The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emeka Omeihe

  • Gambari’s five percent gambit

    When some weeks ago the National Conference arrived at consensus on some thorny issues of our federal order, many had heaved a heavy sigh of relief that we are about to make real progress as a people. This optimism should not surprise any keen watcher of contemporary events in the country especially since the idea of the conference came to public focus.

    Since then, we had been fed with scepticisms and outright doomsday predictions on the eventual outcome of that gathering. So when the news filtered that the conference had taken unanimous decisions on some of these vexatious issues of our corporate existence, not a few Nigerians were pleasantly surprised.

    Against all negative predictions, the conference agreed on rotational presidency between the North and the South and between the six geo-political zones of the country. It went further to approve same for the three senatorial zones of the states with respect to the governorship post. The various blocs or clearly identifiable cleavages in a local government are also to benefit from this rotation.

    As if these were not enough to rekindle hope on the good things to come, the conference went further and in unison, approved the creation of an additional state for the south-east zone specifically to bring it at bar with others and clean off years of marginalization and inequity in state structure. It also recommended the creation of additional 17 states across the country depending on their economic viability and population.

    The approval of an additional state for the South-east was very symbolic in more ways than one. By the language of the conference, it was certain it wanted the additional state in the region to be given utmost priority even if it happens to be the only created now. This was considered very patriotic and harbinger of a new beginning.

    It is more so given that when the idea of the new state was mooted earlier, no less a group than the Arewa Consultative Forum ACF had shown vehement opposition to it. The forum had in a very widely circulated memo selectively addressed to northern delegates directed them to oppose the idea of an additional state for the zone advancing its own reasons.

    Given this attempt at goading northern delegates to oppose the idea, it was refreshing that some of those who spoke very favourably for the envisaged state were from that zone. That was something to rekindle hope that we may perhaps be parting ways with our attachment to sectional predilections that have been in constant competition with the central authority for the loyalty of the citizens.

    But this optimism was not to endure. Hardly had the conclusions of the conference become public knowledge than signs of dissent began to rear their ugly heads. Some of the northern delegates, who were part and parcel of the decisions, curiously began to sing different tunes, apparently having come under heavy reprimand from vested interests from their zones.

    They began moves to upturn the decisions of the conference hiding under the cloak of non observance of the rules for decision making. But these could not go far for very obvious reasons. Not satisfied with the fate of their protests, especially against the backdrop that the conference was only left with one more committee report out of the 20, those members then hatched another plan.

    The report of the committee on devolution of powers was to provide the fulcrum for them to vent their spleen over their dissatisfaction with some of the earlier conclusions of the conference. Incidentally, that committee’s report contained such controversial matters as fiscal federalism, derivation principle and resource control. And with the demand by the oil bearing states for an upward review of the derivation revenue, the stage appeared set for a showdown.

    Discussions on these issues were explosive. The Elders Consensus Committee had to take some time off to allow tempers cool for a compromise position. When the consensus committee finally set out to address the plenary, it was the responsibility of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari to lead the presentation.

    His presentation embodied an increase in the derivation revenue from its current 13 per cent to 18. Gambari also spoke of a five per cent revenue allocation to be called “Fund for Stabilization, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction” principally for the North-east, North-west and North-central to be shared at the ratio of three per cent and one-one per cent respectively.

    Hardly had he finished his presentation than loud protests brought him down. While some argued that he betrayed the elders committee by inserting the northern zones as the only potential beneficiaries of the fund, others found the idea not only absurd but unjustifiable. The conference which was winding down before this incident had to adjourn abruptly. And as things stand, it is not clear whether that is the end of the deliberations of the conference. If that is the end, then the status quo remains on the issue of fiscal federalism and the awesome powers at the disposal of the central government that have been largely responsible for the bitter competition for power.

    But beyond this, questions have been raised regarding the propriety of setting out five per cent of the nation’s revenue for the three northern zones. The idea the elders had was that such a fund is to be applied to any part of the country confronted by the peculiar challenges envisaged in the proposal. But this has been trivialized by the way Gambari went about it.

    Ostensibly, the only reason for Gambari’s limiting of the fund to the northern states is the current insecurity in that part of the country wrought by the Boko Haram insurgency. Given that the insecurity is more pronounced in the North-east with Borno as the epicentre, it remains a puzzle why Gambari thought other northern zones should benefit from the fund to the exclusion of the zones in the south.

    It would appear that the so-called stabilization fund was a clever way to scuttle the demand for an upward review of the derivation principle.

    Not unexpectedly, there have been protests from both the South-east and South-south against the idea as these zones have suffered worse devastation when it comes to the physical harm done to their people on account of civil war or military invasion. There was the 30-month pogrom that left the former eastern region a ghost of itself. There were also the Odi invasion in Bayelsa State and that of Zaki Biam in Benue State where entire villages were mowed down for small security infractions without any recompense. Why ignore these cases?

    Gambari’s gambit was inevitably bound to hit the rocks as it was not worth more than the piece of paper on which it was presented. It was nothing but a sectional agenda to scuttle discussions on fiscal federalism, derivation and resource control. He may have succeeded. But it is a pyrrhic victory the country will continue to pay dearly for.

  • Okorocha, Senate and Charly Boy

    Within the last two weeks or so, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has found himself embroiled in some controversy. During the burial church service of erudite legal icon, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa in his country home Oguta, the first son of the late Justice, Charles Oputa alias Charly Boy reportedly snatched the microphone from the officiating priest after he had called on Okorocha to speak thus preventing him from addressing the distinguished audience. Charly Boy rationalized his action on the grounds that he did not want his father’s burial to be politicized.

    A visibly enraged Okorocha was said to have maintained his cool and later left the church with his entourage. Charly Boy’s strange conduct no doubt, took the audience by surprise and adversely affected the entire burial arrangement as many of those in attendance did not bother to follow the corpse to its final resting place.

    Imo State government has since been griping over the incident. It did not only deprecate Charly Boy’s conduct but has gone ahead to adduce reasons why he acted the way he did. In a well publicized statement, the state government went at length to show that before the burial day, there was no misunderstanding between Charly Boy, the Imo State government or Governor Okorocha. The only matter, for which the government initially disagreed with the Oputa family they said, was the burial programme which the government considered lopsided and subsequently set up a new committee that came up with a more befitting programme.

    It therefore came to the seemingly inevitable conclusion that Charly Boy “acted out an ill-motivated script drafted by some politicians from the state, based in Abuja who have sworn to disturb the peace of the state”. For the government, those who sponsored this ‘coup’ inside a church were intimidated by the hilarious ovation that greeted the earlier introduction of the governor and they feared a repeat should Okorocha be allowed to speak.

