A bomb attack targeting fans at a football match has been reported in Mubi, Adamawa State.
AFP quoting a police officer said at least 40 people have been killed.
Details later
Tag: Adamawa
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Breaking: Bomb blast in Adamawa
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Boko Haram scare rocks Adamawa varsity
Some students of the Adamawa State University, Mubi, have vacated the campus after three letters were sent to the authority of the university by Boko Haram threatening to attack the institution.
Many of the students were said to have gone home to their parents because of the apparent insecurity in the university.
The Military Commandant in charge of Mubi was said to have beefed up security on the campus, but this has not deterred the fleeing students.
Some of the students interviewed said they remembered that about 46 students were shot dead by Boko Haram in an off campus hostel near the university in 2012.
Mubi has remained a hotbed of violence since 2012 despite the presence of military personnel everywhere.
Our correspondent gathered that the Boko Haram sect allegedly sent three letters to the institution, threatening to attack it.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Alkasum Abba confirmed the development in an interview, saying that the matter was reported to the military and police authorities.
In spite of assurances of safety at the university, however, the fleeing students were not willing to take chances.
The Vice Chancellor said: “Some faceless people wrote three letters saying they are Boko Haram and they intend to cause violence by harming the people in our university. But from our own investigation, we learnt that it was not Boko Haram that wrote the letters.’’
He said that military personnel were on a daily basis patrolling the campus with the university’s security personnel also assisting the military to search the nooks crannies of the campus as well as suspicious vehicles.
He said some fifth columnists within the university might be responsible for the scare in order to dent the credibility of the institution.
The Military Commandant in Mubi was said to have banned the holding of any kind of meeting on the university campus due largely to the security situation.
The Army Public Relation Officer, Captain Jaafaru Nuhu, denied knowledge of any Boko Haram scare in the Adamawa State University Mubi.
Nuhu said he would investigate the matter and would get back to the reporter, but he did not. Several calls made to his phone went unaswered.
But the Police Public Relations officer, ASP Othman, said yesterday that that the DPO in charge of Mubi had denied knowledge of any letter from the Boko Haram sect to the university, but the Police had made a special arrangement to ensure 24-hour surveillance of the campus.
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Extension not enough
•Devising strategies for curbing terrorism in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states should go beyond extending the emergency rule
YESTERDAY, the emergency rule imposed on three North-Eastern states lapsed. In anticipation, President Goodluck Jonathan had, last week, made a proclamation extending it and forwarded same to the National Assembly for ratification. However, while it had a smooth sail in the House of Representatives, the Senate has deferred discussions till this week. Eminent persons, political leaders and governments of the affected states have rejected the bid to extend the emergency, arguing that equipping and boosting the morale of government troops would be more effective.
We find it difficult to agree with the contention by the Federal Government that an extension would help curb the insurgency and save the populace from undue harassment and displacement. Since the emergency was imposed May last year, the terrorists have struck at will in schools, villages and markets. State governments have continued to wonder how convoys made their way to public places and slaughtered the innocent. In some cases, Nigerian soldiers have lamented the superiority of arms and ammunition available to the Boko Haram terrorists.
It is our view that mere extension without a thorough review of the operations of the security forces and improvement in welfare package for the troops would be counter-productive. The recent mutiny by some soldiers of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army is an indication that something grave is happening which requires more than cosmetic attention.
Already, having lasted more than one year, the emergency in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states is the longest in the history of such unusual situations in the country. In the First Republic when the confusion in the Western Region led to the appointment of Chief Moses Majekodunmi as administrator, with consequent conferment of extraordinary powers on him, normalcy was restored within six months. The emergency was not extended.
In May 2004, the Federal Government imposed emergency rule on Plateau State following communal conflicts that had engulfed the state and threatened to spill to others. The tenure of General Chris Alli who was appointed the administrator was not extended after it lapsed in November.
Similarly, in October 2006, a state of emergency was declared in Ekiti State and another retired general, Adetunji Olurin, was made the administrator. His tenure had to be slightly adjusted to cover the one-month gap to the installation of an elected governor.
By nature, emergency periods are supposed to last only a short period. While it could be argued that the situation that called for taking the measures has not abated, it should be equally noted that the emergency has not succeeded in ridding the territory of the terrorists.
We also note that in none of the previous cases did the emergency rule cure the society of the ills that provoked such extraordinary measures. In the current case, the ease with which the insurgents, especially the outrageous recent kidnap of about 273 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, calls for a new approach by the military and civil authorities. Whether the emergency is extended or not, security of lives and property in the affected states and the contiguous region should be paramount.
