Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga with a very Interesting and intellectually stimulating opinion on BH. A must read....... It amazes me whenever some people keep comparing the former Niger Delta militants with Boko Haram. To my mind, they are poles apart. First, the cause the former Niger Delta militants were fighting was unambiguously defined. Two, the former Niger Delta militants were visible, accessible and amenable to dialogue. Third, the Niger Delta militants never targeted innocent citizens. Instead, they engaged in economic sabotage activities to force the government to the negotiating table. When the late President Umaru Musa Yaradua offered them amnesty with a window period to surrender their arms as a precondition for the implementation of the terms of the deal, they never hesitated to do so. With the Boko Haram terrorists, however, the reverse is the case. Their cause is nebulously defined. First, they claimed that they are fighting to avenge the extra-judicial execution of their founder and leader, Mohammed Yusuf. If that was their original motivation, they why did they start the campaign of indiscriminate attacks against innocent citizens, Muslims and Christians, northerners and southerners. Despite the fact that the policemen that killed their leader are under trial, they are still brutally massacring innocent people. Second, the Nigerian army, even before the declaration of amnesty for Boko Haram, had officially told the Muslim militants to come forward to surrender their arms and walk away free. Did the Boko Haram militants give the military the benefit of the doubt by surrendering their arms? Did any of them come forward to surrender his arms and got arrested, which would have given them the excuse to say that military was not sincere by offering them a booby trap? Third, when the Jonathan administration formally extended amnesty to Boko Haram, did they take advantage of the offer? Instead, they rejected the olive branch. Even a faction of Islamic militants that seemed exhausted and indicated interest in negotiations was repudiated or disowned by the main faction, led by the putative and elusive leader of the terrorists, Abu Shekau. Offering amnesty to terrorists that kill thousands innocent people in cold blood is the greatest sacrifice any government, anywhere, can ever make for the sake of peace. Did the Boko Haram fighters show good faith by not taking advantage of the amnesty to save Nigeria these large-scale and frequent losses of innocent lives? Ultimately, the Boko Haram militants exposed their own agenda: to launch a fierce jihad to impose an Islamic State on Nigeria as revealed by Abu Shekaus video and audio messages. This agenda is a tall dream and a recipe for confusion and anarchy. Unlike the former Niger Delta militants, the Boko Haram are not interested in peace. They are more determined to paralyse the country with fear by launching massive attacks to achieve maximum impact such as what we sadly witnessed at Nyanya yesterday. The Boko Haram bandits are more interested in sheer anarchy and any Nigerian is a potential legitimate target. Therefore, the basis for comparing the former Niger Delta militants with the Boko Haram bandits does not exist as far as I am concerned
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 11:31:46 +0000
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