    The state government is within its rights to view the matter the way it chooses. This is especially so given that the incident showed no respect for the office of the governor. If Okorocha is seriously piqued by that treatment, his feelings ought to be appreciated. He is the governor of the state and deserves all the respect that goes with that office. To have been publicly prevented from speaking at that occasion and inside the church, Charly Boy showed scant regard for his high office and should be condemned by all right thinking people. It was a bad example of how to pay last respect to his distinguished father.

    Yet, it is difficult to swallow hook, line and sinker the claim by the government that his conduct was the outcome of a script crafted for him by politicians from Imo State in Abuja. If Charly Boy could be so induced to sabotage the burial of his father, he should solely take the responsibility for his action.

    Before that day however, the state government had entered into an altercation with Charly Boy over its claim that it had doled out about N20million to the family for the burial. The issue was within the public domain.

    Since after that burial, Charly Boy has granted press interviews in which he made clear his grouse with the government. He told anybody who cared to hear that the family was angered by the manner the state government went public to announce its monetary contributions for the burial. He was also not enthused that the government never made any contact with him before Okorocha went to their family house in Oguta shortly after his father’s death and in his absence. All these are matters of public knowledge.

    If Charly Boy has given these as his reasons for the unruly conduct, simulating imaginary enemies writing a script for him to embarrass the governor strikes as a very cheap proposition. It is also curious why the state government ignored these grouses when it claimed it had no issue with Charly Boy prior to the incident. Yet, all these cannot justify the treatment he gave the governor at that church ceremony.

    That government is also mired in another controversy over its alleged plans to register and issue identity cards to northerners in the state to guarantee free movement. The matter came up in the senate with the upper chamber condemning the plan. It went ahead to call on security agencies not to cooperate with the Imo State government in this nebulous plan.

    The state government did not take kindly to the reprimand, contending that it came after it had refuted the existence of the plan. It asked for apology from the senate and accused political opponents of being the purveyors of the purported registration plan.

    But the senate rebuffed that idea of an apology with some of its members insisting there was sufficient evidence to show that such a policy was in the offing. Amidst this, there was the speculation that the plan to register northerners was at the instance of the northern community as part of their contributions to ensuring their ranks are not infiltrated by dangerous elements in the wake of heightened security concerns in the state.

    If this was so, the state government ought to have owned up to that reality. Had it done so, perhaps, the anger that attended the matter when it came up at the senate would have been considerably staved off. The state government would have saved itself the embarrassment of denying a plan which some of the senators said they had sufficient evidence of its existence. As things now stand, that government has not succeeded in disabusing the minds of the public that there was smoke in the matter without fire. Neither is it being implied that it had no plans to safeguard the state in the wake of the discovery of bombs planted within a church premises; the arrest 486 Boko Haram suspects in Abia State, among them, a wanted kingpin of the terrorist cell.

    There is everything to suggest that the state government, confronted with the new security challenge may have been tinkering with several safety options.  That may have included the idea mooted by the northern community. But as soon as it became a matter of public knowledge, it rushed into denying its very existence. That is where it got it wrong. It would have gone ahead to clarify the genesis of the idea which was yet to be adopted instead of out rightly denying it. It is the manner of denial rather than the idea itself that turned out the greatest undoing of that state government. As a government, it is bound to make mistakes. Not each and every of its policy will tally with public expectations. When the situation calls for it, the government should not run away from robust public debate on some of its policies.

    The Okorocha’s administration must cultivate the habit of standing by and defending its policy decisions instead of this quick resort to easy escape routes or heaping blames on phoney enemies when they run into problem. Not long ago, the same government had signed into law a bill from the state assembly which gave legal backing to aspects of abortion. The church kicked against the law. The next thing the governor did was to coax the House of Assembly to reverse itself as if that piece of legislation emerged from the blues bereft of the rigours that should usually go with it. Such hasty and temperamental reversals speak a lot of the depth of rigour that goes into policy formulation and implementation in that state.

  • Kashim Shettima’s burden

    Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State does not fit into the profile of someone that should be envied. Not with the Boko Haram insurgency that has left his state despoiled and devastated. Not with the controversies that have surrounded events emanating from his state in the last couple of months.

    By the same twist of circumstance, it has also become very difficult to assess his government in terms of how far he has been able to keep faith with his electoral promises.

    It is also possible that for the same predictable reasons, he may get away with some of his actions or inactions if they do not tally with the expectations of the people. He could as well take cover in the dire security situation in his state to justify his inability to perform very optimally. To that extent, he may be taking advantage of the good, the bad and the ugly on account of the delicate nature of events in his state.

    Borno State has been in a very precarious security situation since Shettima assumed office in 2011. Either by error of omission or commission, the state has since then come to carve out an unenviable record for itself as the lynchpin of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    But the phenomenon predated his regime as its foundation was laid during the regime of his immediate predecessor, Ali Modu Sheriff. It was during Sheriff’s regime that the original spiritual head of the group made his initial devious appearances that left in their wake, the destruction of lives and property of inestimable value.

    Events that then followed, controversial as they were, culminated in the killing of Mohammed Yusuf who was the rallying point of the radical Islamic sect. That is now history.

    Opinions are divided as to the reasons behind the escalation of the activities of the insurgency group since the death of its spiritual head. There are those quick to locate the upsurge in the untidy manner Yusuf was extra-judiciously executed. Others blame it on the abysmal living conditions of the people. Yet, some others are wont to heap the blame on partisan politics.

    From whatever prism one views the issue; it is trite that Shettima inherited the fallouts of the controversial handling of the uprising by Yusuf and his sect. He may not have had anything to do with the sect prior to his becoming the governor. He may have found himself a victim of circumstance thereafter. But he cannot run away from vicarious responsibility being the chief security officer of a state where the insurgents have left no one in doubt that they are largely in control. Shettima has by this twist of fate found himself between the devil and deep blue sea. And with every devastating move by the group, his predicament is even more compounded. Such has been the situation and frustrations of the governor.

    It was perhaps a mark of this frustration that a couple of months back, he had cried out that the Boko Haram insurgents are better motivated and better armed than our own troops. Hear him, “believe me, I am an eternal optimist. But I am also a realist. Given the current state of affairs, it is absolutely impossible to defeat Boko Haram. Have we ever succeeded in thwarting their plans?” he queried.

    His comments drew serious criticisms from the military, the federal government and the larger public. They saw such outbursts as an attempt to embolden the insurgents and dampen the morale of the military that have been making serious sacrifices fighting an asymmetrical war. Shettima also came under heavy fire for not appreciating the delicate nature of the war and for relapsing into self-pity instead of assisting the government to win it.