If two terms of the emergency could not stamp out the menace, there is no assurance that a third term would perform the magic.
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Madagali massacre: Vigilance group did not hand over Boko Haram suspects to us, say Police
THE Adamawa State police command has debunked media reports that vigilance groups in Madagali Local Government Area handed over seven members of the Boko Haram to it after a massacre at the weekend, which claimed over 70 members of the sect.
The spokesman of the command, ASP Abubakar Othman, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that such killings did not take place anywhere in Adamawa.
According to him: “Borno and Adamawa share the same border. To the best of my knowledge, the incident did not take place in Madagali but in a village in Borno State close to Madagali.”
Also, men of 23 Armoured Brigade in Yola have relocated their operational headquarters to Madagali to track down fleeing insurgents after local security operatives laid an ambush on them.
The spokesman of the Brigade, Lt. Nuhu Jafar, told our correspondent on the telephone that his men moved there to track down the insurgents.
“As I am talking to you now, the authorities of 23 Armoured Brigade, Yola are already in Madagali Local Government area of the state following the report we had that local security laid ambush on the outlawed group and killed over 70 members of them.
“Surely, we will return back to Yola, the state capital on Monday to give details of what really happened there.”
It was gathered that members of a vigilante group in the town laid a siege and killed more than 70 Boko Haram members who came to purchase food items and handed over seven captured militants to the police.
There were reports that the vigilantes acted after they were tipped off by a local food vendor that the militants were coming to get supplies before heading out for a major operation to raid villages in the area.
The vigilant group mobilised, laid ambush and waited patiently for the militants, a source in the village disclosed.
The source added that as soon as the Islamist insurgents numbering more than 100 showed up in the village to pick up their favourite meals, the vigilantes attacked them, killing most of them in a hail of bullets.
Some of the villagers, who spoke to reporters, said that they believe soldiers have not done much to put an end to the activities of the sect’s members who unleash havoc on them at will.
“We feel that there are fundamental things wrong in the way our security agents are fighting the Boko Haram insurgents who terrorise us here.
“We are pushed to the wall and are not afraid to die because they are men like us. And we are tired of folding our hands and allowing them to kill us, to kill our wives and to kill our children while the government is not doing anything about it,” one of them said.
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Adamawa: Intrigues as Nyako battles PDP heavyweights
Until the resignation of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on January 16, 2014, his eldest son, Awwal Tukur, was seen as the man to beat for the party’s 2015 governorship ticket.
But this initial calculation may have been altered following the recent defection of two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State, Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa and Engr. Marcus Gundiri, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following irreconcilable differences with the state governor, Murtala Nyako, over the control of APC structures in the North East state.
The refusal of the Deputy Governor, Bala James Ngilari, to join the APC alongside Nyako, has further upped the ante in the battle for the 2015 governorship ticket.
Gundiri, who posted an impressive showing at the 2011 governorship election, coming a close second to Nyako, cited his alleged exclusion and that of his supporters in the running of the APC as the main factor responsible for his defection to the PDP.
But sources in the State aver that Gundiri’s governorship ambition and the realisation that Nyako may not support him largely informed his decision to join the PDP.
The issue of ambition, sources said, may have also compelled Ngilari to stay put in the PDP. Powerful forces in the Presidency and the national headquarters of the PDP are alleged to have promised Ngilari the governorship ticket.
Who wins the PDP ticket?
Though his father may no longer be in charge of PDP, sources disclosed that Awwal, a former member of the House of Representatives has resolved to forge ahead with his governorship ambition.
A source told The Nation that the defection of Gundiri and Ngilari’s governorship ambition would not in any way threaten the younger Tukur’s chances at the PDP primaries.
The confidence in the younger Tukur’s camp may not be unconnected to a promise Alhaji Bamanga Tukur allegedly extracted from President Goodluck Jonathan to support his son’s 2015 governorship ambition.
Another factor working in Awwal Tukur’s favour, according to sources, is the control of the Adamawa PDP executive committee by people unquestionably loyal to his father.
Before Nyako’s defection to the APC, the state PDP had two factions, with one led by Alhaji Mijinyawa Kugama, which is loyal to the governor, while the other faction led by Chief Joel Madaki is loyal to Tukur.
According to a party member, there are fears that Ngilari, who is believed to have wormed his way into the good books of President Goodluck Jonathan, has allegedly vowed not to step down for Tukur or any other candidate.
