the control of Boko Haram with no discernible effort from the government to wrest control of these local governments from the control of the insurgents. This leads to the creation of refugees in and out of the country, running into millions. The 'insurgents' are increasingly emboldened by the nonchalant attitude of the government and the bewilderment of the public by the mysterious support the 'insurgents' seem to be getting from only God knows who. It is disturbing how government functionaries are becoming more and more imperious to citizens, beginning in small ways. The security agencies had been failing as could be seen where a once proud and feared Nigerian army were running in the face of an advancing rag-tag, "ill-equipped" army that was supposedly not more than five years old. We call on the security hierarchy to admit its ineptitude and failure to stem the tide of insecurity and resign dishonorably. Failure to do that will be admitting what many Nigerians believe - the military is complicit in the insecurity bedeviling the north. From what we can see, most of them don't believe there is life after death, they are well advised to remember that there is life after power. We are also not unmindful that the unprecedented level of corruption may not be unconnected with the system failures we are experiencing as a nation. This may not be unconnected with the promotion of nepotism as government policy. Appointments and promotion in the civil service is based on cronyism, which promotes ineptitude above merit and competence in an effort to continue the theft of government commonweal. The challenges are unprecedented, so also the incompetence and complicity of our leaders. The Federal Government under Jonathan has not only failed the country, but has itself become the greatest danger to the country at this critical moment in our life as a country. The ARDP is greatly concerned that our inept leadership appears to be oblivious of these dangers and may unwittingly throw the country into greater crisis, God forbid! The ARDP therefore urges Nigerians, especially the people of the north to: "Ensure that in the coming elections they prioritize competence over monetary inducement in the selection of leaders to run our affairs. This way, we may be able to elect leaders who are statesmen with the interest of looking forward to another generation and not politicians whose sole interest is the next election. To ensure that they seize their rights to make their votes count from the increasingly compromised INEC, they must make sure that they have collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) from the commission which will enable them to vote and make the protection of these votes a priority by whatever means possible. It is only by so doing and insisting that their votes count that they could ensure change is effected. That as the dangers unfold, citizens must realize that the Federal Government is increasingly unable and unwilling to protect its citizens so the people must begin to prepare to protect themselves".

What caught this writer’s attention here was where those dons, who are mostly quota professors and quota PhD holders, accused President Jonathan of promoting nepotism and making appointments and promotion in the civil service based on cronyism, which, according to the “dons”, promotes ineptitude above merit and competence in an effort to continue the theft of government commonweal. This writer is asking those dons how on earth can they accuse the president of all these when it was successive Nigerian rulers from the north who promoted incompetence, mediocrity, ineptitude, cronyism etc through the quota system which they, the so called dons, also benefited from? It’s unbelievable that people can make any accusation for political gains. As President Jonathan is forced by the law to appoint people from different regions based on quota, the unqualified ones must have come from the north where there is drought of capable or qualified hands. So, who are the dons blaming for churning out doltish people in the north?

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXifLDoL1OA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npStWtyeORs&list=RDnpStWtyeORs#t=3

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 15