There is Method to this Boko Haram Madness - Written by Daniel Elombah
When the news broke that a suicide bomber targeted a convoy carrying a senior police official in Nigeria today, killing at least 10 people, Fakulujo Ayo commented that "it's becoming more evident that we have fierce demonic and vehement Vampires in Nigeria", however, the sustained Boko haram attacks in the last few days if anything have proved beyond reasonable doubt that there is a method to this Boko haram madness - The attack on Thisday newspapers last weekend killing 7, The Bayero University Kano, BUK church attack killing 10 yesterday, The Maiduguri church attack killing 4 yesterday, and the Jalingo attack targeted at the Police killing 10 today.
There is one thread running through the four attacks showing who are Boko haram targets: The visible instruments of the Nigeria Authority, Christians in Northern Nigeria, and any person or authority they consider working against their interests: Christians, Muslims, northerners, southerners, atheists, men, women, children, young, old, it doesn't matter.
Boko Haram consistently targets people, practices, and institutions that would stand in the way of their imposition of Sharia. In doing so, they are destroying the physical and social infrastructure of the land they would then rule in pious squalor.
Another Point that has been proved reasonable doubt is that Nigeria authorities have no answer to the Boko haram Challenge. On Friday 13 April 2012, the Boko Haram sect declared it intention to bring down the government and "devour" President Goodluck Jonathan within three months.
In his second al Qaeda-style video posted on YouTube on Thursday 12 April 2012, Abubakar Shekau belittled Jonathan for saying on 30 March 2012 that the security situation would be under control by the middle of this year.
In the 14-minute video, Abubakar Shekau said in Arabic and in the Hausa-language: "You, Jonathan, cannot stop us, instead we will devour you in the three months like you are boasting." Shekau also said in the video entitled "message to Goodluck Jonathan", flanked by four masked men holding rifles: "We are proud soldiers of Allah; we will never give up as we fight the infidels. We will emerge as winners ... we will finish you and end your government."
And what was our government's response so far? Bickering between Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, President and Commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces, and his National Security Adviser, GeneralAndrew Azazi!
In what is becoming a very messy affair, President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, took on his National Security Adviser, NSA, General Patrick Azazi, on his comment that the insurgency in the country could be traced to the undemocratic behaviour of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, declaring that "people need to ask the NSA to explain what he really meant".
PDP also joined the fracas and called General Azazi's comments "a poor reflection of the foundation and the internal workings of the Party as well as a wrong deduction on the roots of security challenges in the country".
This war of words between our President and the person in charge of coordinating the government response to Boko haram dramatically illustrates the third point deductible from the sustained Boko haram attacks in the last few days: that no one could protect the ordinary Nigerian from Boko haram insurgency. Or as Adaga John puts it: "our leaders are busy protecting themselves, they don't care about the rest of us".
President Jonathan versus General Azazi
At the outbreak of the Jonathan/Azazi "messy affair, my friend Emmanuel Majebi said "I am utterly flabbergasted and surprised that rather than sack Azazi immediately the whole President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is arguing with his NSA openly on the pages of Newspapers? Completely shambolic!"
Well, that may not have presented the entire picture.
If we rightly assume that tackling the Boko Haram menace is the number one priority of the Jonathan administration, ceteris paribus, we can also safely assume that the president will be briefed by the person he appointed to take charge of coordinating government's response to the menace every morning.
Thus General Azazi's viewpoint as expressed at the South-South Economic Summit must have been put forward to the commander chief, if not formally, then certainly over a bottle of beer; if not directly, then certainly by inference. This contention is equally borne out by President Goodluck Jonathan lamentation at the inter-denominational service to mark the 2012 Armed Forces Remembrance Day at National Christian Center, Abuja that Boko Haram have infiltrated his government.
Jonathan then added that some secret members of book haram belong to the executive, legislative and judiciary arms of government as well as the armed force and described the sect's activities as worse than the Nigerian civil war, saying the situation had made it more difficult to combat.
Now if you add Jonathan's lamentable admission, to General Azazi's frustrated outburst in Asaba, you will see a government powerless against the monster and one that has virtually surrendered to Boko haram. A closer scrutiny of the two statements also shows that President Jonathan and his NSA are actually saying the same thing. The PDP stalwarts and the Opposition elements attacking Azazi should therefore sheath their swords.
