As the military and Boko Haram insurgents battle for the control of some towns in the Northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, a Lagos lawyer, Kunle Uthman, examines the sect’s origin and its activities. He gives tips on how to rescue the Chibok school girls abducted by the group last April.
•Continued from last week
It is clear and obvious that we are once again back to the era of Youth Earnestly Yearn For Abacha. The result of that woeful exercise has been properly chronicled by historians as the dark era of our nation’s political history and it is apposite that the present “Sovereign” avoid the pitfalls and the resultant effects of such irresponsible and appalling conduct. As a people we need to be better focused and realize that power is transient. There an obligation to rule with the fear of God.
Abimbola Adelagun in an article titled “Youths Earnestly Ask For Goodluck Jonathan, stated that in respect of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha’s failed civilian transfigurations, President Goodluck Jonathan is being endorsed by vainglorious organizations. The new kid on the block is the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) that seek to sell the Goodluck Jonathan candidature to Nigerians. They have collected 1.8 million signatures in the South West; 1.6 million in the South East and 4.15 million in the South South. The irony of these beg-the-President-to-contest movements is that like all fly-by-night ideas, none has outlived its promoted candidate. It is therefore a spurious waste of scare resources to engage in these charade of persuasion of collation of dubious signatures, endorsed tacitly and covertly by an high ranking official as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, whose posture in receiving these signatures is a clear testimony of a lazy public official, whose pre-occupation is to vacate his office and engage in meaningless activities that debase the institution of government, moreso in a country in a semi State of warfare.
Chinua Achebe in analysing the prediction of the American government that Nigeria would be a failed state by 2015, put it in proper perspective when he defined a failed State as one that is unable to perform its duties on several levels; when violence cascades into an all-out internal war, when standards of living massively deteriorate, when the infrastructure of ordinary life decays, and when the greed of rulers overwhelms their responsibilities to better their people and their surroundings.
Experts say many Northern Nigerians view the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, as illegitimate, arguing that he ignored an informal power rotation agreement that should have kept a muslim as President. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a muslim, died in 2010, two years into his four year tenure and Jonathan assumed office to complete the uncompleted term, he being the Vice President at that time. He, Goodluck Jonathan has further contested and won an election for four years, which would be completed in 2015. If Jonathan wins the Presidential election in 2015, or if there are no elections in 2015 because of social unrest in Northern-Nigeria, political tensions in Nigeria will increase. So writes Campbell in his book ‘Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink’. He further submitted that the “formal politics” of Northern Nigeria are “overwhelmingly dominated by muslim elites, who have, like their counterpart across the country, benefited from oil wealth at the expenses of regional development. He says that the central purpose of the Nigerian State is to divide up the country’s oil wealth among elites, making Nigeria’s politics a “zero-sum game”.
Is Nigeria a failed or failing State? Is it not obligatory for our leaders, or the Sovereign to exercise the enormous powers entrusted in him by the constitution and the several legislations and can the present crop of political leaders guarantee the safety of lives and properties of the citizenry or are we as a people doomed to perdition because of bad leadership? Will the political gerrymandering and obsession by our leaders to perpetuate themselves in power blindfold them from seeing the urgency to solve the insurgency in the north and to secure the timeous release of the Chibok Girls from captivity and return them to their families?
It is gratifying to note that Austin Alegeh (SAN), the President of the Nigerian Bar Association in his inaugural acceptance speech identified the problem of insecurity & Boko Haram insurgency as some of the problems bedeviling the Nigerian nation and unresolved by the Sovereign and his security apparatus. The country needs a very dynamic and focus Bar Association leadership. Lawyers by their calling are oblige to safeguard democratic institutions and the constitution and they have eminently discharged this responsibility in the past. We must be alive to our responsibilities and in unspeakable terms ensure that our leaders appreciate that ultimate power belongs to the people. Our leaders, both elected and imposed are trustees of these enormous powers. There is a social contract between them and us to ensure good governance and security of our lives and properties. The era of profligate conversion of the resources of the state into personal wealth is the epitome of bad leadership and we have, like a cursed nation been unfortunate to be led at almost all level of governance by people who are not God fearing and who have continuously determined our fortunes and social and economic future within the context of a cabal.
The limit of Sovereign power is concisely stated St. Thomas Aguinas (1225-74) who postulated that by his ‘oath of his coronation’ a king was supposed to have made a pact with his people, to promote a happy and virtuous life, and if he failed to fulfill his implied pact with his people he ceased to deserve that the pact be kept by the latter.
