Now
that the operational leadership and visible face of Boko Haram, in the person
of the filth called Mr. Abubakar Shekau (aka Darul Tawheed), has finally
admitted that they were responsible for the abduction of hundreds of our school
girls and that they intend to ”sell them in the market like slaves”, it is
pertinent and necessary for us to consider some of the emerging, though
uncomfortable, facts. This
will enable us to understand the nature of who and what we are dealing with and
allow us to consider what the appropriate response ought to be if we really
want to solve the problem. Permit me to share the following.
The
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has told us that 90 per cent of the
girls that were abducted from their school at Chibok were Christians. The
President himself alluded to this yesterday during his media chat when he said
that ”the majority” of girls that were abducted were Christians.
The following
have also been brought to my attention:
1.
That the majority of the girls that either ”escaped” or were released by their
abductors were muslims.
2.
That the Governor of Borno state refused to accept the counsel and abide by the
directives of WAEC that the exams should not take place in Chibok due to the
precarious security situation and instead he insisted that the exams should
take place there and that he would guarantee the security of the children.
3.
That the girls that have been kidnapped are being raped up to 15 times a day by
their captors and that those amongst them that have refused to convert to Islam
are having their throats cut (read the testimony of one of the girls that
”escaped” on page 8 of the Vanguard Newspaper, 5th April, 2014).
4.
That there was not a single adult in the school grounds watching over the 278
girls that entire night apart from one security man and that there was no
electricity, no generator, no principal, no matron, no house master and no
house mistress in the grounds with them.
5.
That the children were all alone in their dormitories that night in the
blistering heat and deepest darkness before the Haramites arrived to carry them
away into captivity.
6..
That two of the ladies that met with the First Lady on 4th May and that held
themselves out as representatives of the families of the abducted children did
not in fact have any link with the children or their families at all and hence
they were arrested for impersonation.
7.
That the soldiers that were guarding the school in Chibok were redeployed a few
hours before Boko Haram launched their attack and abducted the children.
8.
That this was a predominantly christian school and that Chibok is predominantly
a christian town and community.
In
my view these facts are relevant and instructive. When one considers them, the
picture of what really happened at Chibok on that tragic night, what the real
intentions of the abductors and their secret sponsors were and what is really
going on now is getting clearer by the day.
Ordinarily
whether the children are Christians, Muslims, pagans or atheists really should
not matter because, regardless of their faith, we want them all back and we
must fight for them all to be returned to their homes and loved ones.
However
the fact that 90 per cent of them are christian adds a sinister and frightening
dimension to the whole horrific episode and it is glaring evidence of the fact
that christian girls are now being targeted by the islamists and that those
girls are being ”sold in the market”, being forced to convert to Islam and
being turned into sex slaves.
Let
me put it on record that I am of the view that it was a monumental error for
the police to arrest the two ladies that were part of the delegation that went
to see the First Lady on May 4th despite the reasons adduced for doing so. That
single action was an unecessary distraction and an abuse of power. Worst still
it left the Federal Government and the Presidency itself open to a lot of
criticism and accusations of insensitivity and high-handedness.
This
is especially so given the fact the fact that the two ladies, from what I have
been told, are both very prominent members of one or two of the groups that
have been agitating for the release of the girls. Those that ordered their
arrest are making things far worse for the Government and it is increasingly
clear to me that as a consequence of this single action they are fast losing
the little goodwill that they may have left with the Nigerian people. If the
war is to be won such errors must be avoided and the government must work hard
to win back the confidence of our people.
I
am one of those that believes that the Federal Government has failed woefully
in their primary duty to protect the Nigerian people and I have enunciated that
position more than anyone else in this nation in numerous essays and
contributions over the last three years. However I honestly believe that today
the problem has become so serious and pronounced and that the conflict has
reached such a critical stage that criticising and lambasting the government
alone will not help. The truth is that such an approach has certainly has not
achieved much in the last three years because nothing has changed.
I
believe that it is time for us to change tactics in order to achieve better
results even though we must not relent in demanding that our President and his
security and intelligence agencies do their job properly and provide the
necessary security for our people. We also need to understand and appreciate
the fact that this matter goes way beyond politics. It goes way beyond whether
you are for or against Jonathan.