    He made efforts to rationalize his views but the harm had already been done. His motive became suspect because of the three states under a state of emergency; Borno has been the most problematic. It hosts a disproportionate percentage of the escapades and murderous activities of the sect. Matters were not helped by revelations that in some local governments, Boko Haram had been in charge replacing the Nigerian Flag with theirs. All these are bound to arouse suspicion around the leadership of that state.

    When last week Shettima alleged that a cabal was working hard to create disunity between the federal government, the military and the Borno State government in resolving the Boko Haram crisis ravaging the state, he must have been outpouring his frustrations on the dilemma he found himself in this senseless war. He had in the statement, accused the cabal of deploying all possible means to “accuse the state government of so many wrongdoings that include unimaginable financial misappropriation that is beyond the income of the government, making efforts for personal contacts with a section of the military and other security agencies in Abuja and to feed them with falsehoods aimed at creating an impression that the state governor and his administration were funding insurgents”. These are very weighty issues.

    There was no indication who the cabal are or from where they are operating. But it does appear from the way the statement was framed, the alleged cabal must be operating from within Borno State or somewhere around there. But that is beside the issue.

    The moot point here is the perception of Shettima’s role in the battle against Boko Haram. He has drawn public attention to alleged attempts by the cabal to create the impression that the governor and his administration are funding the insurgents. That is the real delicate issue to contend with. As canvassed earlier, the Boko Haram insurgency predated his regime. But it has since then assumed a very dangerous dimension such that is bound to raise questions about the role of the state government in the matter. It is possible Shettima is just a victim of circumstance. It is also not a remote possibility that he may have been handicapped by the situation he found on assuming office. He may also have been doing his humanly best to tame the situation. All these are possibilities.

    Yet, by the circumstance of his office and unenviable niche the insurgents have carved out in that state, Shettima undoubtedly, carries a heavy burden on why his state should be the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency. He bears the burden of the killing and maiming of his people. He bears the burden of the constant sacking and razing down of villages. He cannot sleep with the constant invasion of communities by the insurgents. And when the Chibok girls were abducted in very cloudy circumstances, his travails knew no bounds.

    Matters were not remedied by the relative ease with which such a huge number of girls were ferried out into the unknown. Questions are bound to be raised and the chief security officer of the state may have to provide answers to some of them.

    It is in the nature of the office he occupies and he must come to terms with that reality. He has made references to partisan politics as part of the reasons the cabal are on him. That could as well be. But there is also the feeling that Boko Haram in its present form is nothing but political grievance masquerading under a religious garb. Whatever it is, there is the urgent need for all to close ranks and save the nation from this madness. The Borno State government and its various elite must do more to resolve the dilemma posed by the obdurate dimension of the Boko Haram insurgency in that state.

  • Of pro-Biafra agitators

    One key challenge of the Nigerian state since the return of democracy in 1998 has been the resurgence of ethnic militancy and separatist tendencies. From the South-south to the South-west, South-east to the northern zones, the same phenomenon has been evident. These are coming more than 50 years of our independence when national integration ought to have melted perceived differences inculcating in all, the culture of common belonging and identity.

    It is due to the failure of this socialization process that rather than wane, these parochial tendencies are being reinforced in the most dangerous ways. Issues of equity, justice, fairness and the inability of the various groups to realize their full potentials within the federation constitute irreducible decimals that accentuate these irredentist feelings.

    The ongoing national conference is in the main, aimed at redressing these systemic dysfunctions so that we can have the peace badly needed for any meaningful development to take root. But feelers emanating from there do not give sufficient comfort that we are prepared to part ways with our decadent past. That is the tragedy of a nation that has identified what it needed to do to make progress but for some self-serving considerations prefers to live on borrowed time.

    It is perhaps this prevarication on matters of our national existence especially those dealing with our common ownership of this unity in diversity that accentuates separatist feelings. As things stand, the central authority is constantly in competition with primordial interests for the loyalty of the citizens. One of the groups that have been protesting the inequities of the Nigerian state has been the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra MASSOB. Its leader Ralph Uwazuruike said it is a peaceful group aimed at securing the resurgence of the defunct state of Biafra through the principles of non-violence as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi.

    The group has so far lived up to its non-violent approach to its mission though its leader Uwazuruike has been severally arrested by law enforcement agencies and charged for treason. For the most part, the group has remained law abiding even as the task it set out to achieve has at best, remained largely controversial.

    Of late, we have started hearing of another separatist group that goes by the name Biafra Zionist Movement BZM. It is led by a United Kingdom (UK) based lawyer Benjamin Igwe Onwuka with aims and objectives similar to that of MASSOB.

    This group came into limelight in March this year when the Enugu police command announced the invasion of the Enugu State government house by hoodlums whose mission was not precisely known. But a few days later, Onwuka addressed the press claiming responsibility for the action. He claimed the BZM effectively occupied the government house for hours to underscore the point that they had taken over the former headquarters of the defunct Biafra. He was subsequently declared wanted by the police.

    The same group was again in the news last week. This time, the police said they invaded the Enugu State Broadcasting Station with the primary objective of making a live broadcast to declare the republic of Biafra. They had invaded the broadcasting house and were frantically making efforts to come up with the live broadcast when they were dislodged by the police. A police sergeant and one of their members were said to have died in the ensuing melee.

    The Police successfully arrested Onwuka and 12 others. And from what one gleaned from television footages and photographs, those arrested are very mature people some of them with grey hairs. The fact of this brings to question what the suspects wanted to achieve by embarking on the hazardous venture of making a broadcast on a television station that is hardly received even within the city. This is more so given that the area the group purports to be speaking for is made up of at least five states. What then is the value in broadcasting to those who will not get to hear the message? That is the big puzzle and it is at the heart of the folly in that mortal engagement.

    By police account of the BZM broadcast message, they intended to call on locals such as residents of “Obiagu, Ogui, operators of KEKE NAPEP, students and all residents of Enugu to come out. All schools, markets, offices to be closed and all elected government officials to surrender all government property in their possession. The people went there in a sense to overturn the government”.

    We are yet to hear from the suspects as the police that paraded them before newsmen did no allow them to speak.

    Be that as it may, it remains illusory what these messages were intended to achieve except to create some confusion in the minds of those who may manage to hear them. Even then, whatever successes they may have achieved through their action was going to be short-lived as they were bound to be dislodged by the law enforcement agents. So where is the sense in an action whose outcome was destined to fail? What is the gain in calling out residents and for what purpose? At any rate, who will honour such calls in such a foreboding circumstance? Therefore it is either the group is not certain what it intends to achieve and therefore confused or their strategy as portrayed by the police did no tally with their real intentions. That is why the police that paraded them should have allowed their leader to speak at that occasion.

