Hon Josef Omorotionmwan- The Only Way To Go!.
Today, Boko Haram has become such a household word in Nigeria that it needs no introduction. It has become a pain on everyone’s neck. In the beginning, we were told that they were mere haters of anything western – people, education, food, culture, etc. – and they must kill anyone who dares develop a liking for any of these.
In Nigeria today, the fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom. Yes, there is still a sitting government in Nigeria but Boko Haram calls the shots and there is no gainsaying the fact that, it is a lot safer to obey Boko Haram than to listen in the direction of our government.
As at 24 January 2012, 164 sporadic attacks by this Islamist group had wasted 935 lives of innocent Nigerians, since it launched its violent campaign of shooting and bombing in 2009. In barely three weeks of this year alone, 253 people have been killed by this satanic group in 21 separate attacks, including about 200 police and residents killed in coordinated attacks targeted at mainly police formations in Kano, on 20 January 2012.
These are official figures of known casualties, supplied by Human Rights Watch. As we read this piece, the figures must have escalated.
Meanwhile, our hospitals are littered with countless thousands of innocent Nigerians, who have been maimed and seemingly decapitated through the senseless attacks by the same group, with some victims dying, some waiting to die and many, unable to die or live. In a horrendous situation of this nature, who might still be talking of the properties worth billions of Naira that have been wantonly destroyed in these attacks? Who is still talking of lost opportunities in investments?
Yet, somebody is asking us to turn the other cheek by coming to negotiate with these killers and wanton destroyers. It is like asking us to pocket a snake out of kindness. We shall soon know that there are limits to kindness. To the idea of negotiation, I must quickly jump on the rooftops to shout hell no!
How can we negotiate with a group that understands only the language of force? How can we negotiate with a group whose aim is to win at all cost and by all means?
How can we negotiate with members of a group who must get what they want, when we do not even know what they want? How can you negotiate with a group who must kill you except you kill them? How can we negotiate with a group that President Jonathan has appropriately described as “cancerous and worse than the civil war?”
Nigeria is certainly the only country in the world where terrorists are handled with kid gloves. Once upon a time, a religious sect that could easily pass as a replica of our Boko Haram of today, existed by the name, Branch Davidian, in Waco, Texas, USA. But America had a President, Bill Clinton, who knew his constitutional responsibility of protecting the larger interest of American citizens.
Following the killing of four American policemen, a raid was conducted. After the raid on the religious sect in the wee hours of Monday, 19 April 1993, with tanks, armoured vehicles and chemical weapons, the sect vanished into history.
In Nigeria, hundreds of policemen have been killed, and still counting, yet we are now being called upon to negotiate with these blood suckers. If I must stammer for once, let it be known that I am angry. Rruuubbiiish!
We must kill Boko Haram before they kill us. Don’t even listen to the cock and bull story about not knowing their whereabouts.
Have you seen the Vanguard of 24 January 2012? In spite of their scattered denials, the Northern governors who are said to have been having a flourishing relationship with them might be gracious enough to point at their direction. People at the Bauchi axis now go to watch them in training.
Very soon, watching them may even become more attractive than watching the game of football. All Boko Haram apologists must proceed there for a romance with them. My advice here is simple: Don’t hide a criminal because you might be his next victim!
HON. JOSEF OMOROTIONMWAN - Chairman, Blyz Travels & Tours Limited and Chairman, Board of Directors, Bendel Newspapers Company Limited
Ven Prof Ben Egede- Apply Diplomacy, Not Force
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Those who have been and remain opposed to the machinery of dialogue as a way out of what appears as endless pains and headaches associated with the Boko Haran effrontery on the intelligence of Nigerians, have a good point, no doubt. Yes, how can you talk of dialoguing with a group of people who are faceless, who do not have any agenda, who remain adamant in their hell-bent proclivity towards blood thirstiness and so on?
The truth of the matter, however, is that the Federal Government of Nigeria seems to have run out of ideas in terms of the way and means of handling or curtailing the evil tide of the Boko Haram uprising. From the look of things, it would seem that, in managing the sect’s menace, the use of might or sheer force has not and can hardly achieve any effective result.
This is where the application of good discretion bordering on diplomatic finesse comes in handy and the Nigerian Government cannot afford to continue to look in the other direction.
After all, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the other day, said that members of the dreaded sect are not “spirits”, which is to say that they are simply “flesh and blood” and, as such, they live among human beings, their fellow Nigerians; they are not hermits who dwell exclusively in the hermitage.
With the unfolding of events, following the sect’s recent dastardly assault on the life and soul of Kano and its people, and as gathered from both the print and the electronic media, locally and internationally, we can not continue to deceive ourselves that the blood suckers in question are not in sympathy with their unpatriotic collaborators, who may be members of the nation’s Executive arm of government, the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Security apparatus, made up of the Army, the State Security Service, the Police, the Air Force, the Navy and so forth.
There is no contending with the fact that the dilemma associated with the Islamic sect’s satanic exploits is a delicate one, and the scenario can only compare with the case of the proverbial rat in an earthenware pot, which calls for a great exercises of care and caution, to anchor a double – edged success story: averting of destruction for the pot and the assurance that the rat does not escape, only to come back some day to carry on with its inglorious mission.
In all probability, dialogue, which some Nigerians had rejected at the outset, as a solution or way out of the sickening problem that is Boko Haram, now appears to be a welcome option.
It has turned out as an admonition, from what our fathers, in their wisdom, refer to as the wood that a woman had initially fetched for the construction of a house, which traditional male chauvinistic instincts had set aside as unusable, but which later became the foundation of the house.
The government of the day, in its varying ramifications, together with its sympathizers, should not consider it as an act of cowardice or chickening out to deploy diplomatic finesse in the form of dialogue towards tackling the problem in hand.
This has become imperative, given the excruciating circumstance of utter helplessness and bemused stance of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
If only our people, especially political leaders, can, for once, be sincere; if only they can demonstrate that they are truly altruistic or patriotic, then the ground could be prepared for a meeting of the sect members with representatives of government at the federal and state levels.
At such a round table conference, the people (Boko Haram) can clearly articulate their grievances in an atmosphere of give and take. On the part of government, seeking foreign help should come in as the last resort.
• VENERABLE (PROF.) B. N. EGEDE - Dept of English, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.
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