The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday condemned the killing of the Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Timta, by suspected Boko Haram gunmen. The party described the sect as the nation’s enemy, and not a group set up by some imaginary opposition parties or elite to bring down the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
In a statement in Lagos, its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the killing of the Emir is the clearest indication yet that the Jonathan administration misdiagnosed the Boko Haram menace from the outset.
When the indiscriminate activities of Boko Haram insurgents are placed side by side with other facts: that the group started in 2002 when Olusegun Obasanjo was President and flared in 2009 when the late Umar Yar’Adua was President, one would realise how deceitful and diversionary it is for anyone to portray it as an attempt to make Nigeria ungovernable under Jonathan.
“Boko Haram is not a northern response to a southern presidency, as some would have us believe. Boko Haram is an enemy of Nigeria; whether Christians or Muslims, southerners or northerners, the lowly or the elite, the young or the old, the poor and the rich. They must be seen for what they are: fringe elements who happen to have linked up with other terror groups around the world to acquire training and weapons which they are now using to terrorise a whole nation.
“That Emirs, who are Muslims and symbols of power in the North, can be so dastardly attacked, with deadly consequences, should convince those who would rather engage in the blame game than fight the bandits that what the country faces is neither a strictly religious nor elite war, and make them to change their jaundiced mindset.
“If indeed Boko Haram was sponsored by the so-called northern elite against Jonathan, how come they are not even sparing the same elite? If indeed Boko Haram is sponsored by the North against Jonathan, why are their deadly attacks concentrated in the North, where they have killed thousands and destroyed facilities and infrastructure worth billions?
“Let us all see Boko Haram for what it is, and come together as a people to fight the insurgents, rather than engage in denial, blame game and finger-pointing that can only weaken our resolve as a nation to tackle this fringe group squarely,” APC said.
The party said the insurgency has festered because the government started off by not seeing it for what it is, thus losing valuable time to combat it, adding that when it started dawning on the government that the nation faces a serious problem, it responded by seeking to make political gains out of it.
‘’Those who saw Boko Haram, erroneously, as a political trump card have now suffered a boomerang, and today the Jonathan administration is seen globally as incompetent, clueless and rudderless largely because of its inept handling of the Boko Haram insurgency, especially the unfortunate abduction of innocent school girls which has lingered. This is what you get when you play politics with a serious national problem,” it said.
APC restated its demand for a national security conference, as different from a gathering of all parties, to help forge a common front against Boko Haram.
“We also reiterate our offer to join hands with the government in a non-partisan effort to battle the menace of Boko Haram, even though the government has yet to reach out to us since we made that offer,” the party said.
Also yesterday, Senate President David Mark, decried Timta’s murder.
Mark was quoted in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, in Abuja, as saying: “This unabating bloodshed is senseless and needless.”
The Senate President also renewed his appeal to Boko Haram to listen to the voice of reason and drop its weapons in the interest of peace and unity.
Consoling the government and people of Borno State, he prayed that God would expose the perpetrators of the crime.
Mark also urged the security agencies not to be deterred by the challenges but to be strengthened more in the battle to defend the country.