    Without hearing from them, it may be safer to presume that what we have been told is the police angle of the story. We need to hear their own side of the story, the circumstances leading to their arrest and whether they carried arms and ammunitions with the intent to burn down the broadcast station as alleged by the police. We need to find out what circumstances led to the death of the police sergeant and their dead member as well.

    But if the story told by the police is true, then some weird indoctrination would have played a bad role. For it is inconceivable that the calibre of matured men that were paraded can be easily lured into such a hazardous and suicidal mission if they were in the right frame of mind. It remains curious how they were goaded into believing that making a broadcast in that station was all it takes to give legitimacy to their dream or that all elected people will surrender power to them.

    Governors of the South-east and other interest groups in the zone have condemned their action. This is without prejudice to their freedom of association, right to expression and protest against perceived wrongs in the society. But resort to lawlessness will defeat whatever case they may have.

  • Of Chibok girls’ protests’ ban

    If one finds himself commenting fairly regularly on events surrounding the raging insecurity in this country, it is dictated by the current mood of the nation. Hardly does a day pass by without fresh dimensions to the terrorism scourge that has held this country on the throat in the past couple of years now.

    With heightened local and international attention and efforts to facilitate the release of the abducted Chibok girls and possibly end the reign of terror, it is not out of place that other issues of our national being seem to have taken the back seat. Even the wheel of government has been considerably slowed down by the development. The situation is likely to remain so until substantial progress has been made on these daunting tasks.

    That largely accounted for the resentment that greeted the purported banning of the free the Chibok girls’ protests in the Federal Capital Territory FCT by the commissioner of police Mr. Joseph Mbu.  Mbu had at a press conference announced the banning of all forms of demonstrations on the Chibok girls in and around the FCT on account of the current insecurity. He rationalized the order on the fear that such demonstrations were loaded with the frightening prospects of hijack by terrorists and other evil minded people to wreak havoc by detonating bombs within the FCT.

    As should be expected, the ban generated wide criticisms because it infringed on the constitutional rights of the citizenry to freedom of association and expression as amply guaranteed in a democracy. Apparently sensing the contradiction in the ban especially with the serious interest the Chibok girls’ abduction had garnered, the Inspector- General of Police IGP, Muhammed Abubakar came out the next day to clarify that such a ban was not in force. He said the statement by Mbu was an advisory notice enjoining citizens to apply caution in the said rallies particularly in the FCT and its environs. The IGP made references to the same intelligence reports on the possibility of the protests being hijacked and advised citizens against protests and rallies until existing threats are neutralized.

    The intervention by Abubakar has been interpreted variously. There are those who see it as a vote of no confidence on Mbu and have therefore called for his sack. Others view the clarification as soft landing for an errant police commissioner who issued an order without the authority of his superiors.

    Yet there are some others who find it difficult to discern any fundamental difference between Mbu’s order and the clarification from the IGP, except the latter avoided the word ban. This is because, the IGP, apart from reaffirming extant order that such demonstrations will have to be under police permission, did not leave anyone with any shred of doubt on the risk which such protesters face. That is the purport of the warning that those planning such rallies should seek proper guidance and advice from the police ‘to avoid unpleasant circumstances’.

    They also did not vary from Mbu’s reasons for limiting such rallies. The same fear of possible infiltration and hijack by terrorist elements featured in their clarification. It would therefore seem that Mbu was not actually on his own when he issued the initial statement. He could not have possibly been.

    What played out was that the police authorities ran into the contradiction of having to ban rallies in a democracy and moved quickly to save the situation. It is also not unlikely they must have come under intense pressure from their foreign partners in the Chibok girls’ release engagement.

    Even then, Mbu had in his initial outing raised issues on the propriety of the persisting protests by the release the Chibok girls group. Hear him, when you continue to do it (protests) persistently, it becomes a nuisance to the government. People have been protesting for over a month now. It is the issue of terrorism it is not solved in one day”

    That is the moot point that must come into focus in any assessment of the continued desirability of the protests. Yes, the importance of keeping the predicament of the poor girls within the public domain cannot be discountenanced. By drawing government attention to the dangers inherent in the continued incarceration of the girls and their possible abuse in the hands of their abductors, the protests would ensure that the government gives the matter the right attention it deserves. This was especially the case within the first few weeks of the abduction when there were doubts regarding the responses of the government to the matter.

    But that is not the situation now. Having amassed a formidable coalition of super powers to secure the release of the girls and tame the scourge of terrorism, the response of the government is no longer in doubt. Its commitment to that objective is a matter of public knowledge.

    It is then curious what persistent protests can achieve at this point in time. If it is to raise the consciousness of the authorities to the matter and the concomitant imperative for quick action, that objective has already been achieved. If the objective is to get the girls released with great speed and at all costs, one is afraid this option has been flawed by the peculiar nature of the engagement.

    The military high command has told who cares to hear that they have an idea of where the girls are. They have also said they are constrained in applying full force because they fear their abductors will harm the girls in the event of such a confrontation. We have also heard of backdoor negotiations and other efforts. These are matters of public knowledge.

    The leader of the protesting group, Oby Ezekwesili seemed to have come to terms with this reality when she modified their slogan to ‘Bring Back Our Girls Now and Alive’.  The need for the girls to come back alive does not permit the mob action which the persisting demonstrations seem to suggest.

    With the formidable coalition that has been put in place, sitting out at one corner in Abuja in the name of protests may not add much in the current efforts by the military. The predicament of the Chibok girls though devastating and chilling is not all there is to the current insurgency in the country. Since that unfortunate incident, hundreds of people including soldiers have lost their lives to the festering terrorism. The lives of these people are as equally important as those of the young girls who are still hopefully alive. These are the issues to contend with and they are not unconnected with the position of the police on the matter.

    The right thing to do is to build a formidable partnership with the relevant civil society groups and other bodies in the states very prone to insurgency to denounce the evil which terrorism is. We must fight terrorism with all the resources available. Even if we succeed in securing the release of the Chibok girls today, a new set of girls may become victims tomorrow. That is the dilemma in singling out the girls’ fate as if it is all there is to the debilitating insurgency. The demonstrators need a more holistic perspective to their campaigns.

  • Journalist Salkida as Boko Haram negotiator

    Before now, the name Ahmad Salkida was a relatively obscure one. Not much was known of the name within the journalism profession or the medium he worked for. Searches conducted on him showed a profile of a freelance journalist; amateur reporter with the defunct Sentinel magazine owned by the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and then the Daily Trust newspaper in Maiduguri as a reporter from where he seemed to have acquired the huge contacts that were to catapult his profile to national limelight courtesy of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Amazingly, he joined the journalism profession with only a primary school leaving certificate having dropped out of secondary school. That was in the 90s when the profession had come to give much preference to university graduates, some with doctorate degrees. As luck would have it, even with this educational deficiency, he still found accommodation within the newsroom and that came to be the making of a man that was to play a key role (albeit by default) within the scheme of our national affairs.