It
goes way beyond whether you are in the APC, PDP, APGA, Labour or UPN. It goes
way beyond whether you are a progressive or a conservative. It goes way beyond
whether you are a christian or a Muslim or whether you are from the north or
the south.
The
bitter truth is that regardless of wherever you come from, whatever your faith
is and whichever side of the political divide you stand, we all have a duty to
get to the bottom of this matter, join forces, close ranks, find out what is
really going on and bring this nightmare to an end. We must join hands with all
men and women of goodwill and, together, we must fight this insidious evil that
seeks to envelop our land and overwhelm our people.
To
be sure there is only one thing worse than failing to protect your people and
that is when you organise and mobilise some misguided and mentally unstable
miscreants to use religion as a political tool and get them to blow up, kill,
abduct, rape and maim innocent men, women and children in an attempt to
destabilise the country, spark off a religious war, change the status qou, pull
down the government, induce a military coup, dismember our country and cow the
Nigerian people into submission.
That
is what those that are the secret supporters and sponsors of Boko Haram are
doing and attempting to achieve. They are also interested in furthering the
sinister and barbaric agenda of the Taliban, the Al Nosra Front, Al Shabab,
Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Al Qaeda whose wish is to destroy the secular state
and to establish an Islamic fundamentalist state. They wish to establish a radical
new caliphate in the west African sub-region where Christianity and moderate
Islam is banned, where women are treated like sub-human beings and chattel and
which is governed by the strictest form of Islamic sharia law.
To
this end it is interesting to note that the evil is spreading. A glaring
testimony to that sad fact is the fact that an Army barracks was attacked by
Boko Haram in the Camerouns on 5th April and after killing two army officers
they freed all their fellow terrorists and islamists that had been detained
there.
What
is going on is dangerous, bloody, vicious, heartless, brutal, deep, dark and
sinister and it is a conspiracy of monumental proportions. It is a conspiracy
which we have all fallen victim to. It is a conspiracy that is fuelled by
secrecy and strengthened by the reluctance of those that know better and that
know the truth to speak out and expose it.
It
is a conspiracy that also receives massive funding and covert support from
various governments and Royal families in the Middle East whose support for the
salfists is well known and whose wahabbi doctrines and philosophy is
exceptionally dangerous. These are the type of people that we are dealing with
and these are the times that we are living in.
It
is left for the President and his team to rise up to the occassion, tell the
Nigerian people the bitter truth about all that is going on behind the scenes,
remove the kid gloves, get real and fight the Haramists and their sponsors with
all that he has got.
If
he refuses to do it or if he is cowered into not doing so by the moderate and
dovish voices that appear to be around him, he can be rest assured that sooner
than later this country will break up and he will go down in history as the
last President of a united Nigeria. Worse still if he is not careful there may
well be a military coup which will not be welcome by any right-thinking person
and which everyone dreads. We must assist him as best as we can to ensure that
this does not happen.
I
have little doubt that the President knows who those that are behind Boko Haram
are: it is now time for him to exercise his full powers, expose them and deal
with them in a brutal and savage manner.
It
is time for him to show strength and to lead us into this war against terror
boldly. It is time for him to be a Commander-in Chief that we can all be proud
of. It is time for him to use his full power and to detain and interrogate all
those that he suspects may be linked to the terrorists.
It
is time for him to rise up to the occasion and to crush the evil and the forces
of darkness that have challenged our way of life, everything that is dear to us
and indeed our very existence.
It
is time for him to use every method known to man to vigorously fight the
insurgency, including better intelligence gathering and the usage of ”black
ops”, ”wet boys”, covert operations and maximum co-operation with various
foreign and international intelligence and security agencies.
It
is time for him to ruthlessly bomb the notorious and Boko Haram-infested
Sambisa forest with nepam and burn it, together with everything and everyone
that is in it, to the ground. It is time for him to exercise the right of ”hot
pursuit” and to pursue the Haramites into the Camerouns, Chad, the Niger
Republic or anywhere else if and when it is necessary for him to ever do so.
It
is time for him to prove to the world that the Nigerian people are not
insensitive cowards and that we know how to fight and to protect our own. It is
time for him to rise up and to exercise the full powers and authority of the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is time for him to do whatever
it takes to bring our girls back home and to let us hold our heads up high once
again.
