Last Sunday – February 25 – marked the fourth anniversary of the brutal murder of fifty-nine boys who were killed at the Federal Government College Buni-Yadi in Yobe State, Nigeria. The twenty-four buildings of the school were also burned down as a result of the attack. No group officially claimed responsibility for the attack, but according to media and local officials Boko Haram militants are suspected to be behind the attack.
A few days before the Buni-Yadi anniversary, news started filtering in that suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked the Government Science and Technical Girls College in Dapchi, Yobe State and abducted girls from the school. There was an initial confusion over the actual number of girls abducted. It started from 85, jumped to 105 and finally settled at 110 which the federal government released after two fact finding missions to Dapchi. It was a sad reenactment of the Chibok kidnappings of four years earlier, or better still, a “national disaster” as President Muhammadu Buhari captured it.
At a lecture he delivered at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria last Thursday, the Irish High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sean Hoy, said that the Boko Haram crisis festered because of the country’s failure to tackle its local crisis. The envoy noted that as a result of this, external forces had taken advantage of it to advance their own agenda by backing the sect. He said that Nigeria could learn from the Northern Ireland’s experience in its attempt to overcome the crises facing the country.
The envoy said despite the crises facing the country, “Nigeria still remains a country with a bright future,” adding that “there is light at the end of the tunnel.” He spoke on the theme, “Road to Peace – Lessons from the Northern Ireland Peace Process.” Though he rightly acknowledged that the Nigerian situation was more complex than that of the Northern Ireland, this, he pointed out, did not mean nothing could not be done to change the situation.
He again rightly argued that the longer “you leave something, the more complex it becomes.” I agree with the envoy. If Boko Haram had been effectively tackled in 2009, it would not have become complex and widespread now. We fool ourselves if we think the Boko Haram we are presently dealing with is the same Boko Haram of the Yusuf days. It is highly possible that the group may have been infiltrated by radical elements of Al-Qaeda or ISIS from the chaos in Libya. A good example was the infiltration the Tuareg movements’ quest for an independent Azawad state in northern Mali by these sophisticated groups to push their agenda. This is an area our intelligence network should seriously look at.
Nigeria is the way she is because few of our leaders have a truly national mindset. If it were other saner climes, the Boko Haran issue would have been seen for what it truly is; a clear and present danger to us all. If it were in the USA, a “bi-partisan” approach devoid of politics would be adopted to tackle it in the national interest. But not in Nigeria; here, almost everything is seen from the prism of politics. Sadly too, we hardly see anyone taking responsibility for the failure of things.
In the aftermath of the Dapchi abductions, the Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam made some very startling remarks insisting that the military and the defence headquarters should be held responsible because they ordered the withdrawal of troops from Dapchi town shortly before the attack and abduction of the schoolgirls. According to him, Dapchi town has been peaceful and never witnessed such an incident until barely a week after the military withdrew the troops from the town.
“If the soldiers had been on the ground, the attack on the town and subsequent abduction of the schoolgirls would not have happened. This is not the first time the absence of soldiers has exposed our people to attack by Boko Haram. In 2013 (2014 actually), a secondary school in Buni-Yadi was attacked a week after the military removed soldiers guarding the town. So, let me be quoted anywhere, the military must take the blame for the attack on Dapchi.”
One week later, the military through Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations and Operation Lafiya Dole spokesperson, agreed that it redeployed troops from the town “to reinforce troops in Kanama area following attacks on troops’ location at the Nigerian-Niger Republic border. This was on the premise that Dapchi had been relatively calm and peaceful; and the security of Dapchi town was formally handed over to the police division located in the town.”
But in a swift reaction, the Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Sumonu Abdulmaliki, however, said there was no time the military handed over Dapchi town to the police. Abdulmaliki, in a statement he personally signed, said the military neither handed over any location to the police nor informed it of its withdrawal from any area. “The statement by the military… is not correct, as there was no time that the military informed the police of its withdrawal or handed over its locations in Dapchi town to the police.” He said.
Without holding fort for anyone and for the interest of those who care to know, our military are currently engaged in internal security duties in over 30 states of the federation apart from the war in the north east. Beyond Boko Haram, we have serious security challenges on our hands that are seriously begging for attention. For once, let’s stop playing politics and realise that politicians cannot resolve these challenges. How many of them have children in these schools which has become soft targets for terrorists?
The sooner the citizens rise up and forcefully bring this discussion into the national front burner the blame game will continue. This is no time for blame game, but a time for someone or people to take responsibility for once as the lives of innocent children of the poor and vulnerable are in danger. Since our predatory elite cannot better their living standards, some callous forces in their midst would not blink an eyelid to use them as cannon fodder to further their devilish agendas.
We need practical and workable solutions just like what Tom Steyer; an American billionaire did after the Parkland killings in the USA. He pledging $1 million to help young people register to vote with the hope that they will help elect pro-gun control politicians in the midterm elections. “Over the last week, we’ve all had a chance to hear the powerful, thoughtful, important appeals from the Floridian high school students about the need for meaningful gun control,” Tom Steyer says in a video posted to Twitter Thursday after the killing of 17 students of the school by a gunman.
He didn’t stop there; Steyer says he was joining with two gun control advocacy groups, Giffords and Everytown for Gun Safety, in sponsoring the voter registration drive “so that we don’t just hear their voices and their feelings and their hearts on CNN, but that next November, their votes get counted by every official in America and they understand we either get gun reform now or we get rid of them then.”
Did you hear that? The lesson for Nigeria: it is time to mobilise and join groups like the Red Card Movement which is bent on enlightening citizens on the powers they have to vote out incompetent leaders who cannot undertake the basic obligation of government; the protection of lives and property.
Back to Hoy, he said, “In 2009, Nigerians knew who the Boko Haram actors were in Borno; you knew who to talk to but that did not happen. Now, the vacuum has been taken over by others, including bandits and external people who are not Nigerians at all and it has become complex.
So, where do we go from here? Bury politics deep in the pit; assemble citizens that believe in the unity and diversity of Nigeria to chart the way forward irrespective of their political persuasions. In fact, we should have a government of national unity because the very foundation of Nigeria is threatened. Isn’t it beyond belief that a group of people can storm a town and “cart” away 110 girls unchallenged. It’s high time we wake up from our slumber.