    Perhaps, the first inkling of this character emerged when the Boko Haram sect spoke some time ago, of an unnamed journalist as one of their respected confidants to stand for them in a planned negotiation between them and the federal government. He had then arranged a negotiating team on the side of the sect with Dr. Datti Ahmed as the arrowhead. That outing was short-lived because Dr. Ahmed wrote to withdraw from the assignment citing seeming betrayal on the part of the government team. Other efforts at a negotiated settlement of the matter did not come out successful as the insurgents continued with their devious and murderous activities. We have thus been left with the pernicious activities of this terror group culminating in the controversial abduction of the Chibok school girls.

    Not much was heard of Salkida since his initial outings except his relocation to the United Arab Emirate with his family for fear of his life. He was later to explain that he left the country due to threats by the local authorities and the inability to secure a job on account of his professional relationship with the high echelon of the Boko Haram sect.

    But his profile has again resonated courtesy of the abduction of the 200 or so Chibok school girls in Borno State. He has regained his voice, this time in a most relevant manner. Both the local and international media have been awash with his speculated efforts to see to the release of the girls. He has come to assume the mantra of the proverbial rejected stone which nobody can afford to do without. Salkida was reported to have met with President Jonathan at the Villa. He was also credited to have embarked on a dangerous and risky mission that could have seen to the release of the girls but for the alleged last minute call from the president from a security summit in France canceling that backdoor negotiation.

    The report also came with a very frightening dimension that the next thing we are likely hear of the girls following the botched outing of Salkida could be a video footage by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau showing a systematic slaying of the girls. This dimension appeared to have come with all the trappings of blackmail intended to force the federal government to hurriedly accept whatever backdoor negotiations that may have been arrived at by the journalist-turned-hostage-negotiator. Or at best, it was designed to hold the government culpable for whatever harm that may come the way of the girls subsequently. Such has been the nature of the buck-passing and blame game since the girls were abducted.

    The unfolding story which emanated from the western media may have been fuelled by the insistence of Shekau that the group will only release the girls if members of the sect currently detained by the security forces are freed by the federal government. This appeared to have raised the stakes for apologists of negotiated settlement of the Boko Haram insurgency. The need for caution so that no harm will come the way of the abducted girls has further supported the idea of talking with the insurgents even in the most obscure and informal manner.

    But if these reports from the foreign media lack in official confirmation, the doubt surrounding their veracity has been obliterated by the confirmation of Salkida’s efforts by Mallam Shehu Sani, a civil rights activist who enjoys close contacts with families of some Boko Haram members. Sani who had arranged the meeting of former president Olusegun Obasanjo with the slain Boko Haram members’ families in Maiduguri about two years back said Salkida should be appreciated as his intervention could have seen to the release of the girls. He has also insisted that it is “significant for Nigerians to note that negotiation is the only safer option to get the girls back”.

    Salkida has thrown further insights into the activities and the motivating force of the terror group offering his assistance to resolve the grouse of the group and restore peace in the country. Writing on Twitter, the 40 year old journalist born into a Christian family but later converted to Islam said the most effective way for the federal government to fight terrorism “is to study those behind it and review what strategy works and those that do not work”. He said Boko Haram is a case of “corrosive doctrine that is poorly managed by the authorities” and if effective measures are not taken today, the phenomenon will intensify even after Jonathan would have been out of power. According to him, the whole thing is not just about who is in power as “the central theme of the Boko Haram insurgency is to undermine the institution of democracy and those who support it”. He has spoken.

    For all one may wish to care, Salkida has thrown further insights into the propelling force for the Boko Haram insurgency. He was there with them from the beginning and was supposed to have edited a journal for the group but for some differences on the thrust of that publication.

    That Boko Haram is a case of warped ideology not well managed, has never been in doubt. Also not in doubt is the assertion that its central objective is to undermine the institution of democracy and all that is western including education. In the same vein, its weird urge to institute a theocratic state is common place.

    It was therefore to be imagined how ridiculous it came when Governor Muritala Nyako of Adamawa State was busy the other time inventing some disjointed and illogical basis for the festering of the phenomenon. Salkida would want our leaders to study those behind this terrorism and that is a key point. If we had done that, we may have had a better handle to the festering crisis. Is it a surprise that up till now, our security forces have not been able to unmask their local godfathers and sponsors except the arrest and arraignment of Senator Ndume on terrorism charges?

    Again, the fact that Salkida came all the way from the United Arab Emirates where he is hiding to talk to some people in this country which outcome could have seen to the release of the girls speaks volumes. It illustrates the point most poignantly that the sponsors of the insurgency are within, their contacts with foreign terrorist organizations not withstanding. They are not ghosts. And as long as we have not been able to unmask these people, so long will the insurgency persist. That is the real task and the quickest way to end this madness.

  • Living with terrorism

    By all indications, Nigeria is now home to terrorism. Similarly, its dire manifestations: killings, destruction, shock and awe have come to stay with us. Even with international coalition to fish out and release the abducted Chibok school girls, the terrorists have in the last couple of days, shown beyond unmistakable terms that they will not let go. They appear determined to demonstrate their capacity to strike in any state of their choice especially in the northern part of the country.

    That ought to be the proper reading of the twin bombs that killed over 120 people in Jos, Plateau state with scores of others inflicted with varying degrees of injury. Before then, there was another successful bomb attack in Kano that wreaked unmitigated havoc in human lives and property.

    The message which the renewed bombing and killing of innocent citizens is meant to convey is the terrorists’ unlimited capacity to inflict pains on our people beyond Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states where local and international attention is currently focused. Therefore, the target of the terrorists and their sponsors is not just about the abduction that has been accomplished but how to enforce their devious and wired agenda on the rest of the country.

    Campaigns and demonstrations that seek to focus on the abducted girls may miss the point if a holistic perspective of the phenomenon is not undertaken now. It is even possible that having been put under pressure in the north-east axis, the terrorists will begin to focus on other areas of less attention. There is therefore the compelling imperative to evolve measures to prevent terrorism from spreading to other parts of the country. And because of the very unlikely prospect of the scourge fizzling out very soon, our citizens should brace up for a long drawn battle with terrorists. Matters are not remedied given that we are confronted with an asymmetrical warfare.

    For a country that is battling with high level poverty, ignorance and disease, the effects of the current war on high defense budgets will leave very little if anything for the pursuit of our development programme. We are thus left with a vicious cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. That is the sad fate those who promote this evil scourge have consigned this country to.

