SEARCH ALL SEARCHABLES BOYCOTT ALL BOYCOTTABLES Sometimes we need to say some things not to antagonise but to increase clarity. This article is not Intended to annoy but to get people to think through hard headed solutions. If I am wrong please persuade me. If you think I am right have the courage to say. When the Inspector General of Police ordered that all police checkpoints should be removed so that the police bribes will stop, many praised him. I was happy but apprehensive. The people in Jos had claimed he was a bigot who supported the Hausa Fulani attacks in Plateau and had been fingered by a panel that was set up to investigate. Now I had no way of knowing the truth but suggestions, no matter how true or false, can plant ideas. It made me wonder if this removal of checkpoints was actually not about bribes and the police but about the free movement of Boko Haram. The idea that the IG is involved in a grand plan to give free movement to Islamist warriors, is most likely in the realms of imaginative conspiracy theories, but in situations like this Boko Haram era, imaginations and conspiracy theories can run riot and people should understand them as part of the realities of our times. Going out of our way to prove the conspiracy theories wrong, rather than loudly condemning them, should be part of the way of managing our fears in the North and the South. Anybody who dismisses these fears really has no clue what war does to people. I remember clearly in Biafra were people will just be accused of being saboteurs by ordinary people and immediately put to death. My father was once so accused in a little village that once welcomed us as refugees. He was nearly killed. We had to escape fast. As we start hearing of bombs in the South and Northerners being arrested, the iGs supposedly good intentions began to sour and my supposedly base suspicions begin to ripen. Whether intentional or not, the effect of the IGs order is that legitimate and illegitimate people now have free movement of goods and people across the country - traders, criminals and Boko Haram can move people, goods, arms and ammunition across the country. Yet when 486 northerners were stopped by the army in Abia, led by a Muslim Officer, so many people in the North read it as religious and ethnic profiling. The Jigawa and Kano governments arose in defence of their people. It was treated as if they had been arrested by Igbo people which was not the truth. People asked the question, How will you feel if all Igbo traders going to the North were stopped and arrested? I have thought seriously about this and I have my answer. After the 9/11 bombing in US, and the 7/7 bombing in London, all Arabs going on planes were ethnically profiled for a long time. People were jittery until the security forces found a better way to track terrorists. They were sorry but they did what they had to do. Although it Is more likely that Boko Haram will send Muslim Northerners to the South to bomb, it is not beyond imagination that some new Igbo terrorist organisation may emerge or Niger Delta Militants may want to retaliate in the north. So what is my response? Search all searchables. In this day and age all Road Blocks and searches should come back led by the army to make the movement of terrorists, arms and ammunition as difficult as possible. They did that In Jos, Maiduguri, Damaturu. I call upon the north to please support the search of all people coming from the South to the North and I call upon the South to support the search of all the people going from the North to the South. Recently some mosques were searched in Aba by the army and bombs were found in a church in Owerri. Some muslims are alreafy criticising the search in the mosque. Let us not do any ethnic or religious profiling. If we have nothing to hide, let us happily throw our mosques and churches wide open to be searched regularly. I call upon the North and South, East and West to search all Mosques, Churches, Market places and places of suspicion. Let all Imams and Pastors and radicals who preach violence be searched thoroughly as part of our national security. Our most important need now is to remove all fear from suspicion rather than compound them. I want Hausa and Fulani traders in Aba. I dont want them driven away by fear of suspicion leading to violence. I want Igbo traders in Sabon Gari Kano. I dont want them driven away by suspicion or hate. So let us search. Recently some officer in CAN announced we should stop eating Suya. Some idealist Muslim was angry with CAN. I said I stopped eating Suya long before CAN expressed the fears of many Southerners. I said stop shooting the messenger. Blame Boko for damaging the Suya economy. If Boko can use beggars to plant bombs in Markets they can use Mai Suya to poison people. He said what about onions and tomatoes. I gave a simple answer. I avoid markets these days for fear of explosions. I prefer to buy my food in shoprite or Jumia or kongi these days as i am less likely to be bombed or poisoned. When i have no choice i will go to the market. I expect Igbo traders and Mai Suya will all suffer and South Africa will gain. My friend said CAN hates northerners. I said i doubt it. I dont hate northerners. I love them dearly but i must act rationally to protect my life. We must search all searchables and boycott all boycottables till Boko Haram is defeated. The economic damage to the North will be enormous but if they want it to stop they must get their governors to stop all itinerant preachers spreading hate, and educate their children properly and use the enormous land and minerals of the North to build the incredible potential wealth of the North and redirect the almajiri into a system that does not allow them to be used as fodder for jihadist dreamers. Does this make me an ethnic or religious bigot? I dont think so. I want to look beyond ethnicity and religion to an openness that can reduce suspicion, fear, hate and violence and allow moderate Muslims and moderate Christians to fight a common terrorist enemy. sunnewsonline/new/?p=71075
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 11:48:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015