I agree with Idowu Akinlotan of The Nation newspaper who wrote: "A closer scrutiny of the NSA's address reveals rather commonplace explanations of the Boko Haram phenomenon ravaging the North and imperilling the rest of the country. He did not address the competence of the PDP as a ruling party, though the party is indubitably acrimonious and managerially slothful. He looked mainly at the insecurity problem of the country, a problem that falls squarely on his shoulders. By bringing in the internal dynamics of the PDP, and by seeming to indict certain elements in the North over the country's terrorism problem, Azazi merely gave vent to his frustrations and tried to justify why an administration headed by his fellow Bayelsan had been unable to make a serious dent on the phenomenon."
However, it seems incongruous that Northern elites are sponsoring or financing Boko Haram. Without going into details about the origin of Boko haram and the level of their collaboration with international terrorism and as Azazi himself acknowledged a little later in his address, Boko Haram did not start in 2011 or even in 2009 when it became truly and violently anti-government after the sect's leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was extra-judicially murdered, it suffices to hold that events between 2009 and now, and in particular, events surrounding Yusuf's execution, showed more persuasively that if the sect had any political objective, it was more than anything else only to the extent of its sectarian, theocratic fantasies, not the presidential ambition of anyone.
While it is possible that the North's elite, while not masterminding Boko Haram, may have been smirking at Jonathan's seeming powerlessness against the sect and may have hoped to exploit the violence for political and economic concessions and in the looming battle for 2015, the reality today is that he North is the worst affected by Boko Haram - with falling school attendance, capital flight (both human and material), and general impoverisation of the region.
Where do we go from here?
As stated above, Jonathan's lamentable admission that Boko haram has infiltrated his government and General Azazi's frustrated blaming of the PDP for the Boko Haram menace presents the picture of a confused and powerless government that has virtually surrendered to Boko haram. It therefore behoves on Nigerians to search for solution outside the government.
This therefore is not the time for a sectionalist approaches to the problem but a time for the entire country to unite and fight the Boko haram insurgency. It pays no dividend for Southerners or Christians to blame the "Northern Muslims" and self righteously postulate that "the introduction of Shari'a Legal System in most states of Northern Nigeria has not helped matters because jihadists have high-jacked the opportunity provided by the actions of their governments to embark on a task of Islamising the nation".
Nor does it pay any dividend to simply ask our "Northern Brothers", to "rise and hold their government accountable" to solve the problem they created. Doing so will be tantamount to blaming the Igbos for the kidnapping menace that have devastated Igboland and rendered the region prostrate. (As I write, Nnewi, one of the most important cities in Anambra State is a no-go area with more than 20 rich citizens still held hostage by kidnappers) ; how many times have they held their state governor accountable?
It may well be that "there really is no pattern discernible in the killings and bomb attacks for which Boko Haram has claimed the credit, let alone the ones about which it has remained silent".
It may also be legitimate to postulate that Boko Haram is not a direct reaction to PDP misrule, since we've had PDP misrule since 1999 but Boko Haram did not happen because the cabal in the PDP had an arrangement they all agreed with, and now the failure of that agreement and resultant power struggle of last year has led to what General Azazi said is the direct consequence of the power struggle in the PDP, a struggle in which the cabal has enjoyed the national cake for themselves to the exclusion of the rest of us since 1999.
In the final analysis, whether the puppet masters are using existing or new group of killers to fight their political battle is not material, the fact remains that whether Nigerians like it or not, this crisis cannot be solved until we deal with the elephant in the room through a constitutional conference by whatever name called to sort out issues of power rotation, resource control, and indeed, the entire national question.
This is the time to Restructure the Federation and devolve more powers to its legitimate constituent units and allow Free and Fair Elections.
When that is done, Disgruntled Citizens will get the government they want and Hold the Government in Their Locality Responsible for their security And Not the Central Government!
If the Boko haram members then feel that their concerns are not being addressed, they will vent their frustrations on their governor or on their local authority and not on settlers or the Central government institutions. If they want Sharia, they will form a Political party to advance their interest or vote for the party that promises to give them sharia, if that is what majority of the northerners want.
It is the people's inability to advance their interest by peaceful means that leads to violence. Remember,a country that makes peaceful change impossible makes violent change inevitable.
We can do it. Ignore the government, ignore the Parliament, Sovereignty resides with the people...once the people create the momentum for restructuring the federation it becomes unstoppable! That is the "way forward.
The only other "way forward" is that we continue our march to Somalia till one day the entire structure collapses....we then individually sing our Nuns Diminitis...to your tent O Israel!
May God give our leaders the wisdom to tackle this deadly menace and give us the grace to be of one mind and purpose in the face of this looming catastrophe.
Published on Monday, 30 April 2012
-- Daniel Elombah
VLS Solicitors, LondonPhone: +44-7415301886
+44-2088087999
Every Nigerian that has something important to say, says it on www.elombah.com
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