    Already we have been forced to allow foreign countries into our territory on account of this self-inflicted problem. As desirable as foreign intervention may be at this point in time, it comes with its own shortcomings. It has its repercussions for a sovereign nation irrespective of the fact that international cooperation has been a major feature of the fight against terrorism due to its peculiar nature. Those who are helping have come with their own terms. The days ahead will witness a massive deployment of resources to fight terrorism. It will involve the acquisition of sophisticated technology such that the foreign countries offer. It will entail a comprehensive security network through out the length and breadth of the country to reduce the relative ease with which terrorists penetrate vulnerable segments of our communities. All these will take a lot from the national purse. The defense industries of the advanced countries will have patronage.

    Yet, this is a problem this county could have avoided but for greed, self-serving and sectional promptings.

    And for a society that lacks the basic data on its citizens and foreigners as well, the situation can be that hopeless.  With the uncontrolled influx of neighboring African countries, the inability to differentiate some of them from Nigerians, it can only be imagined the difficulty to be encountered keeping a tab on movements and suspicious elements.

    Our society is at the moment very porous with security counting for little in the daily calculations of the ordinary people. It is therefore to be expected that such a society will harvest plentifully from the evil machinations of these purveyors of terror. The fact that even the most sophisticated and highly advanced countries have not been able to rid themselves of terrorism is a sufficient indication that we are in for hard times if those who sponsor Boko Haram do not have a change of heart.

    Since bad habits die hard, it is safer to assume that terrorism has come to stay with us. It will not quickly disappear in the same manner armed robbery, kidnapping and militancy have not.

    Apart from any comprehensive programme the government may put in place to detect and make terrorism a very risky endeavor, we must begin to prepare our citizens to brace up for the scourge. It is time to commence very aggressive and comprehensive sensitization programme to acquaint our people with the necessary precautions and safety valves against terrorism.

    The high casualty recorded in the Jos incident would have been avoided had the local population been properly schooled on the right responses when bombs are detonated. For now, such campaigns are not on and not many know what to do in such circumstances. Plateau State commissioner of police Chris Olakpe captured the above scenario very succinctly when he warned the public against rushing to bomb blasts scenes as the possibility of another primed to explode soon after was very high. As it turned out, it was a second explosion that wreaked much of the havoc in the Jos incident. He also gave another tip on what people should do immediately they hear a blast near them. He advised that when such blasts occur, people close by should lie down to avoid being hit by flying objects.

    Another security expert Dr. Ona Ekhomu has also come out with a piece of advice on how to detect the making of improvised bombs and the materials that go into them.  He said “accumulating gas cylinders or bags of fertilizer are terrorists’ attack pre-incident indicators which could signal the imminence of a bomb attack”. He also spoke on monitoring people who behave in very suspicious and secretive ways as it fits into the characterization of terror agents.

    These tips are very useful and needful given that terrorism is unlikely to disappear from our shores so soon. We must therefore brace up for the reality it has become, educate and sensitize our people on how to detect the making of bombs so as to aid in apprehending culprits. And since the possibility is there that some of the terrorists will still succeed in their devious endeavors, we must arm the people on the right responses whenever there is a bomb explosion.

    The Jos experience has shown clearly that the message of keeping off bomb blast scenes is yet to be internalized. It therefore calls for a more comprehensive sensitization approach, deploying modern means of mass communication including the traditional ones to drum these messages into the ears of the ordinary people.

    These are the measures that will add value to the current fight against terrorism and not endless street demonstrations. We must proceed beyond the current euphoria to institute and internalize measures not only to detect terrorists but reduce the pains associated with their activities due to ignorance on the part of the public.

  • Arewa Forum, others

    It is getting clearer that there are entrenched interests within bent on stalling the development and overall progress of this country. Even with intense national consensus on the need for fresh bearing out of the multifarious socio-economic and political problems of the country, the actions and utterances of some interest groups and persons constantly come into conflict with this new understanding.

    When it is convenient, they pontificate on nationalism; the indivisibility, unity and secularity of the country and related idealistic concepts. Surprisingly, as soon as there are national discussions on how to get these pristine ideals on, what you find are positions that cast serious slur on the commitment of this people to our national survival.

    It is either they are in very stiff opposition against the processes that will harbinger these desired changes, equivocating or they are seen exuding conducts unbecoming of those desiring national stability and co-habitation.

    The on-going National Conference intended to fashion out a stable and equitable federation and stave off the disruptive influences of the subsisting volatile order may soon become a victim of this vicious disposition. The conference has been making progress in some of the issues before its committees. And our expectations are that those for which there was consensus at that level will receive the dispassionate consideration of the plenary.

    But we have suddenly begun to see signals of clear attempts by the same vested interests to incapacitate the delegates from arriving at decisions that will move this country forward. The target is to feed some delegates with those falsehoods and biases that have been the undoing of this country such that 53 years after independence, primordial tendencies and ethnic bigotry have been on their highest ascendancy.

    One of such retrogressive moves was aptly demonstrated by a memo from the Arewa Consultative Forum ACF to northern delegates in which it directed them to oppose the recommendation of one of the committees for an additional state for the south-east zone. In that memo, the forum canvassed the issues of population and landmass as the basis on which the envisaged state should be shut down by northern delegates. It went at length to bandy its version of the landmass and population of the zones and argued that based on these, many more states should be created in other zones of the country instead.

    Yet, the forum is not unaware that some of the bandied figures had long been discredited because of their inadequacies. Even then, landmass such as that occupied by the dreaded Sambisa forest in Borno state may count for little in discussions on the desirability or otherwise of a state for the south-east to make for fairness and balance.

    In the past, population and landmass never formed part of the calculations of the military while creating states. To invent these questionable parameters now just to scuttle the additional state is nothing but another attempt to perpetuate a fading status quo.

    The forum is within its rights to express its views on sundry national issues. But to author a memo to northern delegates solely for the purpose of opposing the creation of an additional state for the south-east has with it all the trappings of the same self-serving ethnic agenda that has stultified the progress of this country. It is very sad coming from such a body. Even then, there were northerners in the committee when the consensus for an additional state was reached. Those who voted for the new state are progressive minded people genuinely concerned with the necessary concessions that will guarantee a common sense of belonging and move the nation forward. Such patriotic Nigerians do not need the prodding of a sectional pressure group on whose doorsteps most of the problems plaguing their zones can be traced.

    When the concession of an additional state was arrived at during the National Political Reforms Conference of the Obasanjo era, northern delegates were overwhelmingly part of that process. Why goad them now into opposing a decision they had taken in good faith if not to sabotage our quest for national stability? The forum has also been working hard to ensure that all the observed imperfections of our federal order for which restructuring has become inevitable subsist. What can be more unpatriotic and uncharitable as this?

