This column has been regularly irregular in the recent past and rather than discussing or acting on why it was so, I will borrow a leaf from the Transformation Template. Three committees will be set up to look into the matter: one from my own side, another from the side of BusinessDay and the other by the readers. The Terms of Reference are: to find out why, how and why-not this 12-year old column suddenly became irregular, the party(ies) responsible, recommend appropriate sanctions and design strategies to prevent future reoccurrence.
Nigeria is in turmoil, no thanks to the bloody adventures of the Boko Haram(BH) extremist gang. They now strike when, where and how they wish and they do everything to demystify the capabilities of our security forces. When we say that they have been driven away from Abuja, they visited Nyanya twice. When we say they are now restricted to the fringes of North-East, they attack a village next to University of Maiduguri. When we say that their actions are the antics of failed group, they attack Kano and Jos. When we say we are seriously on their pursuit around the mysterious Sambisa forest, they strike in the neighbourhood of Chibok, apparently operating from the same famed or infamous Sambisa forest. They have expanded their geographical frontiers, their capabilities and their ability to surprise and humiliate Nigeria. And all of us are the worse for it! Even those who thought that they werenot affected or afflicted now know better. It is like the story of the axe and the trees: when the axe first came to the forest, the trees did not join in the protests because ‘it is one of us’. But when the axe started its work, it affected everybody, including the trees from which its handle was made! Even beyond the BH, we now have the atrocious activities of the so-called Fulani herdsmen who have been slaughtering, burning and maiming in Plateau, Nassarawa, Benue, Niger and Kaduna. These Fulanis and their cattle are everywhere, including in my home town, Igbo-Ukwu. And that means that one day, just one day, the whole country may end up in a conflagration between cattle-rarer and cattle-buyers! What perplexes me is the impunity of it all: you boldly destroy another person’s farm so as to feed your cattle and you then slaughter the people and raze the town down on top of that!
A perplexing angle to the whole tragic and near-helpless situation is our collective reaction to the situation. Beyond those who felt that BH phenomenon would not adversely affect them and was indeed, in their favour(some still feel so), the rest of us criticize lucky(?) President Jonathan from morning to night, denigrate the soldiers ‘like no man’s business’ , play raw, unadulterated politics with the issues and even bring mischief to bear along the line. I believe that majority of Nigerians voted for the current administration. I also believe that some of those who voted then are now, not so happy with the way things are going. You also have politicians who do nothing apart from politicking, especially, the Nigerian brand of it. But certain issues are national and demand national-not partisan- appreciation and treatment. The BH scourge is one of such issues. We must keep our political orientations aside and unite against this evil. And the soldiers need some encouragement, even though I must admit that we have been rather disappointed by some of their uninspiring outings. But I don’t know what we expect when a governor in the theatre of war declares before the whole world that BH is superior to our soldiers. And talking about the soldiers, we must ensure that the trillions purportedly budgeted for military operations are actually used for military operations and that those on the firing line perceive it as such. Our policemen win Laurels outside but perform woefully in Nigeria. May that not be the lot of our soldiers!
Now, to Chibok! Chibok, a tiny town that one would find difficult to locate on the map, has now become a global center of attention and attraction. It is an act of God that things turned that way. Chibok is now a symptom of all that is wrong with our counter-BH strategies, divisions within those fighting the BH scourge and politicization of the entire BH crises. It is also a metaphor of how not to do anything that is worth doing. It has also given rise to a syndrome, the Chibok Syndrome: the tendency for people to respond to a given situation because others are responding and the reality that reactions are not usually positively correlated to the severity of the action. The Chibok abduction is not the most outrageous act by the BH; they have been abducting before and they have set whole towns with their whole inhabitants on fire! The whole world that kept quiet when the symbol of the world was attacked(UN building) suddenly started reacting; once
America offered help everybody joined the queue( just as in the missing Malaysian flight) and once the Bring Back Our Girls(BBOG) campaign started, everybody joined. That is what I call the Chibok Syndrome and it is an evidence that indeed, there is God. God has used Chibok to show us, and the whole world, our underbelly and the inadequacies of our BH operations. Furthermore, God has used Chibok to attract more international attention to BH atrocities and I am certain it will not stop at just BBOG. God has also used Chibok to show us the type of people we have in authority at various layers in this country, including the Governor of Borno State, whom I believe knows more than he is saying (and should have been the first person to be questioned) and the principal of the school who said she was an eye witness in one instance and that she was not an eye witness in another instance. Chibok has also shown us that even the world media can at times become emotionally involved-rather than professionally detached. I find some of the reports, interviews, and questioning patterns of CNN in this matter far from satisfactory.
All in all, there is God. I deeply commiserate with the Chibok families, and as we celebrate this year’s Childrens’ Day, my heart goes out to those young girls who have become instruments of propaganda . I sympathise with all the victims of BH outrage especially in the recent past. I was in Kano recently and everybody I spoke with assured me that BH was in the past. I have a relation in Jos who was boasting to Abuja residents that Jos had become safer than Abuja(after the Nyanya bombings). I don’t know what those people will be feeling now. But, there is God and with divine support of human efforts, we shall overcome!
Ik Muo