Ngilari’s confidence of clinching the PDP ticket allegedly stems from positive feelers he has reportedly received from some close aides of the president that he is the anointed candidate of the powers that be.
With an alleged plan afoot to make Ngilari the PDP leader in Adamawa State, forces loyal to Bamanga Tukur are allegedly not disposed to embracing the deputy governor’s leadership.
How to handle Gundiri’s ambition is also another knotty issue agitating the minds of PDP leaders in the State and at the national level, as his decision to join the party was based on an alleged assurance he got that a level playing field will be provided for all governorship aspirants irrespective of their years in the party.
Gundiri, according to a source, believes he stands a good chance to emerge as the PDP flag bearer. In the 2011 governorship election, the then defunct ACN candidate polled 260,405 votes to emerge second behind Nyako who got 302, 986 votes.
The Marwa challenge
The former Military Administrator of Lagos and Borno States recently defected to the PDP from APC in move that was not totally unexpected.
The retired Brigadier General of the Nigerian Army was one of the founding members of the APC in Adamawa State, but Governor Nyako’s defection to the party changed the equation, with the governor emerging as the new leader of the party in the State.
Marwa contested for the governorship seat in 2011 on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) coming a distant third with 107, 564 votes.
The soft spoken Harvard University-trained soldier-turned politician, The, is still very much interested in the governorship and may throw his hat into the ring again.
While it remains unclear what promises Marwa allegedly extracted from PDP leaders before his defection to the party, what remains uncertain is the fact that the battle for the 2015 PDP governorship ticket may create a bad blood when the battle is finally won and lost.
Who is Nyako’s anointed candidate?
In sharp contrast to the scenario playing out in the PDP on the governorship ticket, the situation in the All Progressives Congress (APC) still appears very hazy.
Up till this moment, no candidate has emerged as the frontrunner, even as there are unconfirmed speculations that the state governor, Murtala Nyako, is secretly backing a dark horse to succeed him.
Sometime ago, the governor’s eldest son, Abdulaziz, was propped up by some of the governor’s supporters and associates to run for the 2015, but the plan may have been jettisoned based on the likely ripples it might create in the party.
While the governor has kept his succession plan close to his chest, there are strong indications that another major stakeholder of the party in the State, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will certainly have a major say in who succeeds Nyako in 2015.
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Tears for the abducted girls
SIR: I can’t imagine how life would have been for the abducted teenage girls. Everyday, countless thoughts skip through my heart. Sometimes I feel pain inside me. Why do we have to be citizens in a country where poor ones are helpless? This is a country where not much value is attached to human lives. Sometimes, tears roll down my cheeks in fears and hopelessness.
Sometimes I ask rhetorically – had it been these girls are my biological sisters, surely, I know that my house would have been flooded with tears now; tears of grieve, pain and sorrow. I am worried day and night because of the fact that no one knows the conditions in which these girls are right now. These heartless terrorists might have turned them to sex objects or subjected them to hard labour. No one can vividly confirm if they are even alive.
The most painful thing is the lackadaisical attitude of the federal government in handling the situation. It is not an ideal to continue to exchange words with the governors of these affected states as the federal government has been doing. The governors might have been frustrated too with way and manner innocent lives are being lost in their states. This is a critical issue that ought to have been handled with all seriousness. I am always amazed at how successful these terrorists have been able to carry out the attacks in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states without serious challenge from the security agencies.
Isn’t this a testimony that some of our leaders have a hand in these acts? We must wake to reality that we need a change in the style of governance in this country. We must not continue to live like this.
I always wonder how heavy the hearts of the mothers of these girls might be. But despite all these delays, I still hope that the Nigerian Army would be able to bring these girls back to their families alive. The most unfortunate thing which I don’t pray to happen to them is the loss of their innocence in the hands of these lions in human skins. I pray for the safety and release of these sisters as soon as possible.
• Safiya Abdulganiyu,
IBB University, Lapai-Niger State -
What did Lamido say wrong at the confab?