    And if one may ask, for whom is the forum working given this negative posturing? This poser is further reinforced when the position of the forum in such other issues as the current insecurity in the north-east zone and others that affect the north is put in perspective. Even this concept of a monolithic north has been seriously ruffled by a combination of events of the recent past.

    Ironically, those behind the forum have at another level been canvassing for the establishment of grazing routes and zones in the six geo-political areas of the country. They see this as a solution to the clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in many states especially in the same north. They want the ancestral lands of these indigenous people to be forcefully acquired by the federal government and allocated to the herdsmen for their private commercial cattle rearing endeavors. This has been so even when evidence has shown such a practice to be at variance with modern methods of animal husbandry. Why are we finding it hard to embrace modern practices? Why do we prefer solutions that will open up old prejudices if it is not to keep this nation continually in crisis?

    Incidentally, these cattle are to be sold at their market value with the herdsmen smiling to the banks with huge profit. The question then is: why should the farmers forfeit their ancestral farm lands to Fulani herdsmen who are propelled by profit motive? How different is their business from those of other sections of the country that buy land in the same north in order to further their businesses? Why has it not been possible to acquire vast areas of land and allocate same free to southerners who do business in the north? That is the incongruity in the case for grazing routes and zones said to have passed through the second reading at the House of Representatives. Even then, the possibility of such zones forming the base for the herdsmen to confront and attack their hosts given their highly volatile and pugnacious antecedents is one sore point against this ill-motivated and stale piece of legislation.

    The same suspicious tendencies can be gleaned from the posturing of some northern elite on the war against terrorism. Even when Boko Haram insurgents have made it clear that their target is to institute a theocratic state, you find the same apologists inventing spurious reasons to point to the contrary. They will point to the killing of Moslems and destruction of mosques to dispute this point as if they are on image laundering for the insurgents. But they must have been shamed by the forced conversion of abducted Christian school girls from Chibok into Islam.

    These negative and sectional promptings have also been very evident in the utterances of some leaders of that zone among them serving governors. The same predilection accounts for the avowal of northern senators to oppose further state of emergency in that part of the country despite the precarious stage of the battle against Boko Haram now. Unless such people and interest groups part ways with old prejudices and place national interest above all considerations, this country may never know peace.

  • Still on Chibok and beyond

    Riddle over the abduction of about 200 school girls from Chibok, Borno State will for quite sometime, continue to dominate public discourse locally and beyond. In the last couple of days, there has been heightened international attention on the matter especially given the spate of protests over the abduction and the inability of the government to secure the release of the girls.

    At the last count, no less than four world powers and international agencies have indicated interest to assist the federal government in its efforts to get the girls freed. Leading these countries is the United States which promised to give Nigeria all required support and assistance to save the abducted girls and bring the reign of terror unleashed by Boko Haram on parts of the country to an end. Britain and China have pledged to deploy high resolution satellite imaging capabilities to locate the girls’ whereabout.

    With this renewed interest, expectations are very high that respite will come the way of the girls in the days ahead. But this hope will have to confront some of the challenges that have trailed the abduction. There is the issue of time lag. It has taken about three weeks since the incident. This time frame is enough for the insurgents to conceal whatever information that would have been of help in facilitating the search and rescue operation.

    Unconfirmed reports that the girls have been ferried out of the country pose another challenge. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has boasted he will sell off the girls or marry them out as war booty. If this happens, deploying satellite imaging to locate a concentration of girls of the magnitude under estimation may prove futile.

    Even then, there are still issues with the actual number of the abducted. The military, apparently dissatisfied with conflicting figures emanating from the school authorities and the Borno State government had to saddle that government with further dissemination of information on the matter. They may have also been piqued by the reluctance of the state government for full disclosure in respect of the actual number of students registered and their gender.

    Matters were not helped when it was discovered through the intervention of the West African Examination Council WAEC that there were indeed male students enrolled in that school. That apart, the inability of the authorities to supply or publish the names and photographs of the girls for proper documentation did not go down well with the federal government. The excuse of the host government was that such was against the religion of the girls which was presumed to be Islam. And when eventually a list of the names came out from the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN northern chapter, the 180 names released had only 15 as Muslims while 165 were Christians. This may have fuelled speculations that there is more to the abduction than ordinarily meets the eyes. It may have also accounted for the reaction of the wife of the President who had heaped the blame of the mishandling of the incident on the Borno State government. She was even reported to have suggested that the abduction was contrived. Many have picked holes with the conduct of Mrs. Jonathan on this singular issue. She may not have given the issue the finesse it required especially given the conflict between what she was doing and her husband’s approach to the matter. The undefined roles of first ladies either at the federal or state levels on state matters may have further earned her criticisms. And when she wept alleging they wanted to kill her husband and make her a widow, she must have incurred the anger of many who felt such posturing was unedifying of the wife of our number one citizen.

    But then, some of the doubts surrounding the abduction can only be ignored at the expense of the overall success of the rescue operation irrespective of the number of countries involved. There is no doubt that information emanating from the Borno State government left room for suspicion. There were issues with the number of those abducted, the gender composition of those registered for the exams and their religion. And as it turned out, they were mainly Christians. That puts to serious question the claim that information about the girls could not be made public because of their religion and the purported fear of stigmatization. It is trite to say without knowledge of the actual number of girls abducted it will be difficult to say when they have all been rescued.

    Even then, further disclosures from WAEC that it wrote the Borno State government on the need to transfer the students to safe centres but were told that adequate security would be put in place at Chibok is also a key issue. It would have been helpful for that state government to give account of the type of security it put in place to ensure the safety of the girls. These are very potent issues irrespective of the sentiments and anger that have trailed the abduction.

    Many would want none of these details but quick action to have the girls released. That is how strong the sentiment had been. But beyond this sentiment, is the underlying need to take a critical perspective of the matter so as to enhance the overall success of the rescue operation. Besides, terrorists want maximum impact for effect. It would appear that objective has been achieved by the insurgents through the selective kidnap of girls pursuing western education they deem evil. That was why Shekau had to come on board to further ruffle the sensibilities of the public by threatening to humiliate the girls. The shock and emotions elicited by that threat have achieved the objective of the terrorists. To underscore this point very poignantly, the media was awash shortly after with news of the abduction of another eight girls or so in another part of the same state.

    The point here is that the terrorists went for the girls because of the impact they intended to create since killings and destructions have more or less become very familiar news.

    Given the attention this singular abduction has generated, the terrorists may have now discovered that this is one area they have made real success and may begin to focus on it so as to get even with the authorities in their weird endeavour. We may witness more of the abduction of school girls and children if adequate responses are not made to beef up security around schools. They may begin to focus on the more vulnerable to create public discontent and discredit the government.

