OFTEN in history, societies are saddled with feckless rulers who suffer from delusions of grandeur. Nero, who was infamously known as the Emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned” in 64 AD, and Shehu Shagari, who flew right over the burning Nigeria External Telecommunications building to India in 1983 to receive some inconsequential awards, were two of them.
Sadly for President Goodluck Jonathan, ignoring the mood of the nation, which called for grief and sobriety in the face of relentless onslaughts by mindless terrorists in parts of the country, has marked him out as both feckless and delusive. He should roll up his sleeves and confront the most palpable threat to the existence of the country.
Jonathan’s government pulled out all the stops last week in celebration of a worthless centenary anniversary while the horrible Boko Haram sect, arguably the world’s deadliest terror group, was having a field day slaughtering scores of Nigerians. Of particular note was the fact that the Federal Government could go ahead with an elaborate national carnival a couple of days after 59 secondary school pupils were brutally murdered in their sleep at the Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi, Yobe State.
In an attack that looked much like a horror film, some were either shot or had their throats slit or burnt to death. Curiously enough, at the time Jonathan was hosting his festival, scores of those who survived with injuries were still in intensive care units of hospitals, battling for their lives. At the same time, the bodies of some of them who managed to crawl, with machete cuts and gunshot wounds, into the bush but could not survive for long, were being recovered. A few of them are still missing! These were reminders of the uniquely frightening horror of bigoted men of violence. As pupils in a government institution, they were supposed to have the guarantee of government protection. Jonathan’s bash was, therefore, a celebration dripping with the blood of innocent Nigerians.
Decency dictates that the party should have been put on hold and a national mourning declared for the victims who were the future of the nation. But not so with our appallingly uninspiring and disturbingly insensitive President.
Even before the attack on the schoolchildren and after, people had been killed and are still being killed in their scores in what has now become a daily routine. In February alone, the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, said that over 300 people were killed, including the 106 slaughtered at the farming village of Izghe, Gwoza Local Government Area, on February 15. Although Boko Haram is fond of attacking soft targets, mainly women, children, churches, mosques and market places, at Izghe, the terrorists who disguised themselves by wearing military uniforms, reportedly went for male targets.
According to statistics released by Amnesty International, Boko Haram has killed about 80 school-children and 70 teachers, burning down over 50 schools, while forcing a shut-down of about 60 others. “Since the beginning of this year, the attacks have intensified. Over 600 people have been killed by gunmen, often suspected to be Boko Haram,” said Makmin Kamara, a Nigerian researcher for AI. Are these gory cocktails not enough to make a government shelve any form of ostentatious celebration?
What has always been our government’s response? Floundering in ineffectual expressions of sympathy for the victims, vows to redouble its engagement and hollow declarations of eventual victory that now have little credibility, as the International New York Times recently put it.
Jonathan alone cannot be blamed for this obvious dereliction of duty. Weirdly enough, as the celebration that attracted heads of government of other countries was going on, nobody spared a thought for the dozens of maidens abducted by Boko Haram a month earlier, probably for use as sex objects. Yet, people were comfortable wining and dining government officials in celebration of vanity. Would leaders of other serious countries under the same conditions as ours be celebrating in times of distress? All signs point to a government that is uncaring and has lost touch with its constitutional responsibility of ensuring the security of lives and property of the citizens.
The spineless connivers include our overpaid lawmakers who represent nobody but themselves. Unfortunately, too, former heads of state, Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari and Abdulsalami Abubakar, most of whom have been shunning National Council of State meetings, were there to readily help confer legitimacy on the ill-timed gathering. This was unstatemanly. Given the mood of the nation, they were in the best position to advise that the occasion should be marked quietly, just to acknowledge the historic import of the amalgamation.
Strangely, the same Presidency was to admit, a day after the merriment that Nigeria was at war. The President had earlier declared, “Life in the North must change. Development must go to all parts of this country and nobody or group can hold this country to ransom. …We will collectively liberate this country from the hands of any evil person that is trying to set us backward. We will do our best and build a country that our children and our grandchildren will be proud of.”
But words are cheap. Jonathan’s dithering and weakness have turned too ghastly and costly. The tragedy is that it has taken almost four years to admit the obvious, during which about 8,000 persons have died, the economy of the North-East zone shattered and the country polarised. Leading from behind seems to adversaries like an invitation to take chances for a big-payoff. This is the time for Jonathan to demonstrate that he is indeed the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Now is the time for the Nigerian state to declare a total war on terrorism.
As we have repeatedly affirmed, Boko Haram is part of the international jihadist terrorism movement committed to the establishment of a global caliphate on its own terms. It is motivated by a virulent, hate-fuelled ideology in which mass murder, arson, abductions and anarchy are favoured tools. Dialogue and vague warnings mean little to vampires who want to kill and go to “heaven.”
Now, all hands must be on deck. We urgently need an internationally-backed anti-terror strategy. The Armed Forces must be properly armed and adequately motivated to secure the country’s territory. Stories of soldiers bolting in the face of advancing heavily armed Boko Haram fighters do not do the image of the country any good. The military must centralise its efforts by attacking the terrorist squads in their different organisational stages: in training camps, during terrorist activities, and during their border crossing.
Terror groups are constantly active in the enlistment of new recruits, and they require a very wide array of supporters and collaborators. Successful anti-terror campaigns should undermine their self-confidence, invalidate terrorists’ narrative, block enlistment efforts and sources of funds and deter collaborators.
Greater emphasis should be placed on intelligence gathering and monitoring equipment to make the tracking of the insurgents easier. Alliances should also be formed with neghbouring countries to ensure that their territories are not used as bases to launch attacks on the country.
Enough of these mindless killings.
No comments:
Post a Comment