These days, it sounds almost like a false irony to tether the word youth to peace in one sentence while referring to the North. Especially the Northeast, where youth conjures the images of the finality of blood and death, of daggers slitting throats, of AK47 brightening the nights with its staccato releases to helpless citizens, of whole families descending into sudden oblivion, and school children whose dawns are cut short in the midnight hour. In an ambience where massacre is routine, laughter only belongs to the tormentor like the predatory glee on the hyena’s face.
I refer to the Civilian JTF, a group of young men who have charted a new path against the rapine and slaughter of the Boko Haram. They represent perhaps the greatest news of youth activism in this country in a decade. They are Nigeria’s unsung heroes. Even the media, famished for celebration, has been coy about draping these boys in sonorous lines.
We have read in recent weeks, especially in the aftermath of the declaration of emergency rule in three northern states, of Boko Haram retreat. The extent of the Federal Government victory is still unclear, but, at least, in Yobe and the main city of Maiduguri, the activities of the group have suffered. The JTF has gone after the sectarian hoodlums with a measure of success. Because of the scanty media presence, we cannot ascertain JTF propaganda from fact.
We are, however, certain that much emergency has pruned the reach of BH. Even the JTF high command knows that its work has been relatively made light by a group of young men who decided to take peace in their hands. They are volunteers for peace. They are saying that they want to live with peace, not the peace of guns and fear, but the peace that comes with civil coercion.
In the peak of violence that triggered the declaration of emergency, the JTF made little headway. Analysts, including this column, pointed out the deficiency of the security agency, and the failure of the security agencies to provide fruitful intelligence. Not even the zeal of international cooperation from the United States and the European Union has breathed a respite.
President Goodluck Jonathan fired the late Owoye Azazi and replaced him with the present national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki. The credentials of a former soldier and blueblood became the presidential explanation for the pick. I quickly responded on this page that it was a miscalculation to think that a blueblood could cow the insurgents when the emirs recoiled with fear at the sound of the BH. Palaces and top royals have fallen at the fatal hands of the group. It was, I argued, the case of the prince and the pauper, and it was futile to presume a prince could understand the working of the pauper community.
On many occasions, the locals had caviled at the JTF and charged that the soldiers killed too many innocents. The actual perpetrators survived, and the soldiers alienated the communities who should be their allies. The soldiers shot blindly and relied on guess work. Consequently, many innocents fell.
The young who tried to run and who did not do anything horrendous saw themselves under siege on both ends. The Boko Haram harassed them and the protectors, the JTF, unleashed their firepower. So for the locals, even when they ran from death on one side they met it on another. It was like the words of the poet Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for death, it kindly stopped for me.”
The young men decided to come together and volunteer their help for the efforts of the JTF. The initiatives began in a local community called Gonge, a suburb of Maiduguri. The body does not have the congratulatory vanity of many of our young groups, especially in the South, who band together for ostensibly humanitarian objectives. That is why some have recast the meaning of the acronym NGOs – non-government organisations – as ‘nothing going on.’ They brandish grandeur goals like democracy and human rights and AIDS activism, and draw juicy contributions from donor bodies in the western world, and either con or strike dubious partnerships with Nigerian governments.
What the civilian JTF boys do is provide intelligence for the JTF. They go about with sticks, machetes and knives. They don’t possess firearms. They are clever lads. They are not held together by faith, so they are not necessarily Muslims, or necessarily educated. They are held together by love of land and protection of the innocents.
They are clearly putting their lives on the line. They do not operate under the shadows. They mount roadblocks, and search the environment for infiltrations. They pass information to the authorities. A source said that the BH people frightened locals from snitching on BH partisans to the authorities because the BH often knew and came back to slaughter the informant. Now, the group goes to the authorities and report as a group and mask the identity of the real informant.
They also understand some of the strategies of the group. Sometimes when they want to know their “enemies,” they could storm, say, a market and allow one of the BH guys to be identified and those who say bad things about him are identified by the others who blend like chameleons with the crowd. The enemies are identified for subsequent onslaughts.
This is what the civilian BH boys are up against. We have had youth groups upset the tranquility of their regions. In the North, we are witnessing the ravages of BH. In the Niger Delta, we have had militancy. In the East, the swarm of kidnappers reined in the peace. In the Southwest, the OPC boys rumbled. Not in one of these regions did any youth group with the heroic sleight of hand and gallantry of the civilian JTF emerge. What we have had is opportunism.
Not many would have thought that, in guts and righteous glory, the North would show the light. We cannot overplay the work of the boys from the North. They know that “the glory of the young man is his strength,” according to the psalmist in the Bible. They are using their strengths for extraordinary exploits. Philosopher Plato said “youth is the time for any extraordinary toil,” in The Republic.
They made headlines when they identified women in purdah masquerading their involvement with the deadly group. They have not asked for funding, and no names have flaunted their activities to elicit filthy lucre. Governor Kashim Shettima expressed open support for them recently.
This is a fresh departure from activist youths who prefer to campaign and kill for politicians. Some Boko Haram boys drew their firepower originally from working in campaign organisations in the North, ditto to Niger Delta militants. Bunu Sheriff Musa, a peddler of ignorance, once exulted over the illiteracy of his subjects as governor. He is an APC partisan, just like the pedophile Yerima. The new party should be careful not to sully their party with such subversions of role models.
The civilian JTFs are an example of how to be young and fruitful.
Kindergarten father
OBJ blamed the younger generation for Nigeria’s woe. Pray, who is OBJ to speak up on who ruined Nigeria? No need to cherry pick names for why things have gone wrong. But focus on generations instead. Whose generation brought us the civil war, destroyed democracy with coups, plundered the Naira, sought third term, destroyed our preeminence in cocoa, groundnut and palm produce? Whose generation initiated the Andrews seeking pastures abroad? Who gave us grand armed robbers like Oyenusi, or do-or-die politics? Or graduate unemployment? Was OBJ not head of state when a newspaper cartooned his generous paunch with belt across when he introduced the first belt-tightening in the economy? Who lied about war heroics? Whose generation started opportunism, sowing when he did not sow, becoming a leader when they killed his boss Murtala Muhammed while he hid with his friend? Secondly when they killed his kinsman Abiola even when he opposed his mandate? Why is he with Jonathan again after the man ignored him? Now the father is going to the son Jonathan with whom he was not pleased before who was described as kindergarten by Akande. Now, from OBJ’s words, he taught his son the kindergarten Joe. So he is the kindergarten father.
