No man is an island entire of itself Everyman is a piece of the continent… a part of the main. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee (John Donne)
I am in a sad, sorrowful and mournful mood. The killings in the recent past and especially in the past week by creatures who claim to be human beings like us and who are fighting a type of religious philosophy that is very unfathomable is weighing down heavily on my spirit. Just a few days after the new Chief of Defence Staff gave the bokoharamists with effect from 30/4/14, these bloodthirsty fiends have become more daring and audacious, striking at will, anywhere, anytime. Yes; they have been confided mostly to the North-East and they are operating in the fringes of that NE but it is still saddening; it is an affront on our nationhood and we face the paradox that we are simultaneously at peace and at war
First, they invaded the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State, murdering 59 future leaders of this country and added a scotched-earth policy; they burnt the entire school down. They operated for about five hours. Now, I attended a Federal Government College ( FGC Enugu, 1975-1977)and even though things are not what used to be, every FGC contains Nigerians from across the country, as students and as teachers. So, they attacked the entire country. As we were coming to terms with that bestial assault on humanity and civilisation and as the outraged world was still crafting their condolence and condemnatory messages, they struck again, this time in Adamawa. They came in a convoy of 12 Hilux vans and in a blaze of riotous celebration, shooting into the air, shouting, killing, burning, looting and maiming. They spent 6 hours in the first community and ran after those who escaped to the next community. Meanwhile, the silent and serial murder of the Berons go on unchecked in the Plateau while the brutal slaughter in Benue by the so-called Fulani cattle managers continue. We seem to have abandoned these fellow compatriots to their fate due to the BH onslaught.
I feel for those who are directly and collaterally affected. I feel for the bereaved, those whose future have been cut short, those whose socio-economic lives and sense of community have been disorganized and those for whom the abnormal has become the new normal. I feel for those who have been turned into the living dead and those who have been traumatized in unimaginable ways by bokoharamism
But beyond those who directly and indirectly bear the brunt, I feel for our soldiers who have been made to look incompetent, disorganised and ignorant of the rudiments of this variant of warfare. But whatever their individual and collective shortcomings, we have contributed to their problems. When they act, northern elders and politicians accuse them of everything including extra judicial killings and ethnic cleansing; the NGOs accuse them of ignoring rules of engagement and even the communities at times fail to cooperate with them. If they pipe-down, the beastly bokoharamists seize the initiative and the same people would complain and publicly condemn the soldiers. The other day, a Senator politicized the alleged attack on his convoy by the air-force while the Northern Elders Forum alleged that the immediate past Chief of Defense Staff and other military chiefs were involved in extrajudicial killings in Bama and Giwa barracks and threatened to charge them before the International Criminal Court. The governor of Borno State, while justifiably shocked by what he saw and frustrated by the unending bloodbath declared that the BH chaps are better equipped than our soldiers and that our boys cannot defeat them. That was demoralizing for soldiers who have also suffered casualties to first of all protect the Governor and other big men before defending the people.
We have mixed everything with politics and that is dangerous. I listened to Governor Nyako’s Director of Press Affairs on Channels TV on 28/2/14 as he was discussing the Adamawa attack. He sounded so disengaged from the process and one could obviously sense an attitude of ‘it is their affair’. This same paradigm was discernable from the utterances of his principal, Murtala Nyako, when he was commenting on the attack and on the controversial gun attack the following day. He declared that the essence of the state of emergency has been defeated and claimed that his convoy was attacked. The army faulted the claim but declared that his comments were misplaced, alarming and capable of causing unnecessary anxiety and heightening tensions’. Of course, the APC will attack everything and anything the government does or fails to do over the BH affair. So, instead of offering support and cooperation, some of our politicians and elders engage the soldiers and relevant agencies in diversionary and non-beneficial altercations. That is why Constance Okechukwu regretted that elders who are supposed to be custodians of truth moral guide and promote peace and collective interest now stridently pursue sectoral and parochial interest.
The politicization of the BH affair did not start today. We all recall the first Bama attack( unfortunately, they were attacked again in February) when everybody was quoting outlandish and contradicting figures of human casualties and houses burnt and an NGO even claimed to have a scientific evidence. But the physical inspection and evidence proved the contrary. Senator Saraki recently issued a pro-Nigerian statement to all northerners and opposition politicians: rise above regional, political and religious differences and offer maximum political cooperation to the government on the BH affair because, it is above politics. That is the spirit and there is nothing to add to that.
Meanwhile, BH and the terrorism it represents is a long-distance race! It takes real time and even if/when you cure madness, the tell-tell signs like slow-slow, fast-fast steps would always be there, meaning that it would hardly finally go away. We must curtail our short term, ‘now-now’ expectations. It is right and proper that we are moving troops but this is not conventional warfare. We need technology-enabled intelligence and rapid response. That is why and how Americans are able to track an individual on the road in a city in another country, hit or pick him up and retreat! BH and terrorism is not local or localized; it is globalised and internationalized and we should bear that in mind. And we should be ready to bear the collateral damages that come with the war against BH/terror.
Meanwhile, where did these rascals get the money to buy 12 Hilux vans and how come they would move in such a long and loud convoy unnoticed? We need to be more observant and always do the needful- all of us.
Ik Muo