A national conference dedicated to renewal or reinforcement of territorial unity is not a wrong place for the Lamido and others with courage to ignore history of nationalities
I have heard our people say that we need to openly and frankly discuss our problems and seek acceptable solutions instead of allowing them to fester and remain sources of perennial conflict…. The conference is open for us to table our thoughts and positions on issues, and make recommendations that will advance our togetherness….We cannot join hands together to build a collective vision if we continue to harbor negative biases and prejudices against ourselves….Over the coming weeks, you will be confronted with complex and emotive issues, strong views will be expressed by opposing sides and some disagreements will, in all likelihood, be intense— President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening of the ongoing confab
In the last few days, the Lamido of Adamawa has been reported as threatening to walk out of the conference and as boasting before delegates that in the event that Nigeria breaks up, he has a country to go to in the Republic of Cameroons. He assured his fellow delegates that Nigeria’s disintegration would give him an opportunity to rule over the larger part of his kingdom than the portion he currently presides over within Nigeria. For saying this, some delegates have fired at him with caustic words for not acting in consonance with the grandeur of his office and for mentioning the taboo word,break-up of Nigeria at a conference that had foresworn not to mention such a word of national embarrassment.
Given the admonitions of President Jonathan at the conference, the Lamido has not done anything untoward or unwholesome. He has just expressed his feelings in an overtly emotive manner against the pedestrian or puerile behavior of delegates with opposing views to the rule to make 75% of votes the basis of majority decision.To people who are transitive carriers of culture, the Lamido of Adamawa said what is crucial at a conference designed to re-launch the country. Re-launching has to be preceded by deconstructing what needs to be repaired or transformed.
Was the emir wrong in saying that his emirate extends beyond Nigeria into the Cameroons? Nigerian History101 makes this clear. Lamido is not unique in having pre-colonial kingdoms that extend today into other countries in Africa. The Ooni of Ife and the Alafin of Oyo make similar claims about Yoruba kingdoms in the Republics of Benin and Togo. Several Yoruba monarchs hold annual festivals and rituals that demonstrate the linkage. So can the Obong of Calabar make the kind of claim made by the Lamido. Nothing can prevent the Sultan of Sokoto or Ekanem of Kanuri from making similar claims. During ShehuShagari’s presidency, AlhajiShugaba was deported from Nigeria for not being a Nigerian but a citizen of Niger Republic. Political folklore during the era of military dictatorship even cited several military leaders as having their ancestry in Chad, Niger, Mali, and Sudan. Such is the character of most post-colonial African countries. The Akan of Ghana are the same as the Baoule of Cote d’Ivoire, just as the Hutus of Rwanda also extend into parts of the Republic of Congo. So do the Tswana and Sotho extend beyond the borders of Republic of South Africa.
A national conference dedicated to renewal or reinforcement of territorial unity is not a wrong place for the Lamido and others with courage to ignore history of nationalities.To forget the pre-colonial history of Nigerian nationalities is tantamount todenialism or refusing to come to terms with reality.Denialism as a syndrome came to its head during the military era, when military rulers thought and believed that cultural amnesia would reinforce inter-ethnic unity in the country, the way it was believed, it had done in the colonial army bequeathed to Nigeria at independence by British colonial overlords.
Many highly placed civilians (some of whom General Alani Akinrinademust have referred to during his contribution on President Jonathan’s opening speech as collaborators in the military’s schemes to de-federalize Nigeria) have also promoted denialism as a way of forestalling any attempt to deconstruct the Nigeria constructed by military dictators. It is this attitude that induced some delegates to re-affirm in response to the Lamidothat they came to the conference as Nigerians and not with any ethnic toga or stigma, as if it was not obvious to citizens that President Jonathan did not allow nomination of Ghanians or Beninoise to the conference.
On the political level, denialism or burying one’s head in the sand like an ostrich in order not to confront the unpleasantness of one’s situation, had since 1966 led to categorizing issues for discussion at national conferences into No-go areas and May-enter zones. It is the continuation of this military vision of Nigeria that made it mandatory for the Okuroumu advisory group and President Jonathan himself to repeat the notion of No-go area for the ongoing conference. Nigerians are not allowed to discuss the endangerment of the unity that defines the country. Thus delegates must have been obeying their master’s voice by shrinking or freezing when the Lamido mentioned the fact that he has a country to return to, should this one collapse.
In most countries that had to review their charter of union in the past, serious-minded people had avoided playing the ostrich with such activities. It must not be lost on delegates that there is always a need to break eggs in order to makeomelette. Saying what appears unpleasant to many delegates, as the Lamido of Adamawa had done, does not automatically kill the country’s unity. It shouldn’t if there is already a good reason for the country’s existence. On the contrary, it may end up enhancing it, particularly if delegates choose to remind Lamido and others with his sense of history that a rule that allows 26% or even 31% to annul the wishes of 74% or 69% is capable of further reinforcing the status quo that made the conference necessary in the first place. Accepting a rule that allows less than one-third of voters to rubbish the preference of more than two-thirds can undermine the unity of any country that practices democracy.Delegates need to emphasize that most Nigerians do not live along the border and would not have any other country to run to should this one disintegrate and that the wish of such people requires as much protection as that of Lamido, if Nigeria is to be sustainably united.