The modern day President and Commander-in-Chief is that Sovereign above alluded to, who assumes this role upon taking his oath of office in accordance with the constitution. Therefore, it is not the numbers of signatures gathered foolhardily that ingratiates the Sovereign in the minds of the people or the annals of history, but how he is able to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Democracy as a system of government is where the people exercise their governing power through representatives periodically elected by them. A State is therefore a democracy, if it provides institutions for the expression and in the last analysis, the supremacy of the popular will on the basic questions of social direction and policy, Nigerian as a geographical configuration has a population of more than 170m people, and it is obligatory that our leaders at all levels of governance allow their performances to determine their eligibility for re-election and not through a dubious collection or collation of signatures when there are National emergencies that portend dangers.
What do our leaders envision for our country and its people? Let us take a clue from South Africa and the emergence of the iconic Nelson Mandela, a lawyer and statesman, our salvation at these times resides in a vocal, vibrant and critical NBA and populace to set the agenda for good governance.
The government should continue to apply force so as to keep the Boko Haram Terrorist Group under pressure, on the run and on the defensive. This should be followed by tracing sources of their funding and identifying sponsors. Though military and police pressure can drive terrorism into extinction, political problems could also require political solution. The State should in open trial prosecute and humiliate terrorists and secure their due prosecution and imprisonment to serve as a detterence to others as a haven where there is no hiding place. Enabling laws should be enacted and statutory provisions further strengthened to ensure expeditious prosecution and a deviation from the slow and snail pace of ordinary prosecution in regular courts.
The amnesty solution applied in the Nigeria Delta region should be considered to resolve the menace of Boko Haram, only if the leaders would recent, lay down their arms, and come out to meet the government by surrender, because amnesty can only be given to identifiable persons. Dr. David Oladimeji Alao and Oluwafisayo Atere in their publication titled ‘Boko Haram Insurgence in Nigeria: The Challenges and Lessons’, an article in the Singaporean Journal of Business Economics, And Management Studies, stated that the terrorists acts of Boko Haram since 2009 have created a state of palpable fear in Nigeria and beyond, while the helpless posture of government is worrisome. It was found that insurgence was a manifestation of frustration on account of national political, religious and economic systems while the institutional mechanism adopted in managing the crisis was defective. They wrote that the challenges are not insurmountable but a reflection of a weak State.
The learned authors’ recommends the review of the Federal Government’s approach to handling political or other related crisis as peace approach is more successful than security approach. The use of force with the intent of eliminating or suppressing opponents is like operating under security approach that often ends up in generating greater violence. Peace approach often wants to see the opponents as potential friends if the situation is carefully handled.
The government should involve the cross section of Northern Emirs and prominent individuals in a genuine dialogue with the leaders of the group. The traditional rulers and local notables in each local government within the nation must be effectively accommodated into the local policing provided they were not imposed by government on helpless communities. In addition, the government must be tolerant of opposing views as the security of the Nation is the collective responsibility of all of us, its citizens irrespective of political, religious or ethnic affiliation. I totally agree with Joseph Siegle in his article ‘Boko Haram and the Isolation of Northern Nigeria: Regional and International Politics’ when he stated that the challenges posed by Boko Haram are emblematic of an emerging security paradigm in Africa today where local grievances are fused with international ideology, funding, and technology. Effectively addressing the multi-layers of this threat will require the creative engagement of Nigeria’s neighbours and international partners.
It is, therefore, necessary that our governments at all levels should treat with utmost priority their obligations to provide security of lives and properties within all the segments of the Nigerian Nation. All efforts should be properly co-ordinated to rescue the innocent adolescent girls kidnapped in Chibok and our politicians and political parties should forthwith stop this drama of multiple accusations, unsupported by any empirical proof that certain high ranking government officials are sponsors of the insurgency in the Northern part of Nigeria, killing and maiming of innocent citizens including foreigners. If there is any proof of funding of terrorism within the Nigerian Nation, relevant information should be supplied to the security agencies who should timeously deal with the culprits. Our Nation is at the brink of a precipice and we all, collectively as a people rescue it for the immediate benefit of ourselves and to secure the future of our children yet unborn.
Our President and the security apparatus of State should decisively bring the Boko Haram menace to an end, as was done in the Niger Delta, where security of lives and properties has been restored after several years of kidnapping, vandalization of properties, destroying of oil-wells and capital flight within that region. International assistance should be sought and obtained from other nations of the world who have been able to bring terrorism to an end. The time to act is now.
•Concluded
