When
we begin to conceptualise that Boko Haram has done more damage to our
nation as did the politicians may be under that realism, we will fuse
the puzzle together and clearly understand that we are not fighting
demonic extremists but along with that, we are battling with a colony of
blood-stinking men who use anything at their disposal to cling unto
power. So, if ever we win the battle with this unrepentant sect, the
actual war might still elude us all.
Boko Haram has always
been with us only that the sect was of a different name, form, agenda
and influence. As did militancy that we suddenly realised in the 90s, it
has always been a long awaited struggle for self-recognition of
depriving a region its actual due. Not until the likes of Tompolo the
“government”, Asari Dokubo took up arms against the government before we
woke up to our deafening reality that you do not unjustly justify a
wrong, you do not impoverish a people that provide about 80 per cent of
your natural resources. It is clear that when you push a man so close to
the wall without response, you are bound to eventually slug it out in a
battle of resistance.
Not until the amnesty
programme that actually brought a sense of peace to the Niger Delta,
although massive work still needs to be done in the area at least, it is
clear that most of the Niger Delta youths are no more restless. They
have backed down on their vengeful mission to run down the Nigeria
government to some extent because a reclusive peace was found along with
the amnesty.
It is obvious that the system will not only
corrupt their laudable intentions, it will consume them and recycle them
into the Jekyl and Hyde form of politics in which there is an elusive
Godfather and a robber who keeps his own part of the deal. If
politicians can loot public funds without being held accountable for
their action, if an untouchable cabal can skilfully dupe 150 million
people without any firm explanation or reprimand from the government
that constantly vows to protect their interest, if 36 grown men did an
election and still shamelessly agree that 16 votes override 19 votes,
then actually we are only a country in self-deceit and until we rise up
together to speak against injustice, nepotism, favouritism and
corruption, Boko Haram might just be a tip of the iceberg.
I am
not a prophet of doom, but I can categorically say we approved and
tolerated Boko Haram for too long until we couldn’t fathom its excesses.
If some group of armed and deluded men can kidnap secondary school
girls; innocent girls, whose dreams have been shattered by the
corruption of our time, their future crooked by the crookedness of our
leaders, their womb spoilt by men in masks and suits, constantly
tortured by the terror even if by a smirk of luck they are released.
Are
we prepared to accommodate their psychological status? Are we ready to
give them the best medical and psychological care that the world can
offer? If not, we are only carrying a limited placard of hopelessness; a
placard which writes, “Bring Back Our Girls”, will demand from us a new
kind of favour, a new kind of hope; and if our purpose is as limited as
supposed then the girls should rather stay aloof because what greater
death will it be to have lived for months in the hands of terrorists
eventually to be released into a society where stigmatisation prevails; a
society where power holders don’t give a two hoop in Hades about her
citizens; a society where infrastructure is deficient; a society where
unity is an illusion and love a non-gratia.
Some of us can live
with certain absurdities since there seems to be no other choice but
these corrupted and defiled girls will be damned by the society’s
variety of vices. While the sect reins its substantive power on the
northeastern zone, our leaders overshadow 150 million people with their
shenanigans, open and hidden atrocities, their corrupting lifestyle and,
most repressively, their backwardness in political economics.
While
we are bedevilled by an unrepentant Boko Haram, we are also handicapped
by a sect of cabal that has vowed to stifle the treasury, Boko Haram
uses the conventional tactics while our power holders use the modern
classical techniques to fondle the nation’s resources with their
collective greed. Someday, I hope across the sacred aisle, and beyond
the threshold of greed, we will look ahead, beyond the corruption of
this present era, above the vices and virtues of our power holders even
beyond the smoking anger of the dreaded Boko Haram sect so that the
struggles of our heroes past will not be in vain.
As we then
flank out in our various roles as nation-builders, regardless of our
political affiliations, religious umbrella and ethnic colouration, let’s
begin to speak in oneness. Although it sounds unreal, it’s possible at
least to stand together to constantly condemn and fight against
corruption, injustice and poor infrastructure. We must stand and be
heard for, it was in our division Boko Haram openly crept in; it was in
our overtly reclusiveness and resignation to circumstances that have
dragged us thus far.
Lately, the security details of the Speaker
of the House of Representatives were withdrawn due to his defection
from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Party. That in
itself is wrong but whether the Inspector-General of Police has the
legal backing to act in such a manner is a debate for another day and
also if it is not only absurd or abnormal for the IG to be at the beck
and call of the executive instead of the people.
The greatest
pain isn’t the atomic aches of the Speaker but the infinitesimal pains
of the Chibok girls, the gnashing of their innocence, the tears in their
eyes while their rights and body being violated openly; still we live
in a nation which boasts leaders and politicians.
It is time for
us to be serious and let go of these charlatans and never-do-well bunch
of politicians. We are sick and tired of their incapacity and
negligence; the government might have failed the Chibok girls, we all in
our mien and disposition might have failed these girls but failure is
actually not total or fatal, quitting is.
If not, I fear we will
crash beneath the rushing wings of the Third Mainland Bridge. Most of
us can agree that Boko Haram is vaguely an idea anchored by fanatics,
although this idea might be nefarious in nature and deluded in reality;
to repress or kill an idea, we must have a better idea which supersedes
theirs; we must first understand their source of income, their method of
warfare, their specific locations and their background.
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