Anyone that goes to a conference of this magnitude with morbid fear to speak his or her mind about what ails Nigeria should not have been there or would not have been there if nationalities had been allowed to elect their delegates. Nothing is likely to damage the unity of Nigeria the more than efforts to paper over the cracks by people with hidden agenda or occluded expectations from the opportunity to serve as delegate. As Nigerians love to say: “It is not over until it is over.” Should self-deception define the psychology of delegates, the desire for true federalism (as distinct from mere devolution of functions by a central government that arrogates supervisory authority over subnational governments) will continue to be a part of Nigeria’s political agenda and discourse, for as long as it takes and regardless of the number of conferences called to do so.
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Policeman, 3 civilians killed in Adamawa
Adamawa Police Command has confirmed that a policeman and three civilian lost their lives during Saturday night attack in Fotta village of Gombi Local Government.
This is contained in a statement signed by the command’s Public Relation Officer, DSP Mohammed Ibrahim, Tuesday in Yola.
It said contrary to media reports that seven policemen were killed, it was four people that lost their lives including a policeman.
“The fact of the issue is that, unknown gunmen armed with sophisticated weapons attacked Fotta village in Gombi Local Government.
“As a result, three civilian and one policeman were killed, ” the statement said.
It added that the policeman, a Corporal, was attached to Delta Police command and was on a visit to Fotta, to see his family.
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Troops kill 20 insurgents in Borno, Adamawa
The Defence Headquarters Thursday said no fewer than 20 Boko Haram insurgents were killed by troops during raids in communities around Maiduguri and Dikwa, Borno State.
The troops also destroyed insurgent camps at forest locations in mountainous areas around Adamawa State.
A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade yesterday said arms recovered from the insurgents included various brands of machine guns and improvised explosive devices.
Olukolade added that some of the federal troops also sustained varying degree of injuries during the encounters.
The statement said: “Attempts by terrorists to attack Ajiri and Mafa as well as other communities in the outskirt of Maiduguri and Dikwa in Borno State towards the Cameroon borders, yesterday were foiled by the security forces.
“The ambush mounted by the terrorists to enable them unleash terror on the communities unchallenged, was also cleared by troops on reinforcement mission”.
The DHQ however expressed concern over what it described as inflammatory pronouncements by some highly placed persons in government and some apparently sponsored commentators in and outside the country.
According to Olukolade, the unnamed highly placed persons have consistently be giving false and misleading remarks to describe the disposition of troops in the ongoing operations.
“It has become clear that this sustained campaign is intended to demoralise the troops and give the impression that the military is overwhelmed by the terrorist group. This tendency is unfortunate, to say the least.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, it is hereby restated that the Nigerian military cannot by any standard be overwhelmed by the insurgents neither will the devious antics of their sympathisers and sponsors demoralise the fighting spirit of troops.
“Nigerians and indeed all well-wishers are enjoined to discountenance the propaganda messages of the terrorists and their backers alleging the inability of Nigerians troops to handle the insurgency,” the statement added.
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Wanted: A war cabinet
It was a catalogue of deaths and destruction last week when the Boko Haram terrorists went on a killing-spree in the three Nigeria’s northeast states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno. The attacks started on Tuesday at the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State, where no fewer than 43 students were killed. From there, they moved to Shuwa, in Magadali Local Government Area of Adamawa state where a teachers’ college, a secondary school and a Catholic covent were attacked. By Saturday, it was the turn of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, where a twin-bomb explosion tore through the heart of the city, killing more than 50 people. Mainok, a village about 50 kilometers from Maiduguri, also had a taste of the orgy of violence and blood-letting.
The attack on the Government College, Buni Yadi, bore the full imprimatur of a similar one on Saturday, September 28, 2013 at the College of Agriculture, Guijba, in the same state. In that attack, more than 50 students of the school met their untimely death. The terrorists attacked the college at midnight when most of the students were deeply asleep. That also, was not without precedence. In June 2013, the terrorists killed eight pupils and a teacher during an attack on Government Secondary School, Damaturu, capital of Yobe State. They also killed 29 pupils at Government Secondary School, Mamudo, also in the state.
On Saturday, April 13, 2013, an unspecified number of students of Monguno Secondary School, in Monguno Local Government of Borno State, were killed as they returned home on foot and bicycles from the centres where they wrote the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE). Before that daylight massacre, six secondary school teachers, including a principal, were also hacked down by the terrorists in the same local government area.