    The abduction has sufficiently aroused public sympathy on the unmitigated evil which Boko Haram has been. The pledge of other countries for logistic support to secure the release of the girls and combat terrorism is most welcome. Nigerians of all hue have also been sufficiently aroused to the dangers posed by the insurgents. That is why we have seen a plethora of condemnations from all political divide not only against the abduction but the Boko Haram insurgency.

    A common string running through all these sentiments is that apart from freeing the girls, it is high time terrorism is wrestled to the ground. And that is the real issue. President Jonathan has promised that this singular abduction will see the last of insurgency in the country. That is heart-warming provided the promise is matched with the necessary and sufficient capacities to stamp out these purveyors of hate, awe and terror.

    The heightened interest against terrorism provides the needed ambience for Jonathan to fully deploy needed military arsenal; smoke out the insurgents and quash all their activities in the north-east. He has been made to take the blame for insufficient action or inaction. He must now do the needful and rise or fall together with its outcome.

  • Chibok abduction dilemma

    Mounting concerns on the fate of the 234 schools girls abducted by insurgents in Chibok, Borno State are to be understood. The fury and frustration generated by the continued incarceration of the poor girls have given rise to demonstrations in Abuja, Kano and Ibadan by women groups and civil society organizations.

    The demonstrators were piqued by what they perceived as the tepid approach of the federal government in securing the release of the girls more than two weeks after their abduction. They are miffed that even with the assurances from the government after the expanded National Security Council meeting; no visible progress appears to have been made to free the girls. The Abuja protesters issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the government to do something positive else they resume their demonstrations.

    Most of those who spoke especially in Kano heaped huge blames at the door steps of President Jonathan for not showing sufficient empathy for the excruciating pains of the girls’ parents through the delay. Some even picked holes with the president’s inability to visit Chibok or the school where the kidnap was carried out.

    Matters are not helped by speculations that the girls are being married off to the insurgents. Further allegations from the Chibok Elders Forum that the girls have been moved to Niger and Cameroon have further heightened the tensed atmosphere. As each day passes by, imaginary pictures or conjectures of what the girls will be passing through given the criminal records of the insurgents are bound to ruffle emotions. That accounts for the seeming desperation of the protesters to have the authorities quickly secure the release of the girls.

    Yet, there is something untidy in the way the protesters are rooting for the quick release of the abducted girls. It would seem that the delicate nature of this engagement is not being fully appreciated by the public. Chibok abduction is a deviation from the style of operation of the Boko Haram group. Before now, the news the nation would have been treated to is that of the roasting of the girls in the most blood-thirsty and reprehensible manner. That was what exactly played out at the Federal Government College Buni Yadi where 59 innocent children were murdered in their sleep in the most callous and cruel manner. We thank God the girls are hopefully alive. The Chibok abduction therefore presents a metaphor of sorts. It is reflective of the evils of Boko Haram and the dangers in the actions, inaction or utterances of some political elite that have tended to encourage the devious onslaughts of these merchants of death. It is sufficient warning that unless leaders of all hue close ranks and stamp out this malignant tumor called Boko Haram, nothing is safe in this country. And nobody is safe. That is the stark reality that has been forcefully underscored by the abduction of the girls in Chibok.

    The war against terrorism would have become a huge success if the kind of mobilizations that saw protesters in the streets of Abuja, Kano and Ibadan had been applied all these while to show the unmitigated evil the insurgents had been. In my view, the demonstrations are in order but the target was missed. The target should be the insurgents and all those who have through their actions and utterances aided and abetted their murderous activities. Such people should be the target of the demonstrations. This is more so with disclosures from some of the escaped girls that some of the masterminds of the abduction were locals known to them. The abduction of the girls as painful and agonizing as it has been, may pale into insignificance given the weight of atrocities that have been committed by this blood-thirsty group. It can neither equate with the roasting of the 59 school children in Buni Yadi, nor the sacking of many villages that sent many women, children and the aged to their early graves. These ought to have generated public revolt against Boko Haram and its sympathizers. But they did not.

    Those who demonstrated could not have protested against the federal government. Their protest was with the abduction of the school girls. So their grouse must be with all those overtly and covertly connected with the spate of contrived insurgency that has brought this country to it knees in the past few years. They should be the subject of the anger and fury of the women demonstrators and civil society groups. That is the fitting of the issue if we are not deceiving ourselves. Without the abduction, the issue of securing release would not have featured.

    So it is germane that we address the root cause of the problem rather its symptoms. The demonstrations targeted at the symptoms and therefore are of very limited value in addressing the insurgency debacle. Since women and civil society groups have shown the capacity to resist the manifestations of the unbridled insurgency in the country, they must use their network to mobilize the entire country to rise against Boko Haram proper.

    This mobilization is very vital especially in the north-east part of the country that has been the hotbed of the insurgency. They need to mobilize their religious and traditional institutions. There is the need to mobilize the political elite, women groups and civil society organizations to denounce the evil that Boko Haram is. With such level of activity, the statement would have been made very unambiguously that the insurgents do not enjoy the support of the locals. But as long as the local elite continue with their ambivalent disposition to the matter, so long shall we have cause to grieve over the atrocities of the group. That is the real issue; and the real danger.

    It is by no means being suggested that the government should not do all within its powers to ensure a quick release of the abducted girls. Neither is there any attempt to circumscribe the duty of government to maintain law and order. There have been copious assurances to that effect. But the protesters want quick action and quick results.

    However, the battle comes with its own dilemma. It is a game situation with its payoffs. The option to be adopted by the military should be that which will minimize losses in the event of the worst outcome. It is all about rational calculations and rational action devoid of sentiments. The issues involved were aptly captured by the Chief of Defense Staff Air Marshall Alex Badeh when he told a delegation that visited him “We cannot go with our armoury to where they are; otherwise we will go and kill them. If you go and kill them then you will not have achieved anything. But I know that we will get those girls”. That is the real issue.

    And those in custody of the girls know it. They are prepared to harm the girls if the government applies maximum force to secure their release. They will kill them and then blame the government. Public reaction to this scenario will also be very adverse. That is the uncanny dilemma in which the country’s security forces are currently entangled in the matter of the abducted school girls. Those who through demonstrations canvass quick action must come to terms with this reality.

    Moreover, what the insurgents have done is akin to hostage taking. Their intention is to use it as a shield or bargaining tool with the authorities. Those at the centre of the carrot approach as a solution to the insurgency are already beating their chests weighing their options. We may soon begin to hear some bizarre demands as conditions for freeing the girls. Hostage exchange may feature very prominently.

    In all, the girls may not get quick respite unless those northern leaders we have been told the insurgents respect intercede on their behalf. That is the challenge.