CHIBOK GIRLS: A CLANDESTINE GAME OF CENTRE POLIITICS In the past few months, no day has gone by without grim news of yet another traumatic, enraging, despair-generating Boko Haram atrocity being announced by media houses and hogging the Nigerian and international headlines. Bombings, kidnappings and brutal assaults on innocent people are now daily occurrences in the North East. Sometimes, these evil psychopaths extend their murder and mayhem to other zones, including Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos. They describe themselves as brave Islamic warriors who abhor Western education and decadence. They would like the world to regard them as spiritual freedom fighters that have an unambiguous and “honourable” ideological agenda. When Boko Haram first emerged, various well-meaning “liberals” concluded that it was largely populated by justifiably frustrated victims of socio-economic injustice…as in Northern youngsters who had been woefully neglected by the Federal Government and the Northern ruling elite. But almost everyone has now seen through Boko Haramists and realised that they are nothing more than heartless hypocrites, barbaric nihilists and cheap criminals who use Islam as an excuse for inflicting destruction on ALL Nigerians. They rely heavily on sophisticated tools such as bombs, guns, video cameras and mobile phones , etc for example these are products of the Western education they say they despise. They respect nobody and nothing and cold-bloodedly massacre devout fellow Muslims including women and children as well as “infidel” Christians. They even kill leaders of the religion they claim to hold dear. A friend from Yobe State tells me that Boko Haram has assassinated many Imams in his area. The biggest irony of all is that Boko Haram’s toxic terror campaign is making Northern Muslims extremely unpopular within an electoral context in such a way that people who even think that Dr Goodluck Jonathan is not proactive to say that they would still rather vote for him next year if the only alternative the Opposition can offer Nigeria is a Northern Muslim. And, by the way, Southern Christians are not the only Nigerians who are saying this. Southern Muslims and Northern Christians are also echoing this view. There is a widespread belief that “most” or “all” Northern Muslim grandees sponsored Boko Haram’s killer louts to sabotage Jonathan (to punish him for not allowing one of them to take over when his predecessor, President Yar’Adua, died )…and then lost control over the centre politics they had created. Two months after the Chibok abduction saga started, the fact-finding committee on the missing schoolgirls submitted its report. The committee confirmed that, indeed, the schoolgirls were missing and for the first time, gave the world an exact figure – 219 and also, pictures of the victims. The committee chairman, Brig-Gen Ibrahim Sabo (retd.) expressed some optimism that those who had hitherto alleged that the abduction was a scam would now, at least, have a rethink based on the credibility of their report. Sabo’s optimism is understandable but he should know that the denials that had accompanied the Chibok abduction run deeper than just believability. It is principally about politics and power; an expression of fear their underbelly would be upturned. I must also say without a deliberate attempt to rubbish the effort of the committee that the whole exercise was perhaps an attempt by the government to just buy time. There is little the committee has done that could not have been done by the Nigerian Police and within a few days of the abduction too with give or take additional help by other security agencies. Now that there are reports of another mass abduction in Borno State, what does Nigeria do? Is it to set up another committee to report in two months’ time whether it is true or false? So, what now when the committee has told us what we already knew about the Chibok abductions? Are investigations going to begin afresh or are ongoing efforts to be infused with urgency? Or, will it end up as just one of the many reports submitted by the many committees President Goodluck Jonathan is fond of inaugurating at the drop of his hat? The President’s response to the committee’s findings was rather careful and non-committal. He said the report would not be ignored and then went on to lament how the lack of security personnel in the school resulted in the abduction. He made other promises: floating a support fund for the victims, rebuilding the razed school buildings with army engineers after the girls are found, and improving public welfare. He even charged boarding school proprietors in the north-eastern states with the task of providing security for students if they want to keep them in the boarding house. Instructively, two cardinals point were missing from the President’s response to his fact finding committee: A sense of urgency about rescuing the abducted girls and, that of culpable responsibility. The committee, too, was careful not to designate faults but insisted on focusing attention on bringing the girls back home. The question is, how far will rescue efforts go when nobody is agitated enough about how they failed to protect the girls? If nobody is to blame because everybody is to blame one way or the other, how do you compel the drive, urgency, and necessary resolve to carry out rescue operations? Could this lack of urgency be why there have been many sideshows introduced into the soap opera? From the Nigerian Army trying to shore up its credibility by announcing it has located the girls to a misguided police officer banning protesters to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo turning himself into the patron saint of #BringBackOurGirls, there have been so many diversions that detract from the seriousness of the abduction. A day after the report was received by a beaming President, Aso Rock, characteristically, shed its semblance of soberness and was joyfully showing off celebrations of victory. First, his aides tweeted pictures of the President staying up to watch the Nigeria-Bosnia match. In the image, he was hailing the Super Eagles to victory. His pictured aides were laughing too – perhaps too effusively –making you wonder if their joy was about the game or they had to echo Oga’s laughter. It all looked so good and rosy; enough to make you think God was at work on Nigeria again except the picture was missing any hint of empathy over the plight of the people of Koronginim, Borno State who were slaughtered in their dozens that Saturday morning by Boko Haram. Obviously, there was nothing about the promises of the President the previous day that were enough to restrain terrorists from reaching into the same pool they had dug into before and committing more atrocities. There is nothing that perhaps arms an enemy more than the knowledge your venom is impotent. Or those words, even when spoken by the President, are mere words and gradually everyone will revert to the business as usual mode. On Tuesday, the President unveiled the Abuja Centenary City project. In a moment of rhetorical flourish, he hinted that the Centennial City would be a city of the Nigerian dream envisaged to be one of the best 20 in the world when it is completed. He went on to describe the basic features of his dream city and it turned out to be so basic no security man, regular water and power supply that you are embarrassed on his behalf. These features that razzle-dazzle the President is available in even low-income areas of countries he seeks to emulate. For a well-travelled President, he should know that those are not things that make for smart futuristic cities. His description of how the opium city of the Centennial City would be different from the cities of present Nigeria was also a tasteless one. It did not take into cognizance that Nigerians do these things in the first place because the government is not responsible enough. By proclaiming he is planning a city where the regular Nigerian failings will not be apparent, he also admits he is building a bunker where he and those who can afford it will hide from their shortcomings. I quite admire his honesty, I must admit, but it is a rather tactless thing to say. He should have stuck to his dream of building a city that would replicate modern cities such as Dubai, Singapore and perhaps even Hong Kong. To cut a long story short, Islamic terrorists in Nigeria and beyond have vastly increased Jonathan’s chances of being re-elected in 2015, despite his flaws. Goodluck is certainly living up to the name his mother gave him at birth! WILLIAMS EKPOSON. CRIME/SECURITY ANALYST +2348034505234 Intelligencewatchdogs@yahoo
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 07:45:49 +0000