It is sad that our so-called security forces have always been caught napping each time these marauders come calling. In the killings of the school children who were accosted on their way from their examination centres in April 2013, no security agent was sighted at the scene of the slaughtering until more than three hours later. The same scenario has played out again and again. It was the same story at the School of Agriculture, Gujba. In the recent incident at FGC, Buni Yadi, the killers did not only have the luxury of time to carry out their devilish act, they also proved that they were out to destroy the hopes of tomorrow by separating the girls from the boys. While they mowed down the boys, they simply drove the girls away from school and advised them to go and get married instead of wasting their time at school. That is true to their name Boko Haram, which means “education is bad.”
What is more sickening in all these, especially in last week’s incident, is the fact that the security agents who were stationed within the proximity of the schools left their checkpoints shortly before the terrorists came calling. Now, the security agents are running helter-skelter to unravel those who might have been complicit in the attacks among the local populace. Talk of medicine after death. By the way, why is it that these security agents, with the hordes of intelligence officers in their midst, have never for once nipped these attacks in the bud while the so-called rag-tag terrorists are daily giving them a bloody nose?
There must be something wrong somewhere. It is either a failure of intelligence or non-intelligence at all, as the case may be (if I am permitted to put it that way). It is obvious that some people are aiding and abetting these criminals within the local population and among the security agents as well. For how long will the blood of our children be spilled like rotten milk on the altar of greed, selfishness and vaulting ambition of our overfed politicians both in uniform and babaringa? Every time, you hear about a fleet of vehicles consisting of more than 10 or 15 attacking a particular location. Why is it impossible for the security forces to pick them as they move along? I am quite aware that because of the dry season, almost everywhere in the affected areas is motorable at this time, but if the security forces are doing their work well, these terrorists should still be spotted.
It is rather superfluous that while the brigandage and blood-letting that have been going on in the northeast of the country in the last four or five years (2009 – 2014) continue to spiral out of control, up till this moment, no single person has either been fingered or arrested on account of being the sponsor of this brazen terrorism against our fatherland. The other day, a former governor of one of the states in the Northeast was allegedly arrested in Cameroun by a Camerounian security officer who said he was convinced that the former governor is one of the financiers of the Boko Haram insurgency. The former governor was arrested on his way to see the governor of Northern Cameroun.
Although the former governor in question was later released by an order from the Vice-President of Cameroun, after he quickly reached out to people, he is strongly suspected to have played a role in the rise of Boko Haram in the first instance and so, it will be difficult to isolate him from the unrelenting assault of the criminal gangs on the country. There is also this belief that this former governor may not be a Nigerian as he is said to hail from neighbouring Chad Republic, where he currently operates an airline and maintains a mansion. After his tenure as governor many years back, it was to Chad that he went to cool off and observe developments in Nigeria from the sideline until his recent visit to the country which sparked off a wave of violence in his native state.
By now, I believe the security agencies should have the list of suspects who are collaborating with these terrorists in one way or another to wreak havoc on unsuspecting Nigerians, but, perhaps, because of political expediency, nobody wants to touch them. That is why some people think that if the President announces today that he will not be contesting the 2015 presidential election, the whole Boko Haram brouhaha will die a natural death. Since the President has an inalienable right to contest as President a second time as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution in use in the country, if he wishes, the onus is on the security agencies to do their work properly and contain this avoidable carnage that has continued to cast a dark spot on the image of the country. The only way out of this quagmire in which the country has been enmeshed all this while is the urgent need for the President to form a war cabinet.
In the first instance, the troops which were deployed to the theatre of war in the Northeast went there purely for peacekeeping operation. Now the whole scenario has snowballed into a real war situation. Therefore, the strategy must change. A senior cabinet minister must coordinate the ‘war’. As things are now, it may be impossible for the National Security Adviser, NSA, the only person who probably performs the role of coordinating the military interventions in the Northeast, to summon any of the head of the services to a meeting – I mean summoning someone like the Chief of Army Staff or the Chief of Air Staff that are both involved in managing the crisis to a meeting – not to talk of the Chief of Defence Staff. They will just ignore him because the NSA is more or less a Staff Officer to the President. That is why there is need to quickly put a war cabinet in place.
The war cabinet, as envisaged, will consist of seasoned Generals, both serving and retired, as well as some respectable and responsible civilians, whose duty will be to take care of the political angle to this festering crisis. It is time to end this genocide!